Re: Line layout in browsers

On Jan 23, 2008 10:40 AM, Jukka K. Korpela wrote:
>
> I don't think they do. Using different fonts, the default (normal)
> line-height seems to remain the same, depending just on the font size.
>
> But reading the specs again, I must admit that it can be construed as
> allowing, maybe even suggesting, that the meaning of normal depends on
> the font characteristics. The value normal is defined or described as
> follows in the CSS 2.1 draft:
>
> "Tells user agents to set the used value to a "reasonable" value based
> on the font of the element. The value has the same meaning as <number>.
> We recommend a used value for 'normal' between 1.0 to 1.2."


What I've always observed is that the 'normal' (default) line-height
value really depends on the font, in most browsers.  And there is a
certain consistency amongst them (at least in Windows and in Mac)
suggesting that they 'extract' this value from the font
characteristics in a similar way.
This value is usually about 1.1-1.2, so at small font sizes the
difference among different font families may not be noticeable.
I have a page [1] that tries to 'observe' this default line-height for
the installed fonts, showing that there are indeed variations (that
can be huge, for example for Zapfino, available on Mac.)

Bruno

[1] http://www.brunildo.org/test/aspect-lh-table2.html
(This requires javascript and flash, and for some 'strange' fonts may
not be reliable, but generally seems to work correctly.)

-- 
Bruno Fassino http://www.brunildo.org/test

Received on Wednesday, 23 January 2008 10:16:14 UTC