Re: MathML browser test page

On Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 11:24 AM, Joe Java <joe.java@eyeasme.com> wrote:

> Hello Neil,
>
> Granted that manually picking a character size will not look
> as good with different fonts, are we talking "a little off" or
> "freaky weird looking"?


"A little off" (probably).


>
>
> Is there some way to suggest that a particular font be used?
> Specifically the STIX Beta fonts are about as free (as in beer
> and speech) as a font can be.  Is there a way to suggest that
> a MathML capable browser use this particular font if it in
> the list of fonts already loaded on this machine?
> Then an author could be sure that at least the equations will
> look similar to what was desired.


There is work at the W3C on how to specify fonts to be downloaded for a
document.  That is probably what the new feature Firefox added is based (but
I haven't looked at it, so this is just a guess).

We are working on adding support for the STIX fonts to MathPlayer.  At this
time, MathPlayer can't make use of them -- they are laid out in one of the
internal font mappings that MathPlayer currently can't handle and so even if
the STIX fonts are on your machine, MathPlayer won't use them.  Using them
should definitely improve the look of MathML rendered by MathPlayer.

     Neil


>
> I wonder if the new @font-face capabilities that that are being
> added to Firefox could automatically allow for the STIX fonts to be
> downloaded and used if user does not already have them loaded.
>
> Is there a way to get MathPlayer on IE to use the STIX Beta fonts?
>
>
>   -------- Original Message --------
>  Subject: Re: MathML browser test page
>  From: Neil Soiffer <Neils@dessci.com>
>  Date: Fri, July 17, 2009 10:42 am
>  To: Joe Java <joe.java@eyeasme.com>
>  Cc: www-math@w3.org
>
>  <snip>
>  Yes, the arrow should be stretched automatically, but should it not
>  look the same if manually set?  What I am trying to say is that
>  Firefox does not work correctly and the arrow is not automatically
>  stretched.  I fixed the problem by manually setting the arrow size.
>  Is it not OK to do that?  I would think that the system would see
>  that the author set the character's size to a particular value and
>  it would honor that set value.
>
>
>
> Yes, the MathML system should honor that value.  The problem is that you
> picked a value that looks good for Firefox.  It may not necessarily look
> good for other renders because different fonts and slightly different
> layout rules maybe be used.  The value you used will scale with font
> size, but because different fonts may have use characters of different
> sizes (ie, the uparrow may be relatively smaller or larger compared to
> other chars in the font), the results may not be as good in other
> renderers.
>
> Unfortunately, I don't know another workaround to the firefox bug.
>
>    Neil
>
>