From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.comp.tex.context/43222 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Charles P. Schaum" Newsgroups: gmane.comp.tex.context Subject: Re: Intraword spacing proof of concept Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:50:45 -0500 Message-ID: <1218815445.14432.30.camel@elbereth> References: <20080813210743.GA21092@phare.normalesup.org> <115224fb0808140058i4d85aaf9t5e02c2787ff4611c@mail.gmail.com> <1jma8p9cgq57.dlg@nililand.de> <115224fb0808140244jac3bda9gc93c6dd8aa8e183c@mail.gmail.com> <1jd1l5yycmkgu.dlg@nililand.de> <20080814134954.GE21092@phare.normalesup.org> <48A490AE.4020200@wxs.nl> <1218749078.12095.30.camel@elbereth> <48A53514.6030707@wxs.nl> Reply-To: mailing list for ConTeXt users NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1218815563 17765 80.91.229.12 (15 Aug 2008 15:52:43 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:52:43 +0000 (UTC) To: mailing list for ConTeXt users Original-X-From: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Fri Aug 15 17:53:34 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from ronja.vet.uu.nl ([131.211.172.88] helo=ronja.ntg.nl) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1KU1cC-0005Mk-3Q for gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org; Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:53:24 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3B9351FE61; Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:52:20 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 09668-01-54; Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:51:31 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.vet.uu.nl (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id AAC321FECD; Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:51:30 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id D9E941FECD for ; Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:51:26 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 11905-02-33 for ; Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:50:45 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from smtp113.sbc.mail.mud.yahoo.com (smtp113.sbc.mail.mud.yahoo.com [68.142.198.212]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with SMTP id 1F7071FE6B for ; Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:50:44 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: (qmail 45541 invoked from network); 15 Aug 2008 15:50:43 -0000 Original-Received: from unknown (HELO ?192.168.1.103?) (verbo.solo@sbcglobal.net@69.153.246.71 with plain) by smtp113.sbc.mail.mud.yahoo.com with SMTP; 15 Aug 2008 15:50:42 -0000 X-YMail-OSG: l30FLA4VM1nKQBYdL06CaGQqu7_cbxAYvWY52DNaTRygYdV2Ql7uEAW8yW2JXZiu9viF3P_OjI7NTWRZLt_zaLqu0cPZmC6NdBsWdcYdRzIqnNNE3ATacj8DGnPI_sAmYDA- X-Yahoo-Newman-Property: ymail-3 In-Reply-To: <48A53514.6030707@wxs.nl> X-Mailer: Evolution 2.22.3.1 X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ntg.nl X-BeenThere: ntg-context@ntg.nl X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.9 Precedence: list List-Id: mailing list for ConTeXt users List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Errors-To: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ntg.nl Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.comp.tex.context:43222 Archived-At: On Fri, 2008-08-15 at 09:49 +0200, Hans Hagen wrote: > in my opinion letterspacing only makes sense in titles, not in the main > body of text (i consider kerning to be part of the font design) > Thanks, Hans! Actually titles is where I would have used it. ;-) I generally agree with you there. Another place to slightly pack text is in ad copy, where perhaps your marketer got some text that must go in because corporate wants it, and the design calls for a space that is a touch too small, and deadlines are looming, and, and... Usually, however, messing with letter spacing decreases the aesthetics. Fonts are best left alone. But of course, what good is a rule if you can't break it occasionally? I had a subtitle that was pretty long, and I got around that by using thinspaces. It worked quite well. That was a couple months ago and I know a little more now. I also wanted to see if some of the exact same code that runs in plain would run in ConTeXt. I actually have had a fair bit of success using ConTeXt to take stuff from plain as a drop-in. Certain types of texts are easier to work with in plain than, for example, LaTeX. For example, I wanted to import about 30 pages of Questions and Answers in ASCII. With plain and ConTeXt I had much less fussing than in LaTeX. The same for some ASCII game FAQ's. My tinkering has even extended to Lollipop, but all \ turn into `` because I am ignorant and cannot figure out what the deal with computer modern fonts is in that format. The point of all this, with the TeXbook, TeX by Topic, and source code as guides, is to figure out what the deal is in different formats. It seems that (1) understanding catcodes and the finer points of macro expansion and modes really unlocks TeX; (2) reading source code for TeX and various formats is an essential part of getting a handle on things; and (3) buying the books really does help. But I'm glad I had 36 comp sci credit hours. Without a few courses on algorithms and data structures, I'd be lost. Charles ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________