> Doesn't it become a length problem when we are talking about a fixed-width font though? When drawn on its own with a space before and after, the length itsel

> Doesn't it become a length problem when we are talking about a fixed-width font though? When drawn on its own with a space before and after, the length itself is not the problem, but of course in a monospace font, character_spacing = (character_width - actual_width_of_glyph), so you are right in that respect. Semantics. :-)