- From: Todd Fahrner <fahrner@pobox.com>
- Date: Sat, 14 Jun 1997 19:03:47 -0700
- To: www-style@w3.org
Typefaces and type sizes are now specified independently in CSS. More precisely, there is a mechanism to suggest alternate typefaces, but not to bind alternate type sizes and line-heights to the alternate typefaces. This is not especially useful, as typefaces have highly irregular metrics and suitability for screen display at a given size. It would be far better to specify typefaces, type sizes, and line-heights (and possibly also letterspacing) together, and let these cascade/degrade as groups. Consider this case: font: 9pt/15pt Verdana, "Gill Sans," sans-serif; This will result in a very legible Verdana (unless it's a Mac), a wretched, overleaded Gill Sans, or an imponderably rendered default sans. This would be much better: font: 9pt/15pt Verdana, 12pt/14pt "Gill Sans," 1em/1.2em sans-serif; This facility will become more important once embedded type comes into wider use - authors will sometimes want to suggest (and provide) highly idiosyncratic typefaces, whose size and leading are not suitable for second- or third-choice alternates. ________________________________________ Todd Fahrner mailto:fahrner@pobox.com http://www.verso.com/ 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 Saturday, 14 June 1997 21:53:45 UTC