[thelist] [ot] Understanding CSS with 3 digit colors ?

[Egor Kloos]

Nemesis wrote:

> BTW font-weight: breaks in Mac IE every weight is bold.
Huh?
Well I know that's not, true. I tried to recreate this on different IE 
versions, just to make sure, and found that it does work.

Controlling font weights numerically (font-weight: 600) isn't really a 
good idea anyway. A few reasons why.
1. Most fonts don't have this many variations and those that do, like 
Multiple Master fonts, have proven to be difficult to apply without 
degrading the quality of the typography. That's why MM fonts often come 
with a couple of optimal settings.
2. Web browsers are, with one or two exceptions, pretty bad at 
rendering fonts. Nevermind being able to rendering the appropriate 
weight. And when using normal font sizes the different weights wouldn't 
be discernible on any screen or browser.
3. Computing a font style or weight when none is available is probably 
the worst solution imaginable. It always looks wrong, the font designer 
doesn't create a specific style or weight just for kicks.
4. Some browsers won't try to compute a weight and just select the 
nearest available weight. So using a numeric value becomes pointless, 
so to speak.

W3C states that normal is the same as '400' and that bold is the same 
as '700'. So when you set your weight property to 600 IE for the mac 
'rounds' the value up to the next available weight. Simple.

This does reveal how badly the W3C and browser developers have handled 
fonts. Have the ever asked anybody with an ounce of typographical 
knowledge? And it looks like we'll be stuck in the stone ages for a 
while to come.

Just my two bits, for what it's worth.

Egor Kloos
http://www.dutchcelt.nl/