Re: New CSS1 draft available

lee@sq.com wrote:
> > In addition, (3) line-height is what is used in the short-hand
> > notation:
> > 
> >     font: 12pt/14pt Helvetica
> 
> Note that line height interacts with drop caps.

Note that with the current interpretation of line-height, the effective
line-height of a single line of text is always equal to the font-size.
In order to get a typical drop cap, where the baseline of the cap lines
up with the baseline of one of the lines in the main element and the
following line doesn't wrap, a negative bottom margin is needed
on the floated 'first-letter'.

  \ /\ /ithout a negative margin-
   V  V bottom the text will wrap
        until it clears the entire
  line height, which forces too much
  space below the initial cap.

  \ /\ /ith a negative margin-bottom
   V  V the margin can be adjusted to
  allow the text to clear immediately
  below the baseline of the initial cap.

Unfortunately, a negative margin-bottom on a floated element isn't
possible with MSIE's current implementation of CSS1. Support for
margins and float is either missing or inconsistent with the CSS1 spec.

David Perrell 

Received on Sunday, 22 September 1996 16:18:08 UTC