Re: [Groff] Small Caps

[Ted Harding]

On 11-Feb-00 Werner LEMBERG wrote:
> 
>> Since I mentioned the small-caps issue in a previous mail,
>> some of you may be interested in the following macros which
>> do a primitive implementation of small-capitals.
> 
> Very nice!

Well, thank you for the kind words!

It is, however (as I said), primitive. It works properly for
basic use (i.e. where the small-caps text consists of words
using only alphabetic characters). There are several complications
in doing a proper job (which is why I could get interested in proper
string processing).

For instance, consider the small-caps versions of each of the following:

a. Big-endian Implementations of Modula-2

b. Big-Endian Implementations of Modula-2

What about the first hyphen? How would you expect it to be printed
in case (a), and in case (b)? In the first case, it should definitely be
in the point-size of the small caps. In the second case I'm not so sure,
but in any case there is a question there.

And what about the "-2" in each case?

Whatever your preferences, this can only be handled properly if each
character is considered in context, for whether to print it in reduced
size or normal size. My .smallcaps macro does not handle this at all.

Again (this is cosmetic, but it does matter a bit): The "proper" way
to do small-caps is not by using reduced-size caps of the current font.
The reason is that the stroke-weights are too light, compared with the
stroke-weights of both the upper- ands lower-case letters of the main
font. "Real" fonts have an entire "small-caps" typeface for each of the
Standard ("Roman"), Bold, Italic and BoldItalic versions, so as to
keep the stroke-weights consistent.

To some extent you can fudge this using the standard PostScript fonts,
if your main font is Times, by switching to either NewCenturySchoolbook
or Bookman for the small caps, since these have heavier strokes and the
balance looks better (and they are sufficiently similar to Times for
the slight changes in shape not to be obvious). This could be incorporated
into the macro I gave, taking some care in use. I will look into
a convenient formulation of this.

>  Do you collect these macros somewhere?

Yes -- in /usr/share/groff/tmac/tmac.ted ... at least for things
which are not too experimental.


> I've recently created a `MORE.STUFF' file in the groff archive which
> is intended to collect additional stuff related to groff, and I can
> imagine adding a link (with some descriptions) to your macros...

I'll try to parcel up a small package. It's a bit of a mixed bag,
since it meets my needs but not necessarily anyone else's!

Best wishes,
Ted.

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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <address@hidden>
Date: 11-Feb-00                                       Time: 18:19:21
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