Re: [css3-fonts] TrueType support for font-feature-settings

On 08/11/2015 10:09 PM, Myles C. Maxfield wrote:
> Hello,
>
> font-feature-settings takes OpenType font feature tags, but if there
> are multiple font assets specified, the used font's underlying font
> technology (TrueType or OpenType) may not be known. I think the spec
> should recommend adding text to the specification recommending that
> UAs translate the given feature tag into whichever font technology
> is in use for a given font (as best as possible), thereby allowing
> authors to not require a specific font technology.

As jdaggett explains, the purpose of font-feature-settings was to be
an escape hatch for features that were needed and were not (yet)
standardized into the font-variant properties. It is important to note
that font-feature-settings has poor cascading and inheritance behavior
compared to font-variant as well as having technology-specific syntax
(use of OpenType tags directly). This was not intended as a property
to be commonly used by authors.

The solution to this problem is to implement and evangelize the
font-variant properties. They are designed with better syntax, better
cascading behavior, and are not tied to a particular font technology.

Let's not complicate font-feature-settings to be a slightly better
bad solution when we have a good solution already.

~fantasai