Re: .screenfonts [and optical sizes]

On Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 3:28 PM, Ben Weiner<ben@readingtype.org.uk> wrote:
> Hi
>
> Thomas Phinney wrote:
>
> [in response to my question about optical size support in OpenType fonts and
> font-handling software]
>>
>> I don't really see that. There's already a location for the info that
>> coudl be used for both the desktop and the web, and replacing that
>> with a web-only approach would be a step backwards. Even adding a
>> web-only approach would be unfortunate, as getting the existing
>> mechanism supported would put pressure on other software vendors to do
>> the same.
>>
>>
>
> Sounds like a better solution, yes. Thanks for the clarification. If it's a
> problem that already has a technical solution that is unversially
> applicable, let's use that existing technical solution and widen the
> knowledge base :-)
>
> I'd love to see how the decision about the optical size is made: is the
> pixel-pitch of the monitor taken into account?

Well, maybe the existing solution isn't universal. It is based on
point size and independent of resolution.

If one wanted a simple heuristic, I'd think that for screen use at
current resolutions, you could reasonably take about 0.5x the current
ppem size as the correct "point size" for determining the ideal point
size master to use for on-screen purposes.

John Hudson says of this idea: "I don't think the results would be
bad." He points out that the more unusually high or low the
resolution, the more off one's results would be, but he thinks it
would look reasonable in general.

It would certainly be a leap forward over the status quo... for those
handful of typefaces that have optical size variations, Of course,
support it in more places (like, almost any) and you'll see more
typefaces doing it.

One could do something more sophisticated, but that would be dependent
on the browser actually knowing what your physical screen resolution
is. I am thinking that is still pretty unusual.

Regards,

T

Received on Friday, 17 July 2009 19:53:28 UTC