23844 - :first-letter{float:left;} -> alignment too low

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 21616

(Core :: Layout, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Nikolaus Kühn]

To achieve a "classic newspaper/magazine" alignment like it is shown
as an example in the w3c css specs one has to use the float:left style.
result in mozilla M12: the letter stands a bit too low, looks not nice.

Comment 1

[Nikolaus Kühn]

Attachment: HTML test code

Comment 2

[troy]

block/inline bug

Comment 3

[Hixie (not reading bugmail)]

Migrating from {css1} to css1 keyword. The {css1}, {css2}, {css3} and {css-moz}
radars should now be considered deprecated in favour of keywords.
I am *really* sorry about the spam...

Comment 4

[Hixie (not reading bugmail)]

Hmm. We're actually following the letter of the spec here. But as you say, it is
ugly. See also bug 21616, which covers the case of a non-floating first-letter.

Comment 5

[David Baron :dbaron: (⌚️UTC-4, no longer working on Mozilla)]

I think that bug covers the case of floating first-letter, since it was
established that there's nothing to do to the non-floating case without
deviating from the spec, but the floating case can be changed.  (I think...
maybe it covers both.)

In any case, I think this could be marked a duplicate of bug 21616.

Comment 6

[buster]

mine! mine mine mine!  all mine!  whoo-hoo!

Comment 7

[Pierre Saslawsky]

Attachment: A better testcase

Comment 8

[Pierre Saslawsky]

Note that this problem is much more visible on Windows than on Mac. On Mac, the 
96px letter (at the bottom of the page) is 6 pixels too low. On Windows, it is 
about 16 pixels too low. Something must be wrong in the text height calculation 
in WinGFX. Reassigned to Erik who usually kindly volunteers his time on font 
metrics (if you don't have time, send the bug to <kmcclusk>)

Comment 9

[Pierre Saslawsky]

*** Bug 32082 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 10

[Erik van der Poel]

I'm certainly willing to look into it, especially since it sounds like there
might be a problem down in GFX (since you say the problem is worse on Windows
than on the Mac). If the problem was up in layout land, I wouldn't really know
where to start looking. However, I feel that first-letter is a relatively
rarely used feature, so I would propose to look into it later rather than
sooner. Do you agree? Tentatively marking M18.

Comment 11

[Pierre Saslawsky]

Font measurement issues in GFX should be taken seriously. It may be more than 
just a problem with :first-letter. I set the TFV to M15 but feel free to move it 
back.

Comment 12

[Sander van Rijnswou]

Attachment: screen shot of first letter style on solaris

Comment 13

[Pierre Saslawsky]

Attachment: screen snapshot (the previous one was corrupted)

Comment 14

[Pierre Saslawsky]

Erik, it looks like we do the measurement correctly but we display the letter 
using the default font and size. Weird...

Comment 15

[Erik van der Poel]

Hi Pierre, thanks for looking into it. It sounds like a problem in the layout
engine. I've noticed that Kipp kept a number of different fonts lying around,
one "normal" one, one for small caps, etc. So maybe he's using the right font
for measurement, and the wrong font for drawing?

Re-assigning to Pierre for now. Please re-assign to somebody who knows that part
of the layout engine (or currently owns it: SteveC?).

Comment 16

[Pierre Saslawsky]

I really messed up with that bug:
1) Ignore the last comments and attachments. They are related to bug 32082 that 
was wrongfully closed as dup of this one. I reopened it.
2) As dbaron reported on 2000-01-20 17:20, the original description of that bug 
shows that it can be closed as dup of bug 21616.

I'm going to move my testcase and some comments over to bug 21616 because they 
show an additional problem with font measurement and first-letter, especially on 
Windows.


*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 21616 ***

Comment 17

[Sebastian Späth]

VERIFY duplicate