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.
next prev parent 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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