[css3-fonts] alternative to font-size-adjust:auto [was Re: Agenda conf call 21-aug-2013]

On 21/8/13 06:49, John Daggett wrote:
>
> Agenda for this week's call:
>
>> 1. Spec transitions
>> -------------------
>> Counter Styles to CR?
>> CSS Fonts CR?
>> Transforms, Transitions, Animations status?
>
> The LC period for Fonts runs through tomorrow.  Right now there's an
> open issue regarding 'font-size-adjust: auto' that I think needs to be
> addressed before we can move to CR.  I'm hoping we can wrap this issue
> up this week which will allow us to resolve to move to CR on next
> week's call.
>

ISTM from the recent thread here that the biggest problem with 
font-size-adjust:auto is that people are misunderstanding what it means. 
Even experienced spec-readers here seem to easily misread

# Behaves just like <number>, except the number used is the aspect
# value calculated by user agents for the first font in the list of
# fonts defined for the initial value of the ‘font-family’ property.

as though it said

# Behaves just like <number>, except the number used is the aspect
# value calculated by user agents for the first font in the list of
# fonts in the ‘font-family’ property.

(and then start to wonder what happens if that "first font" isn't 
available, etc.) Not sure how to make that clearer, but I think we've 
seen ample evidence that the current text is not communicating adequately.


In addition, there's the question of whether "auto" is a good name for 
this behavior.


Here's a thought: suppose that instead of "auto", you could say

   font-size-adjust: <generic-family>;

to specify that the UA uses its calculated aspect value for the font 
that corresponds to the given CSS generic. So typical usage might be

   font-family: Gentium, Times, Georgia, Liberation Serif, serif;
   font-size-adjust: serif;

would match whichever of the serif fonts is used to the browser's 
default serif face; and

   font-family: Futura, Gill Sans, Helvetica, sans-serif;
   font-size-adjust: sans-serif;

would match to the browser's default sans-serif face. Moreover, you 
could also write

   font-family: monospace;
   font-size-adjust: serif;

to use the browser's monospaced face but adjust it to better match 
x-height with the default serif face, if desired.

JK

Received on Wednesday, 21 August 2013 16:24:37 UTC