[Laszlo-dev] optimiziation for inheriting fontsize/name properties

[Benjamin Shine]

On Apr 1, 2006, at 3:51 PM, Henry Minsky wrote:

>
>
> It will mean a change from the current way we implement some
> features, such as text font/size/style, since they are presently
> individual attributes of text, not properties of a single style
> attribute.
>
>
> Yeah, what are the implications of changing that. Should  we try to  
> have some intermediate  support for  the current mechanism for  
> setting font size/style/name directly on a text object and also on  
> a style object? We could have a backward compatible API for a while.
>

I would like to see us develop a model which encourages dealing with  
typography as sets of related characteristics. I would be happy to  
see the API for setting font characteristics separately go away.  
Professional visual design generally uses just a few combinations of  
font color/size/weight/family in an entire document; our model should  
make it easy to make things look good, and hard or impossible to make  
things look bad.

HTML and Microsoft Word made it too easy to use too many text  
effects. I almost always prefer a simple dignified typewritten or  
LaTex document to the insanity of freshmen and programmers set loose  
with too much typographic freedom.

One of the Laszlo Systems visual designers, Peter Andrea, posted a  
rant on web design awards which is worth reading:
http://laszlomail.com/blog/2006/02/10/state-of-the-art-in-graphic- 
design/
"Each of the sites he has chosen to represent utilizes conventions in  
color, layout, typography, and hierarchical structure that are the  
centuries-old foundation of print design. For proof, take a spread  
from any contemporary magazine, and compare it to the screen grabs… I  
would argue that 9 times out of 10, you will find the printed page to  
be superior in every respect."

The ability to set font size/style/name/color directly via separate  
API calls is necessary for making a rich text editor, but that's a  
little tiny subset of "things we want to do with text."


benjamin shine
software engineer
ben at laszlosystems.com