Noto CJK fonts occupy too much vertical space, reduce the font height and make them shorter

[307587]

Noto CJK fonts occupy too much vertical space.

If this is about any Noto font, please go to https://notofonts.github.io/reporter.html instead.

It doesnt let me choose CJK fonts.

Describe the bug

Noto CJK fonts occupy too much vertical space for the same fontsize as some other CJK fonts, wasting a lot of precious vertical space.

To Reproduce

1. Open MS Word
2. type some chinese
3. set all fontsizes 12, line spacing at least 0.

Expected behavior

Noto CJK fonts should occupy same vertical space as 新細明體 (default and probably oldest chinese font in MS Windows)

Screenshots

The below MS Word screenshot has 5 chinese fonts, all fontsizes 12, line spacing at least 0. spacing order is: 新細明體 = 新一細明體 (not the same as previous one) < 微軟正黑體 (newer chinese font in MS Windows) < 思源黑體香港 < Noto Sans CJK HK (this font). pls shorten the font height to the same as 新細明體 so it can waste less vertical space.

Additional context

probably have nothing to do with OS but I'm using win10.

[emmamarichal]

Hi @307587!

I let @aaronbell and @simoncozens answer you about this, they are the experts ;)

What I can tell you, is I don't think we can do something for that, since we have strict specs that aren't allow to modify v-metrics once the font is published. It would break too many websites that are using it!

[aaronbell]

The winAscent / winDescent metrics (which are what are being applied here) are based on guidance established by Ken Lunde in order to account for (a) extra tall glyphs used primarily for vertical typesetting, and (b) the highest values across the family.

It could be that these metrics are too large for fonts that may not have the same character set (and thus lack the overly large glyphs mentioned by Ken) or those not intended for vertical typesetting use. @emmamarichal It would probably be worth having a discussion around that. We can continue discussion here

Regardless, due to backwards compatibility (and that the font is available from many sources with these metrics), it is very unlikely these will change at this time.