Problem with Anchors and Fonts in HTML

[tdowling at lib.washington.edu]

Note from:  Gary R Wright <gwright at connix.com>
Fri, 13 Oct 95 10:59:54 PDT----------------------------------------
 % Linda Ueki Absher writes:
 % > I realize I can eliminate it by simply choosing not to underline anchors 
 % > under "Preferences", but that doesn't eliminate the problem for anyone 
 % > trying to access the page via a PC outside the library. 
 % > 
 % > I realize it's a minor problem, but Any suggestions would be greatly 
 % > appreciated.
 % 
 % Sounds like a bug with Netscape that should be reported to them to be
 % fixed in future releases.


A little playing around with Windows Write suggests that this may not
be a  Netscape bug, but in fact built into the way true type fonts do
underlines when there is more than one font size in a line.  My
proportional font of choice today is Univers, and it shows a pretty
minimal version of the behavior Linda describes.  If I switch to Arial,
it's noticeably worse, and a couple other fonts I have available are
just awful--but they look the same in Netscape and Write.

I suppose Netscape could work out some underlining algorithm that
didn't rely on the font--Microsoft Word, for example, doesn't show this
behavior.  However, the most vocal criticisms of version 2.0b1 are that
the size of the executable file has ballooned (I have a copy of 1.0N
that's 847600 bytes in size.  2.0b1/16-bit is 1888256, and the 32-bit
version with Java is 1987072.)  I think a lot of people would council
them to expend time and bytes in other areas.

Of course, I have a stock solution for <font size=...> problems.


Thomas ("Funny, I can't find it in the DTD") Dowling