- From: Todd Fahrner <fahrner@pobox.com>
- Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 15:36:25 -0800
- To: www-style@w3.org
- Cc: davidp@earthlink.net
I've been thinking (and making noise) about the matter of different fonts having greatly-varying legibility characteristics at the same nominal size (whatever the unit), and the accessibility and aesthetic problems this poses when the "first-choice" font is not available (i.e., when font substitution occurs). This problem is distinct from the one of using absolute or device-dependent units like points or pixels for type sizes. David Perrell and I have suggested in the past that CSS be extended to permit a binding of alternate sizes and line-heights to alternate font choices, but our proposed functionality and syntax[1] was passed over for various reasonable reasons. I think I may have hit upon a solution in the form of a few new (CSS2?) properties: "font-size-adjust", "line-height-adjust", and "font-weight-adjust". Mirroring the current "font" syntax, the shorthand expression for all three could be "font-adjust". I've written all of this up here, with exhibits, and look forward to your comments: http://www.verso.com/agitprop/fontadjust/ Summary: font-adjust provides a simple means to preserve the legibility and much of the readability characteristics of rendered text when a stylesheet's "first-choice" font is not available, and font-substitution occurs. Adjustments are based on differences between (a) the ratios of em- to ex-heights and (b) the weights, of "first-choice" and substituted fonts. Font-adjust could vastly increase the range of prudent choices for type specification in stylesheets, advancing "font-independent typography" for the Web. [1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/1997Jun/0067.html , http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/1997Jul/0197.html etc. Todd Fahrner mailto:fahrner@pobox.com http://www.verso.com/agitprop/ The printed page transcends space and time. The printed page, the infinitude of books, must be transcended. THE ELECTRO-LIBRARY. - El Lissitzky, 1923
Received on Friday, 12 December 1997 18:31:33 UTC