r12a
commented
8 months ago The first comment in this issue contains text that will automatically appear in one or more gap-analysis documents as a subsection with the same title as this issue. Any edits made to that comment will be immediately available in the Editor's draft of the document. Proposals for changes or discussion of the content can be made by adding comments below this point.
Relevant gap analysis documents include: Khmer
This issue is applicable to Khmer script orthographies.
Modern Khmer has several distinct styles of font, each of which is used for different purposes. The round style (អក្សរមូល /ʔɑːksɑː muːl/) has heavier, more rounded letter shapes, and includes more ligated forms. It is commonly used for titles and headings in Cambodian documents, books, or currency, as well as on shop signs or banners. It may also be used to emphasise important names or nouns. The regular font weight looks like bolded text in comparison to the upright font style.
Authors using a Mul font in their text should be able to indicate that any font fallback picks a Mul font, rather than a random Khmer font. Otherwise, the distinctions between certain types of text on a page may be lost.
More:
The GAP
Currently there is no way to tell the browser to fall back to a Mul font, rather than another font.
Neither Gecko, Blink, nor Webkit support this. Before they can, CSS needs to provide a way for authors to indicate that a khmer mul generic font should be used.
Priority
This is a useful feature for Khmer, which uses the Mul style frequently in documents and signage. Marking as Advanced, since there is not the imperative to use such a font (unlike some other font styles). Some may see this as Basic, given the prevalence of this convention.
Tests & results
Interactive test, font-family:generic(mul) will apply a Mul font in Khmer
Action taken
Discussion document: Generic font families
CSS discussion threads:
Outcomes
The CSS Fonts 4 spec now defines a generic(ident) syntax which will be used for newly-introduced, and especially for script-specific, generics.
generic(mul) has not yet been added as one of the generic family names.
Browsers are not yet supporting it.