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Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:36:24 +0200
From: Dieter Baron <dillo@danbala.ifoer.tuwien.ac.at>
To: discuss@mdocml.bsd.lv
Subject: Re: Fonts?
Message-ID: <20100630203624.GD6880@danbala.tuwien.ac.at>
References: <4C2B2760.7010504@bsd.lv>
 <20100630131222.GA24358@iris.usta.de>
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hi,
   
> > Which font do you suggest I use for the hard-coded font value?
>  
> Basically, i don't know anything about fonts and don't care
> either, except that:
> 
>  * Please make sure to use something which is guaranteed to be
>    available everywhere by default without requiring users to
>    install anything, or if such stuff does not exist, use
>    generic settings if feasible.  I will never feed any font-
>    related arguments, options or parameters into mandoc and
>    will never set up any font-related configuration files,
>    and if mandoc ever asks me any questions about fonts or
>    produces any font-related error messages, i will get
>    really upset.
  
  Fear not, that is my goal (and Kristaps, I presume) as well.  Using
either Times or Palatino ensures the font's availability on any sane
PostScript (or PDF) viewer.  (Any PostScript viewer that doesn't
include these two fonts would have problems displaying heaps of other
documents as well.)
  
>  * Please do not use anything fancy, neither from the point of
>    view of design, nor from a technical point of view.  Just use
>    the most standard and boring stuff you can find.
  
  The most boring stuff would be Times, which is a good default, I
guess. 
  
> I would also suggest not to waste any time on fonts,
> but of course that is your call.  I don't see the point of  
> making anything about fonts configurable.  We are not in
> marketing, we are formatting manuals!
  
  For now, one hardcoded font is certainly fine.  However, I do see an
argument for making fonts selectable at run time: embedding the
resulting pages in a larger work, so they fit with the layout of other
parts of that work (e.g. book).  But let's not worry about that at the
moment.
  
> > Whatever's chosen, I'll need a suitable AFM for the WX value.
> 
> No idea what you are talking about.
  
  Font metrics: how wide each char is, so they can be placed
correctly, and line breaks can be made at the right points.
  
  
  I'm confident that my know how in this area (typography and
PostScript) is sufficient to solve these problems.  However, I can't
reply to mails with the speed you two display.  So, please be patient,
and give me at least two days to reply.
  
                                        yours,
                                        dillo
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