Re: Referencing of non unicode defined characters in CSS

ches@io.com wrote:
> 
> Why not use MS Weft? It will create the character no matter what it is in
> a file that is called by the page and the user will not have to have that
> particular character type for it to work. All they need is a 3.0 browser
> or higher.

Several points:

1) It will not "create the character" . It will create a new glyph for
that character, such that it may masquerade, in visual rendering, as
another character. Of course, it is still the original character when it
comes to searching, indexing, presentation on non-visual media, and so
on.

2) Users don't have characters. Users have fonts, which are collections
of glyphs.

3) "All they need" is MSIE 4.0 or 5.0 - which is a bit different to "any
3.0 browser" - and of couse, every broiwser in the world is not in
lockstep on version numbers. There are some good, recent browsers whose
current version numbers are 3, 2, or 1.

> > Rather than use GIFs, Webding or Wingding fonts are
> > often used.
> >
> > However, these fonts frequently contain Unicode
> > undefined glyphs. The CSS spec states that <span
> > style="font-family: wingdings">H</span> would result
> > in an 'H' in the ua default font, rather than the
> > letter in the same ANSI position in the Wingdings
> > font.

The tools should use the private use area (still not a great solution,
but at least one free of misrepresentation) rather than redefining the
visual presentation of an existing character.

--
Chris

Received on Friday, 22 October 1999 11:32:18 UTC