If we want to type out some 2" tall letters in a given typeface the appropriate text sizing filter should be able to examine the selected typeface and its dimension and then extrapolate that to set lettering in the desired size.
Every typeface has built in dimensions that define several parameters, including baseline, cap height (M-height), lowercase height (x-height), ascender and descender. It would not replace the traditional type functions, but would be an alternative to them for specialized purposes -things we do frequently when designing signs, logos, pixel-based type elements for LED displays, etc. I requested Adobe include an additional way to measure, align and position type based on cap height. If we're going to be honest, CorelDRAW doesn't really do it either (although the program lets one cheat with geometric san serif faces via how it measures characters in "artistic text"). If there are multiple lines of copy we also measure the distance between the baseline of one line of copy and the cap height line of the next line of copy. We position and align type to other objects based on the size of capital letters. In sign design we mainly reference the size of lettering based on cap height.
And there are plenty of other kinds of graphic design that do not treat type in that way at all either. Obviously sign design does not work like that at all. The only thing that matters is the distance between the baseline of one line of text and the next line of text.
The actual physical size of the letters means absolutely nothing under this model. Adobe Illustrator, like PageMaker and so many other graphics applications, only sees type as objects that relate to a point-based layout grid on a printed sheet of paper. I have been bugging Adobe about this in their feature request forums for years, and also in their beta user forum.
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