Re: Why people still want to encode precomposed letters

From: verdy_p (verdy_p@wanadoo.fr)
Date: Wed Nov 26 2008 - 13:29:26 CST

  • Next message: verdy_p: "Re: Why people still want to encode precomposed letters"

    "Hans Aberg" <haberg@math.su.se>
    > On 26 Nov 2008, at 01:43, Christopher Fynn wrote:
    > > Some of the best zoom lens designs were first developed for varying
    > > the point size of type in phototypesetting systems
    >
    > Although normal sizes and up can be scaled proportionally, small
    > point sizes may need special designs, for example, being a bit wider.

    Not just wider (something that a lens could also perform), but also lighter (it you increase the chracter width,
    this will maintain the horizontal physical average blackness, but not the visual blackness because the stroke width
    will not be coherent, and the slanted strokes will look darker than they are, as this impacts the visual vertical
    blackness as well).

    So, stroke width adjustments are necessary only for this reason, but also because ink on paper tends to leakage
    around, producing darker than expected results, up to the point where some separated strokes will collide (this
    would happen anyway, even if not makign the characters wider using proportional reduction).

    There are other adjustments that also depend on the type of ink used; but due to the huge progresses that occured
    in ink technologies, in paper coating quality, and in the precision of lasers, some adjustments that were needed more agressively in the past could have their effect reduced now. Fonts that are prepared for modern printers
    should contain hints for those stroke width adjustments depending on the type of support, type of ink, and type of
    laser or bubble jet head, using profiles similar to what has been done for adjusting color profiles with CIE-based
    standards...



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