[boost] Re: Web typography

From: Joel (joel_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-12-14 22:49:09

Daniel Frey wrote:
> David Abrahams wrote:
> 
>> While Rene was wrangling fonts I forgot that I went through this whole
>> process with Bill Venners of Artima.  We ended up with a very different
>> answer, because Bill abhors the idea of specifying a font size; he wants
>> to respect peoples' preferences.  I would appreciate it if everybody
>> would check out:
>>
>>   http://www.artima.com/cppsource/metafunctions.html
>>
>> and see how it compares with Rene's page at
>>
>>   http://redshift-software.com/~grafik/boost/index.htm
>>
>> on your sundry browsers.  I don't have an idea of which one is better,
>> but we should at least get the benefit of that research.
> 
> 
> The first page (Aritma) uses the font size *I* specified, while the 
> second page seems to use a smaller font. Obviously, I think the first is 
> preferable. (Firefox 1.0, screen size 1600x1200)

The first one looks strikingly similar to QuickBook and the new
L&F of the generated boostbook docs that Eric and I worked on
sometime ago (example):

     http://tinyurl.com/48kv5

I did notice that the fonts were a little bit fat and some people
noted that the line spacing isn't quite right. I worked on it some
more and found the best setting to be (example):

     http://tinyurl.com/6crgp

This is somewhere in between Bill Venners 's and Rene's. While searching
for the best size/line-spacing (all relative, BTW), I did try something
like Rene's but found it to be too small. Also, it's not just the font
size; line spacing matters a lot too.

Cheers,
-- 
Joel de Guzman
http://www.boost-consulting.com
http://spirit.sf.net