Re: [css3-fonts] font descriptor default values

Brad Kemper wrote:
> If the font file itself contains information about optical sizes to use,
> such as with multiple-master fonts, then ideally the UA would use the
> right optical size based on the used font-size, right?

Multiple Master fonts are a defunct format so it's not practical to
implement them, but optical sizes are supported in OpenType fonts (using
a special GSUB "size" OpenType Layout feature).

A.

> 
> 
> 
> On Mar 4, 2009, at 12:45 PM, John Daggett <jdaggett@mozilla.com> wrote:
>>>>> Or the lack of font properties to sufficiently delineate full font
>>>>> families?
>>>>
>>>> That's also a problem. The notion of properties only goes so far: in
>>>> the real world, some members of font families are distinguished by
>>>> arbitrary design variations that don't necessarily match the simple
>>>> weight/width/slope model. Optical size is the obvious and most
>>>> common one, and could be done as a property, but there are plenty of
>>>> simply arbitrary differences that are not amenable to a "property"
>>>> approach, and are best dealt with as an additional string.
>>>
>>> That being said, weight/width/slope handles maybe 95% of the fonts out
>>> there, and is a great advance over just bold and italic.
>>
>> Optical size as a separate axis of variation is interesting.  I know
>> Adobe ships with font families that include optical size variations but
>> is this commonly used by other font vendors?
>>
>>>> It would be helpful to hear solutions you think might solve this
>>>> "fundamentally broken" model.
>>>
>>> Two things need to be done:
>>>
>>> - clearly define what version of "family" name should be used
>>>
>>> - define appropriate means to disambiguate fonts which are not
>>> distinguished by weight/width/slope alone. Perhaps add a property for
>>> optical size, and the ability to specify an arbitrary string for part
>>> of the name.
>>
>> Interesting, so the arbitrary string would map to what exactly?  You're
>> thinking of something WPF-ish where you try and match this against some
>> part of the style name?  Style name localizations are a big headache
>> here.  If only there were named variation axes... ;)
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> John
>>
> 
> 


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Adam Twardoch
| Language Typography Unicode Fonts OpenType
| twardoch.com | silesian.com | fontlab.net

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Received on Thursday, 5 March 2009 00:19:56 UTC