Re: Issue 1: Font-weight and headings

On Jul 26,  6:50pm, E. Stephen Mack wrote:

> <H1>The headline <STRONG>is</STRONG> important!</H1>

> Using CSS1, we can declare that level-one heading elements
> should not be given a bold weight:
>
> H1 { font-weight: normal; }
>
> Since font weight is an inherited property [2], the STRONG element
> in the example heading above sbould inherit its parent's
> lack of bolding.


... Provided that there is not a rule in the browser style sheet
which gives STRONG a specific style (there is likely to be).


> Thus, the example HTML should be displayed with no bolding
> throughout the entire heading, including the word "is".

Not necessarily. If you want to force all STRONG to be normal, use

STRONG { font-weight: normal; }

If you juyst want STRONG inside H1 to be normal,

H1 STRONG { font-weight: normal; }

> While Navigator 4.01 renders the heading without any bolding
> for the word "is", IE 4.0 platform preview 2 does render the
> word "is" in bold.  [3]

That is fine. Both have done what you asked, and both have correctly
cascaded your stylesheet with the browser default style sheet.

> Now, I can almost understand why Navigator does not let
> the font-weight property inherit

If it did not let the propery inherit, it would not conform to the
CSS1 spec. However, it does let it inherit.

> down into the embedded
> STRONG element, since the default property of the STRONG
> element is font-weight: bold.

What you are calling the default propoerty is what I have been calling
the browser default stylesheet - ie a formal expression, in CSS, of how
the browser lays out a document that doesn't have it's own style sheet
(note for pedants: in the absence of a reader style sheet).
>
> I've read through the section in the CSS spec on
> inheritance [7], and I see how rule 3 clearly says that
> User Agent default values are given less priority than author
> or reader style sheet values.

That isn't the whole story, though.

> So, it seems to me Navigator is wrong.

No.

> Is there a general
> pattern of priorities that Navigator isn't following correctly
> of which this is just one example, or this just an isolated
> quirk?

There is a more general pattern ofd priorities that both browsers
are following correctly (but with different data):

 http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1#cascading-order


-- 
Chris Lilley, W3C                          [ http://www.w3.org/ ]
Graphics and Fonts Guy            The World Wide Web Consortium
http://www.w3.org/people/chris/              INRIA,  Projet W3C
chris@w3.org                       2004 Rt des Lucioles / BP 93
+33 (0)4 93 65 79 87       06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France

Received on Monday, 28 July 1997 10:09:44 UTC