RE: [Groff] Problem with italic correction in gxditview

[Ted Harding]

On 20-May-04 Robert Goulding wrote:
> (I may have accidentally unsubscribed myself - I sent this a couple of 
> days ago and it didn't show up in my email.  Apologies if anyone has 
> received this more than once).
> 
> I don't use gxditview very often, so I'm not sure how long this has 
> been a problem.  I've attached a screenshot of gxditview being used as 
> a previewer of an -ms document (latest CVS groff, on Apple OS X.3, with
> the standard X server which comes with X.3).  You see that italic 
> letters follow the preceding roman letters too closely.  I've only 
> noticed this with the X100-12 device selected (and the document is 
> indeed in 12pt text); the spacing in X75-12 is fine, as it is in X100 
> and X75 (and with -Tps).  Could this be a problem in how the font 
> metrics for devX100-12 are generated?

Hi Robert,

I'm not sure that it's an "italic correction" problem.

Looking closely at your screenshot, successive italic letters seem
to sometimes slightly overlap (see e.g. the "Ep" in "Episodes";
also there's a full stop well tucked under its preceding letter).
The effect is as if they were kerned (though I don't think this
is what's happening), and actually it's quite attractive within
the italic stretches because it then looks like joined-up cursive
handwriting!

I think it probably has more to do with font-width metrics: it looks
as though the italic characters are given the widths of corresponding
Roman characters, so that as italics the bottom sticks out a bit to
the left and the top sticks out a bit at the right of their metric
boxes, with the above effect in italic script; but then of course a
preceding Roman treads on the tail of the following italic; while a
following Roman gets head-butted by the preceding italic!

As to where it's coming from, I don't know. It may be a deliberate
design decision by the X font designers, in order to achieve the
pleasing joined-up effect (I see you're using an Apple ... !).

Best wishes,
Ted.


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Date: 20-May-04                                       Time: 20:08:55
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