Will Robertson wrote: > The way that LaTeX font size selecting works is more complicated than just > setting the document body font to, say, 11pt. Rather, all of the sizes > from \tiny to \Huge are adjusted, and even the margins of the document > adjust to compensate for the difference in size. When fonts had to be > selected in fixed sizes, doing this process for more than a few sizes > (10,11,12pt) was not feasible. > > Nowadays, of course, things are different. It is not inconceivable to > imagine a document class where the \textwidth is calculated from the > alphabet length of the body font, \small is 0.85*\normalsize, \large is > 1.2*\normalsize, etc. etc. Whether this is a reasonable interface remains > to be seen (I think it would probably work -- please discuss!). > > Note that something like this is currently possible if you use the > fontspec package in XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX. Fonts there can be selected with > arbitrary scaling values (via LaTeX's scaling mechanism in the NFSS's .fd > files), so if you write > > \documentclass{11pt} > \usepackage{fontspec} > \setmainfont[scale=1.045]{Adobe Garamond Pro} > > then this is roughly equivalent to selecting an 11.5pt body font. (Of > course, margins will still need to be adjusted to suit.) > > * * * > > The LaTeX3 project has not really started discuss such high-level aspects > of document design, but we've made a start with the "template" mechanism > for creating modular document interface elements. If you're interested, > take a look at the xtemplate package on CTAN or the LaTeX3 SVN code. It's o.k. to have some ready-made design like in LaTeX. Every time when I'm designing a book I have to fight with low level LaTeX because numerous lengths are hidden inside standard class files and even latex.ltx. It is killing from a designer's view, e.g., to change all measurement to didot points instead of American points. Insofar high-level aspects are important for program designers (or how should I call you?) too. A programmer designing a typesetting system should be aware of typesetters needs. Best regards Ulrich Dirr