It would be great if the system's default choices were something more reasonable than what some random Netscape engineer decided circa 1995. The user's choices? I'm sure there are dozens of users on the net who have customized their browser's default styles.
Yes, we should absolutely respect the settings in the "typography" preference pane that all browsers have, where all users lovingly set their preferred text spacing, indentation, and justification. Oh wait! There isn't one. In fact, most users not only haven't explicitly made these choices, they can't explicitly make these choices. Are you arguing that the "system's choices" are some bastion of well-considered design sensibility that we violate at our peril? Really? Nuts to that.
As much right as you have to read content as you wish, the publisher has to present it as she wishes.
This is a guide for people who want to make use of thousands of years of accrued typographic culture to get their message across usefully and beautifully.
- ed
Well, perhaps a thousand or so years. I'm unsure how deep into Roman times good 'type' style lettering stretches.
None of it is specific to custom web fonts (@font-face). Rather, it is about text spacing, indentation, justification, etc.