Redefining Serif and Sans Serif

• From: Thomas Phinney <tphinney@cal.berkeley.edu>
• Date: Fri, 8 May 2009 18:28:34 -0700
• To: www-style@w3.org
• Message-ID: <f49ae6ac0905081828t20e5cc0ao88e8931e3f3303d5@mail.gmail.com>

I was intrigued that the CSS spec decided to redefine sans serif vs
serif. Typographers will be interested to discover that flared
typefaces such as Optima (or my own Hypatia Sans) are categorized as
"serif" in CSS.

I'll certainly concede that it's simplest to take an absolutist stand
and say that if there's any flaring at all, it should be considered
serif. However, I'd argue that this is a case of CSS over-reaching
itself. Or do people think there's value in considering Optima to be
in the same category as Times rather than the same category as Arial
and Helvetica?

Cheers,

T

Received on Saturday, 9 May 2009 01:29:08 UTC