36364 - [TXT]Space alloted for text doesn't grow to accomdate letter-spacing when applied

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Core :: Layout, defect, P4)

Description

[Kevin Cook]

In M15 (build 2000041805), adding letter-spacing (1px) to a submit button
actually adds a preceding space to the button text, causing it to appear off-centre.

In M14 (build 2000022820) and the button text centres correctly.

A relatively minor detail, but it's fairly noticeable on a small button.

Comment 1

[Kevin Cook]

I'm renaming this bug to something more precise since I understand better what's
going on now.  I've seen this effect a couple of times.

It appears that whenever letter-spacing is applied to an element, the size of
the element's space allotment does not expand to accomodate the enlarged
element.  The letter-spacing is nonetheless rendered properly, so it tends to
flow out of its space and overlap surrounding elements.

In the case of the sample here, it looks like the original text was centred in
the submit button, but then letter-spacing was applied to the button text.  It
seems like centring and other types of space reallocation need to be done after
letter-spacing is applied.

Comment 2

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

Setting bug status to New

Comment 3

[rickg]

Rod -- I'm guessing that you're better suited to this than buster. Please take a 
look.

Comment 4

[buster]

Attachment: test case shows a variety of letter spacing

Comment 5

[buster]

the test case I just submitted makes the problem more obvious.  the submit 
button is not changing it's size based on the content's size (or the content is 
not reporting it's size correctly.)

Comment 6

[rods (gone)]

This bug has been marked "future" because the original netscape engineer working 
on this is over-burdened. If you feel this is an error, that you or another 
known resource will be working on this bug,or if it blocks your work in some way 
-- please attach your concern to the bug for reconsideration. 

Comment 7

[Hixie (not reading bugmail)]

Does this affect any other elements other than Button? Say, SPAN or something 
like that?

Comment 8

[Kevin Cook]

From what I've noticed, letter-spacing is generally broken when it needs to 
interact with page layout.  I'd have to do more tests/samples to pin down 
specifics, but I recall seeing letter-spaced elements flowing off the edge of a 
page when it should just be aligned to the edge (I initially thought this was a 
float problem), and I've also seen letter-spaced links <A HREF> with a 
misaligned hover effect.

I could come up with more samples if anyone would like, even though this bug is 
on hold for now.

Comment 9

[Hixie (not reading bugmail)]

Please do; the more dire the testcases, the more chance we have of un-holding
the bug. ;-)

Comment 10

[gerardok]

massive update for QA contact.

Comment 11

[borekl]

Also, spaces (ASCII 0x20) do not grow with letter-spacing. When you do something
like "letter-spacing : .3em" the spaces between word might actually be smaller
than spacing between individual letters.

Comment 12

[Hixie (not reading bugmail)]

This last comment is another bug and was fixed recently.

Comment 13

[rods (gone)]

leaving Priority the same

Comment 14

[Hixie (not reading bugmail)]

Reassigning QA Contact for all open and unverified bugs previously under Lorca's
care to Gerardo as per phone conversation this morning.

Comment 15

[Fabian Guisset]

FYI, Buster's testcase still shows this bug using build 2001021304 win32.

Comment 16

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Interesting. I only see the problem in quirks mode (buster's testcase). In
strict mode (testcase I am about to attach) the button stretches correctly
(linux build 2001-02-12-08).

Comment 17

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Attachment: Strict testcase

Comment 18

[bsharma]

qa contact updated.

Comment 19

[James Green]

Seeing on Linux. OS/All. I agree with with BZ on the quirks mode thing. The only
problem I see in the strict testcase is that on the last button, the amount of
space to the left of the text is approximately twice that given to the right of
the text. That is:

|<---->w o r d<-->|

which definitely looks weird.

Comment 20

[Heikki Toivonen (remove -bugzilla when emailing directly)]

SPAM. HTML Element component deprecated, changing component to Layout. See bug
88132 for details.

Comment 21

[Håkan Waara]

Boris, would your patch to that other button-size bug fix this too?  

It's still reproducible with both of the (quirks/strict mode) testcases.

Comment 22

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

I have no idea and have no tree to test with.  Try that patch in your tree?  :)

The reason you see it in strict as well as quirks is because we now use quirks 
sizing in both modes....

Comment 23

[Boris 'pi' Piwinger]

Bug 115967 might be a dupe. Can someone check this, please?

pi

Comment 24

[Greg K.]

Confirmed using FizzillaCFM/2002070913. The submit button styled
"letter-spacing:5px" loses the "t" entirely. Setting Platform=All.

Comment 25

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

The answer to the question in comment 21 is "no", which I should have known
offhand -- the form controls do their own text measurement when sizing and drop
the letter-spacing on the floor.

Comment 26

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

Fixed by bug 167236