Re: Mission statement and Knuth-Plass reconsidered

[Deri]

On Tuesday, 23 May 2023 23:49:05 BST John Gardner wrote:
> The embedded typeface (both in the original PDF and Deri's version) are
> encoded in Type 1 format. Given the constraints of that particular font
> format, it wouldn't surprise me if the conversion from TeX's font-format
> (whatever the hell it is) was a crude one. Type 1 font files are also
> limited to 255 characters, so robust character sets need to be stored in
> multiple separate "fonts" (which would explain the hideous kerning of
> "Žena" and "Můj").

I don't think either version is original. The first file had been processed by 
ghostscript and we know that the original was produced on pdftex so 
ghostscript would not be in the workflow. The second was produced by 
pdftex-0.14h which is roughly contemporaneous with the thesis, but it also 
records that it was modified 3 years ago, and it claims to be pdf 1.6, which 
was not around in 2001.

I understand the main problem with type 1 fonts is the 256 glyph restriction 
with pdfs, there is no such restriction in the font itself, I have Japanese 
type 1 fonts with more than 18000 glyphs which can be used in pdfs. Type 1 is 
dumber than more modern formats, but the glyphs themselves are the result of 
stroked  paths, just the same, it means that the intelligence has to be in the 
software rather than the font itself. Attached is the Japanese version of the 
groff.7 man page produced by groff.

The weird Můj is because in the pdf it strokes "Brno - M" followed by the ring 
glyph after which it jumps back and draws the "u". The problem is that it 
jumps back a little too far, so this is an error in the computation of the 
distance to jump backwards, rather than using a type 1 font.

Cheers 

Deri

groff.7.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document