- From: Thomas Phinney <tphinney@cal.berkeley.edu>
- Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:49:14 -0700
- To: www-style@w3.org
On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 4:50 PM, Thomas Phinney<tphinney@cal.berkeley.edu> wrote: > 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. A few examples of typefaces with more than nine weights: - Flama, by Mario Feliciano, has ten. - Ruse by Gerrit Noordzij has eleven. - TheSans by Luc[as] de Groot has sixteen, if one counts the eight hairline weights. - Taz, also by Lucas, has fifteen, if one counts the five hairline weights. All of the above folks are very prominent type designers, btw. Cheers, T
Received on Thursday, 18 June 2009 16:49:52 UTC