2 ms·

I can think of one reason not to: This hinting belongs in the font file itself. I don't agree with hacks to the font being done outside the scope of the source

• WiseWeasel 12y ago
  A few issues with that; 1) I've only been able to find evidence that font formats specify underline position and height, and leave the drawing to the renderer, and 2) most fonts were created with a desktop publishing context in mind, and 3) the web context has significantly different needs. I think there's a good case for making this change for the font renderer used in web browsers.
  • fit2rule 12y ago
    The point is that if ligatures are used for this, no modifications to the font rendering front end is needed. Its already there - you just need to use the feature. The way to do that is with ligatures in your text..
    • WiseWeasel 12y ago
      That's not what ligatures are for; ligatures are for joining two adjacent letters. I don't believe font formats support this descender dodging feature for underlining, hence the need for the renderer to take charge.
      • fit2rule 12y ago
        Well, I would argue that using a ligature to establish the alpha gap around the lettering is a better use than hacking up a non-standard feature to the renderer. The gaps are attachments to the type, so ligatures are appropriate - since they would be used in this case to join/split the underline - which itself could be argued is a ligature, per-face, also.