- From: Thomas Phinney <tphinney@cal.berkeley.edu>
- Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:50:27 -0700
- To: www-style@w3.org
On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 12:55 PM, Zack Weinberg<zweinberg@mozilla.com> wrote: > Thomas Phinney <tphinney@cal.berkeley.edu> wrote: > >> Just one comment: >> >> ... >> > Steve: Original spec implied that values like 250 could not be >> > mapped into CSS model. >> > John: It is a 9-point scale, forget about the actual values. Just >> > need to map the font onto nine points, whatever their names. >> >> No, it is NOT a 9-point scale. It is a numeric system of ~1000 units. >> Treating it as a 9-point scale (or as arbitrary labels) will get you >> into trouble. > > The font-weight property *as currently specified in CSS* is a 9-point > scale with arbitrary, ordered labels, that happen to have the form of > numbers. Quoting http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/fonts.html#font-boldness -- > > 'font-weight' > value: normal | bold | bolder | lighter | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 > | 500 | 600 | 700 | 800 | 900 | inherit > > If it were a numeric system it would be > > value: normal | bold | bolder | lighter | inherit | <integer> > > Now if what you are saying is that in order to handle all currently- > existing fonts, the spec needs to be changed to allow any integer in > the 0 ... 999 range, then OK, make that proposal. But that is not the > way it is now, and I for one would want to see an example of a font > with more than nine weights in order to be convinced that a simple > mapping from this 9-point scale to whatever the values are in the > actual font would not suffice. I'm skeptical about this because the > text at http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/os2.htm#wtc leads me > to believe that there are exactly nine possible values for > usWeightClass in a valid OpenType font. (Would you be happier if the > spec were changed to use the names 'thin', 'extra-light', ... 'black' > from that list, instead?) Yes, that's what I'm saying, and I have made that proposal previously, and hereby make it again. There are a number of typefaces with more than nine weights, even if they aren't common. I'm asking around to get a list of some good examples.
Received on Wednesday, 17 June 2009 23:51:07 UTC