Re: Render EM as underline [was: deprecated tags in Wilbur & Cougar] (fwd)

Once upon a time Terje Norderhaug shaped the electrons to say...
>If italics doesn't work on my screen and most other screens I use, that is
>a serious problem as these displays are commonplace. The default rendering
>of the browser should work optimal on widespread used screens. Power users
>with higher quality displays should be the ones to optimize their
>stylesheets unless the browser manages to adapt.

Then you have poor screens or a bad font choice. I have *never* encountered
a monitor on which italics was not clearly legible.  And that covers B&W
X tubes, Low end Macs (yes, Mac Classics), Dec 3100as, Sparcs of all
varieties and display capabilities, LCD notbooks - active and passive, etc.

>Italics doesn't display very well on normal resolution displays, of
>identifiable technical reasons: Lines other than horizontal or vertical
>will be jagged when drawn in a matrix. As italics is slightly titled, most

Looks just fine even on an old .32dp VGA in 640x480.  Am I just special?

>resolution may compensate, but reality is that most people doesn't have
>that sophisticated screens.

.32dp VGA is low end.

>May be the rendering guidelines should advise browser manufacturers to take
>the screen affordances into account and make the default rendering adapt
>depending on the display?

Yeah - lets invite mass confusion and make EM meaningless because even
the same product does it differently on different systems.

boldface, italics, and underlining tend to develop different meanings in
the users mind.  If you make them random withing the same product because
of different displays, you obfuscate the meaning.

-MZ
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Received on Saturday, 3 August 1996 00:16:46 UTC