Discussion about Fonts

 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Message-ID: <d6ce4a6c.0310140449.11351956@posting.google.com>
References: <127e4692.0307300443.134514f3@posting.google.com>
    <bkuphf$d5r$1@bob.news.rcn.net>
    <6i07nvodiigq384t1bh7mrf635oik0m29j@4ax.com> <BB9D357896681850A8@10.0.1.2>
    <bl9kvs$1pie$3@f04n12.cac.psu.edu>
    <n9apnvo458o6qpq2akp5c1kq3i78ti2ppp@4ax.com>
    <7ivpnvctge2gkdkm2la1id9nfiia7dkudk@4ax.com>
    <4furnv8n77knhrgdlsqgqoruu4jqgmqt0v@4ax.com>
    <o35snv08tqmbc2r394mq5qkoongk0uj5ak@4ax.com>
Organization: http://groups.google.com
Date: 14 Oct 2003 05:49:25 -0700
From: Toby Thain <toby@telegraphics.com.au>
Subject: Re: En (Was: Re: chording  Keyboard layouts)

> BIANAP My involvement in printing and computerized typesetting
> was back in the line/dot/daisy/phototypesetter days when runoff
> and nroff were young. 
> 
> >Vague agreement:
> > 
> > There's a fifty percent chance that it was exactly two minutes, since
> > an en quad is half the width of an em quad, and half the time you
> > plot a graph of something against time, the time goes along the
> > x-axis, which is the wide one.
> >
> >I think I'll need to ponder on this a little longer before coming up
> >with a definitive number of minutes, together with an unassailable
> >justification therefor.  Any and all assistance will be welcomed.
> 
> Thanks. Take care, Brian Inglis       Calgary, Alberta, Canada


Brian Inglis <Brian.Inglis@SystematicSw.ab.ca> wrote in message
news:<o35snv08tqmbc2r394mq5qkoongk0uj5ak@4ax.com>...
> ...
> >
> > There are en quads as well as em quads but en quads are only half the
> > width of em quads.  Both of them are quads, though.
> 
> If it's an en quad, shouldn't it also be half the height? 


If you are talking about handset type, no, the spaces are typically a
piece of metal of the desired width, but as high as the type body
(i.e. the same as the other letters or "sorts"). This is because each
line is mechanically compressed in the forme. (Except perhaps on rare
occasions an odd piece of metal might have been needed to wedge a
kerned letter.)

In hot metal type, the quads were simply cast as part of the line
slug, and again would obviously be the height of the slug.

Even in digital typesetting, an em or en space is usually just a
horizontal displacement (often called a "kern" in WYSIWYG software).
TeX does this with an hskip (breaking) or hbox (non-breaking).
"Height" is not usually considered.

> Aren't en quads defined by the width of the digits anyway: a
> monospaced subset for easily setting numerical tables? 

Digits of the width of an en quad would be a useful convention but not
universal. It's sufficient to have all ten digits the same width. The
practice established by Adobe PostScript of making the standard
figures tabular (in particular "1") causes great ugliness in body
(run-on) setting unless manually corrected. I feel this is a bad
decision in the PostScript font scheme, since the vast majority of
setting is not tabular and is needlessly spoiled by the uneven
sidebearings (as I am reminded daily in my work).

> And aren't there quite a few other standard width spacing units
> too? 

In addition to thick and thin, there is a hair space (used for example
to achieve open letter spacing). Sean Morrison, in "A Guide to Type
Design" (1986), defines thick, mid, thin and hair spaces as 1/3, 1/4,
1/5 and 1/6 em respectively, but I doubt these are universal
definitions.

Of their use, Joseph Gould's "The Letter-Press Printer" (Nov, 1888)
instructs,
\\
The thick space is the proper division between each word; but as it
would be impossible to space all lines with that alone, it behoves the
compositor to endeavour so to space that the inequalities shall be
least noticed. In reducing the space, also, care should be exercised,
and the spaces following the points must be reduced in proportion.
After the comma no extra space is needed; but after the semi-colon and
colon an en quadrat should be put, and after a full-point an em
quadrat. Before the ! ? : ; and " [closing] a thin space must be put,
and also after inverted commas (`` [opening]).
//

Modern spacing habits are different: it is no longer customary to use
thin spaces as proscribed above; the default word space in modern
fonts is typically between 1/5 and 1/4 em; and the space after a full
point is treated like any other word space. (TeX applies some clever
if old-fashioned spacing rules for punctuation, unless disabled by
switching to what it calls "French" spacing.)

Toby


 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Newsgroups: comp.unix.solaris
NNTP-Posting-Host: conquest.ocf.berkeley.edu
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 3 Jan 2007 16:21:45 +0000 (UTC)
References: <459B8B53.7020500@ff.cuni.cz>
Message-ID: <engl6p$gag$1@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: Wed, 3 Jan 2007 16:21:45 +0000 (UTC)
From: Alan Coopersmith <alanc@alum.calberkeley.org>
Subject: Re: Ugly fonts (fontconfig)

Hana Skoumalova <Hana.Skoumalova@ff.cuni.cz> writes in comp.unix.solaris:
|
| I have problems with ugly fonts on my desktop. My system is Solaris 9
| with additional software from Blastwave. In applications which rely on
| fontconfig, the fonts are very ugly. Fontconfig is from Blastwave and
| the fonts.conf was not changed; I only added one font path to
| local.conf. In Xfce-settings I tried to check or uncheck anti-aliasing
| but nothing changed. Could anyone help me with this?


fontconfig doesn't draw fonts, it just finds the font files on disk
for other programs.   Many of the open source programs you discuss
use freetype, which can be recompiled to improve output quality if
you're willing to accept some risks.   You can find instructions and
other tips in the Linux Font De-uglification Howto on the net, though
not all of them apply to Solaris.

-- 
________________________________________________________________________
Alan Coopersmith * alanc@alum.calberkeley.org * Alan.Coopersmith@Sun.COM
 http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~alanc/   *   http://blogs.sun.com/alanc/

 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
