Proposed: new support for vertical anchor value of 'baseline in addition to n,s,c

Suppose I have a conceptual text baseline (the line between ascenders and descenders) in mind, say 42.

And I want to display two text items of different font size aligned on this common baseline.

If my vertical y coords are both 42 (the logical way to say "I want these guys aligned vertically"), there is no way to specify the anchor such that their baselines are aligned. The closest is centering, but that is not right because it splits the total height in two, whereas the baseline roguhly divides lineheight into two parts ascender to one part descender (which <sigh> really should be decomposed into descended and leading (internal and external components).

What is needed is, for text items, a "baseline" option (just "b"?) to the anchor configuration.

Dumb idea?

kt

--
Cells: http://common-lisp.net/project/cells/

"Have you ever been in a relationship?"
Attorney for Mary Winkler, confessed killer of her
minister husband, when asked if the couple had
marital problems.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Canvas.TextHeight() question
    ... >>I may be using the wrong terminology. ... >>'y' with descending below the baseline.) ... Only when you mix fonts on a line do you have a problem. ...
    (borland.public.delphi.nativeapi)
  • Image is cropped in MSIE/Opera using negative margins
    ... I have a need to align the baseline of some text with the baseline of text within an image as in the following snippet. ... Lorem ipsum dolor ... The problem is that the descenders in the image are getting chopped off. ...
    (comp.infosystems.www.authoring.stylesheets)