Re: [css3-fonts] font-size-adjust auto issue

Tab wrote:
This really isn't complicated.  "auto" is the aspect ratio of the
default font.  That's it.  There are no exceptions or corner-cases to
think about.

Does it mean that if I define

font-family: Verdana, Futura, Times (with Times being also the default font)
font-size-adjust: auto

and I do have Verdana installed on my platform the font choice will be Verdana but its aspect value will be adjusted to match Times? If this is the case, this would be counter-productive since we would adjust legible font to make the text less legible.

This also supports my claim that the spec is misleading. It says:

# 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.

One may read "calculated by user agents for the first font in the list of fonts" and assume that it will match the aspect value of Verdana if it is present, but the reality and the outcome of defining font-size-adjust: auto is way different. And the results will be different for different users on different platforms. So, i am going back to my question: why the <auto> value is needed?

Thank you,
Vlad


On Aug 21, 2013, at 7:50 AM, "Tab Atkins Jr." <jackalmage@gmail.com<mailto:jackalmage@gmail.com>> wrote:

On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 7:25 AM, Andrew Cunningham
<lang.support@gmail.com<mailto:lang.support@gmail.com>> wrote:
On 21/08/2013 11:37 PM, "John Daggett" <jdaggett@mozilla.com<mailto:jdaggett@mozilla.com>> wrote:
Precisely as noted above, both (a) and (a') would be 0.55 and no size
adjustment would occur.

Does this mean that having font-size-adjust: auto; has the same effect as
not declaring font-size-adjust in the first place?

No.  Unfortunately John broke threading, so I can't see the full
context of his quote without pulling up the other thread manually, but
I believe he's just answering Gerard's case where none of the
specified fonts exist, and so it uses the aspect-ratio of the default
font (which is apparently Deja-Vu Sans on Gerard's system).

This really isn't complicated.  "auto" is the aspect ratio of the
default font.  That's it.  There are no exceptions or corner-cases to
think about.

~TJ