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The problem seems to be that, should you want to change the font size or line height of text in a given font, it's currently difficult to get a consistent baseline and character size between different fonts. Having some default line height for a font is fine. Making it impossible to align the tops and bottoms of capital letters between different fonts in a sane way is not great.

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Going down this road, you are about to discover that visual weights, slopes, and assorted other minutia also differ, leading inexorably to the ransom note effect. Some fonts are designed to work together; those that aren't, don't.

Visual height is the tip of the iceberg.

Sure, this isn't meant to make it impossible to shoot yourself in the foot design-wise if you intermingle fonts. It's more of a layout concern. If I change the font in an app or website, it _always_ leads to tweaking all the font sizes and adjusting vertical padding on things like buttons. All to get the baseline and vertical height at roughly the same spots between fonts. The author's proposal of a "cap height" (I don't like that term, though) would make that tweaking a thing of the past.

"The author's proposal of a "cap height" (I don't like that term, though) would make that tweaking a thing of the past."

Maybe, but that's not how I'd put my money. :-)

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