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Why you say html fails at typography?

Although, not every book is a House of Leaves.

Interesting book, html6 should be able to display it exactly as intended. Even showing text upside down, and divs floating in the middle of two columns.

If not, we're not doing the right thing.

If html fails at typography (as you pointed out without any further explanation) then we should evolve html.

I insist, html is the answer.

Changing html to support more exact and more advanced typographical features is a possibility. Problem: diversity and noncompliance of interpreters.

XHTML maybe? Some XML dialect? I can see these working if the toolchain (generators, interpreters, transformers) is tightly controlled or harshly forces compliance. Even still, I'd like my books to always look correct even if made by Microsoft eBook Publisher 2013.

Layout failure on the web is a minor annoyance. Layout failure for a e-book I paid $20 for is completely unacceptable.