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From: Augusto Stoffel <arstoffel@gmail.com>
To: Stefan Kangas <stefankangas@gmail.com>
Cc: Jim Porter <jporterbugs@gmail.com>, emacs-devel@gnu.org
Subject: Re: Increase default `line-spacing' to 0.05, 0.10 or 0.15 [proposal]
Date: Thu, 06 May 2021 11:26:45 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <87sg30usa2.fsf@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CADwFkmmqHkg9BZoy1Reu7-hct4-bXm5MLYRHcVe_AT4vH=CYNw@mail.gmail.com> (Stefan Kangas's message of "Wed, 5 May 2021 14:47:40 -0500")

On Wed,  5 May 2021 at 14:47, Stefan Kangas <stefankangas@gmail.com> wrote:

> Augusto Stoffel <arstoffel@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> In normal typography you are free to choose how much space to add
>> between lines, but the horizontal condensedness is a fixed
>> characteristic of the font.
>
> In a sense, you are free to choose vertical spacing however you want.
> But a lot of time and effort has been invested into figuring out how to
> choose line height (leading) wisely.  It is generally a good idea to try
> to adhere to such best practices.

Comparing the picture in [1] and what I see if I put the block cursor
over an "H", I conclude that monospaced fonts come with some built-in
leading.  In other words, they are "bastard fonts" [2], and a nil for
`line-spacing' doesn't mean "solid" typesetting.

Does that mean the built-in leading is optimal, or a good default?  Not
necessarily, of course.

I wrote mostly to point out that changing the line spacing breaks any
fancy box-drawing.  I'm not claiming this is more important than the
other considerations you made, by the way.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_height_(typography)
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leading#Bastard_fonts

> In body text, horizontal spacing is generally determined by the typeface
> itself.  However, in certain situations we do need to use kerning, and
> even tracking (letter-spacing).  So I don't exactly understand why you
> consider this more of a "fixed characteristic" than vertical spacing.

Kerning, tracking and other forms of microtypography are case-by-case
adjustments, intended to be basically subliminal, so I'd say yes, the
overall condensedness is pretty much a fixed characteristic of the font.
And these things are out of reach for Emacs anyway.

Leading is a global, visible design choice.  That's why I made the
distinction.



  reply	other threads:[~2021-05-06  9:26 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 44+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2021-05-04 15:57 Increase default `line-spacing' to 0.05, 0.10 or 0.15 [proposal] Stefan Kangas
2021-05-04 16:12 ` Óscar Fuentes
2021-05-04 16:59   ` Jim Porter
2021-05-05  7:08     ` Augusto Stoffel
2021-05-05  8:51       ` Daniel Mendler
2021-05-05 19:47       ` Stefan Kangas
2021-05-06  9:26         ` Augusto Stoffel [this message]
2021-05-06 10:10           ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-06 11:47             ` Augusto Stoffel
2021-05-06 11:57               ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-06 12:27                 ` Augusto Stoffel
2021-05-06 15:21                   ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-06 15:46                     ` Augusto Stoffel
2021-05-06 16:16                       ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-06 12:30                 ` Gregory Heytings
2021-05-06 15:22                   ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-06 16:21                     ` Gregory Heytings
2021-05-06 16:29                       ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-06 16:57                         ` Daniele Nicolodi
2021-05-06 17:53                           ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-06 17:57                             ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-06 20:24                             ` Daniele Nicolodi
2021-05-06 17:01                         ` Gregory Heytings
2021-05-06 17:34                           ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-06 18:15                             ` Gregory Heytings
2021-05-06 20:22           ` Stefan Kangas
2021-05-06 20:21     ` Stefan Kangas
2021-05-06 23:17       ` Jim Porter
2021-05-07  6:03         ` Yuri Khan
2021-05-07  4:05       ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-04 16:18 ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-04 21:29   ` Stefan Kangas
2021-05-05  2:28     ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-05  5:14 ` Richard Stallman
2021-05-05 19:16   ` Stefan Kangas
2021-05-06 20:21     ` Stefan Kangas
2021-05-07  4:03       ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-07 18:43         ` Stefan Kangas
2021-05-08  6:19           ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-08  7:51             ` Daniele Nicolodi
2021-05-08  8:06               ` Eli Zaretskii
2021-05-08  9:40                 ` Daniele Nicolodi
2021-05-05 12:18 ` Daniele Nicolodi
2021-05-05 19:17   ` Stefan Kangas

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