Re: [csswg-drafts] [css-fonts] Reduce layout shift via @font-face descriptor(s) overriding inline spacing (#5533)

Personally, I'm unconvinced this is a good idea at all. Glyph spacing is an integral part of the font design, and arbitrarily overriding the spacing of glyphs -- not for a specific design intent such as letter-spacing but just to try and match metrics of some other font -- is never likely to look good.

To minimize layout shift, specify fallback fonts that have similar metrics to the desired webfont. If they're different enough that layout shift will be a significant problem, then they're also different enough that forcing them to match the intended font will be a distortion.

If it's more important to avoid layout shift than to use the designer's "ideal" font, then add a `font-display` descriptor to make it optional, and if it doesn't load quickly enough, just continue to use a fallback (with its own proper glyph spacing, not shoehorned into the metrics of the font that didn't load).

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Received on Wednesday, 21 October 2020 10:35:50 UTC