Re: [css-ruby] Default font-size of ruby annotation with ruby-position: inter-character

Xidorn Quan wrote:

> OK, then, let's add a keyword for 'font-size', say 'ruby-text', and
> make it be computed according to ruby-position. It is computed to 30%
> when ruby-position is inter-character, and 50% otherwise.

Adding keyword values like this to 'font-size' affects the parsing of
the 'font' shorthand so it's a fairly large impact change. The default
stylesheet font-size settings for ruby elements should cover the
majority of use cases. How frequently do you expect 'inter-character'
will be used in practice? The ruby spec describes it as something
that's a special case. I'm also suspicious that as to how "fixed" the
percentages you've listed above actually are, especially across common
use cases in Japan, Taiwan and China. If the common usage is slightly
different in Taiwan vs. Japan for example then I think the fixed
nature of 'ruby-text' won't be a win.

I should also point out that house rules for typesetting like this
often vary. The CLReq or the Taiwanese manual you linked to may state
a single value but I suspect that's not written in stone and
publishers would vary it based on context (e.g. larger ruby sizing for
text aimed at younger children).

The other issue is that on the web, sizing rules like this are
distorted because of the discrete nature of smaller sizes for text
displayed on screens. Where in printing a consistent ratio of text
size to ruby size might be used, for screens it's common to bump up
the relative ratio at smaller sizes. This is how superscripts and
subscripts are displayed in HTML for example.

Cheers,

John