- From: Bert Bos <bert@w3.org>
- Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 21:22:18 +0200
- To: www-style@w3.org
Bjoern Hoehrmann writes: > Hi, > > The current box model working drafts reads in section 6: > > [...] > Note: There is no control over the spacing of the dots and dashes, nor > over the length of the dashes. Implementations are encouraged to > choose a spacing that makes the corners symmetrical. Also, it is > recommended that the dots are round, not square. > [...] > > The note should also say, there there is no control over the size of the > dots... I'd imagine that the diameter of the dot is equal to 'border-width'. > > The text module doesn't have such a note, but the same problem. I want > control over at least some of those properties. For example I want to > underline a heading with very loose lead dots, e.g. > > HEADING > · · · · · · · · > > instead of whatever the user agent decides, e.g. a very tight spacing > > HEADING > ····························· > > Why is there currently no way in CSS to specify size and spacing of > border-style properties? Those decorations are rarely used in typography and it doesn't seem very important to provide detailed control over something for which there are only so many ways to do it right anyway. We don't specify how low below the baseline the underline is (except for the choice between "normal" and "accounting"), or how thick underlines are, but instead rely on the metrics built into the font or the font rendering library on each platform to do "the right thing." Also, I have never seen texts that rely on the distinction between tightly spaced and loose dots to convey meaning. Dots versus a solid line is used (though rarely), and for the rest there are sufficient colors, fonts, font styles, spacing and other means available. Bert -- Bert Bos ( W 3 C ) http://www.w3.org/ http://www.w3.org/people/bos/ W3C/INRIA bert@w3.org 2004 Rt des Lucioles / BP 93 +33 (0)4 92 38 76 92 06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France
Received on Thursday, 27 September 2001 15:22:20 UTC