Hi Blake,

You wrote:

> This behaviour seems really unintuitive, especially since there
> appears to be no way to force the line height I want ...

I don't think what you appear to be trying to do belongs in
the realm of "intuitive" behaviors. Just imagine, if you will,
trying to do this in old-fashioned printing; any particular
typeface was made up of bits of metal type that have a given
height and usually lines of these were spaced with strips of
metal--the leading. (Our present "line height" is equivalent
to that old type height plus the leading) I don't get a very
pretty picture of an old-time typesetter inserting, into the
running line, a few words of a typeface larger than that
running line's type-plus-leading line height!

I do have some thoughts on how you might approach this.

If the elements you wish to be strong are separate from any
smaller line-height material, You should be able to style
a div or a paragraph (to contain the strong material) with
its own font size and line height. Line height may be done
without units so that it works as a proportion of font size.

You may need to experiment a bit to see how small the line
height can be; 1.2 or 1.4 is fairly usual. If closer to 1
doesn't work in all target browsers, you might have to have
margins and borders on the "strong" div set very small or
zero to compensate for the leading.

If the "strong" bits are actually within a line of ordinary
type, I think you might have to have to do the HTML markup
to put them in a separate location and use CSS to reposition
them into a blank place the line--just remember the original
markup location will then display as whitespace so this could
be quite a project! I do see some drawbacks to this:

* Don't forget this might not go well with disabled assisting
methods. If you are required to have an accessible website,
this is important.

* Also remember the size you are after would then be larger
than the space you put it into and I think the result would be
to have the "strong" bits overlie the descenders from the line
above and/or the ascenders and Capital tops on the line below
--sounds ugly to me but it may the effect you want.

* I don't know if all browsers will cooperate--they may just 
automatically spread the lines vertically a bit to make room.

-- 

Gene Falck
[email protected]

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