[Libreoffice-bugs] [Bug 141417] New: Allow derivative styles to maintain x-height rather than M-height

[bugzilla-daemon at bugs.documentfoundation.org]

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=141417

            Bug ID: 141417
           Summary: Allow derivative styles to maintain x-height rather
                    than M-height
           Product: LibreOffice
           Version: 7.1.1.2 release
          Hardware: All
                OS: All
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Severity: enhancement
          Priority: medium
         Component: Writer
          Assignee: libreoffice-bugs at lists.freedesktop.org
          Reporter: eyalroz1 at gmx.com

Created attachment 170887
  --> https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/attachment.cgi?id=170887&action=edit
Effective character size difference between Default and Source Text styles

Font size is customarily measured by M-height (or capital height) not x-height;
see:

http://xahlee.info/js/standard_font_size.html

for a discussion of this.

Thus, in LO writer (and all LO) font dialogs, sizes are given in M-height. And
if you create a style derived from another style, it will maintain the same
M-height.

This is problematic in running (Latin) text, where most characters are
lowercase, and their height is basically the x-height. Now, if you use
character styles with different fonts in the same text run, and fail to
carefully set their font size (possibly even to a non-integral value), the
sizes of different parts of the run will vary, distracting the user.

This is not some esoteric use case: You just:

1. Create a new document in LO writer.
2. Write some text, say "foo bar"
3. Select "bar"
4. Change the character style (not the paragraph style!) to "Source Text"

You'll see a significant character size difference. (Actually, this might
depend on your font selection, but it would work with most default choices, and
particularly with Liberation Serif vs Liberation Mono.) The attached document
illustrates this

It would be at least as useful, if not more so, if it were possible for
derivative styles to track the x-height of the underlying style rather than its
M-height.

This can be achieved in one of several ways - partially depending on the extent
to which there is an interest in exposing the x-height and allowing users to
set it instead of the M-height. They are also not-mutually-exclusive:

1. Global LO setting of whether to use M-heights x-heights.
2. Font dialog(s) toggle of whether to have the font size text box reflect the
x-height or the M-height.
3. Separate text boxes for the x and the M heights.
4. Global, document-wide and/or per-style setting of whether derivative styles
which do not set a font size, but do set a font family, inherit the x-height or
the M-height of the underlying style.
5. Buttons or toggle to reset a derived style's size to the x-height and the
M-height respectively of the underlying style.

and there may be other approaches which have not occurred to me.

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