Re: [css-text] I18N-ISSUE-334: 'letter-spacing' and Indic

On 01/24/2014 10:32 AM, Phillips, Addison wrote:
> State:
>      OPEN WG Comment
> Product:
>      CSS3-text
> Raised by:
>      Addison Phillips
> Opened on:
>      2014-01-23
> Description:
>      Section 8.2: The section on "tracking" ('letter-spacing') may
>      need to consider the effect on scripts such as Indic. The I18N
>      WG asked for guidance from various Indic language contributors [1].
>
>      It was reported to use that 'letter-spacing' is not a native
>      typographic style to these languages, however it is used in
>      several languages, such as Hindi, for visual effect--if only rarely.
>
>      The guidance we received, which is consistent with our understanding,
>      is that letter-spacing should "break" the joining "bar" (shirorekha)
>      in those scripts that use a "bar" and that the separation should be
>      on syllable boundaries. These boundaries do not necessarily correspond
>      to Unicode's default grapheme cluster boundaries, making proper
>      description more complicated.
>
>      [1] See thread: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-i18n-indic/2013OctDec/

Indeed, and this is why the spec explicitly allows for tailoring the units
used for letter-spacing.

Since we have no references on exactly how such units should be tailored,
we cannot add any normative guidance on this.

Unless you can provide such references, I am marking this issue as
Closed No Change, since it does not seem to reflect a deficiency
in the spec.

~fantasai