Re: Fonts and optical scaling

[Michael Piotrowski]

address@hidden (Ludovic Courtès) writes:

>> I'm aware of the issue but I have never given serious thought
>> to adding it.  I agree that the @FontDef structure and semantics
>> is what needs revising.  Before we go too far, are there optically
>> scaled fonts available somewhere that are actually worth using?
>
> Among the Free Type 1 fonts, I only know of Computer Modern[0] and Latin
> Modern[1] but there may be others as well.

There are size-optimized versions of Times (these are not free, of
course): Times Ten and Times Eighteen.  Linotype writes:

  Times® Ten is a font version especially designed for smaller point
  sizes below 12 point. The characters are more widened and the
  hairlines of the letters are slightly stronger.

  Times® Eighteen is the headline font version for larger point
  sizes. The letters are subtle condensed and the hairlines finer.

Some foundries, e.g., URW++, offer text and display versions of some
fonts; however, the display versions are intended for really big sizes
(posters and signage).  Otherwise I think it's pretty rare to find
separate designs for different sizes.  The examples above also show
that there may not be a direct size-to-font mapping.

> Ideally, we'd like the following things to work:
>
>   { CM Base 10p } @Font     => use the 10p variant
>
> But also:
>
>   1.24356f @Font            => use the ``best'' variant

Certainly a nice feature, but given the few applications, IMHO not
critical.  The same could be said about Multiple Master fonts ;-)
Being able to specify the encoding separately from the font would be
more generally useful, for example.

-- 
Michael Piotrowski, M.A.                               <address@hidden>
Public key at <http://www.dynalabs.de/mxp/pubkey.txt>