From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.comp.tex.context/2164 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Hans Hagen Newsgroups: gmane.comp.tex.context Subject: some help needed Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 14:42:04 +0200 Sender: owner-ntg-context@let.uu.nl Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20000531144204.008909c0@pop.wxs.nl> NNTP-Posting-Host: coloc-standby.netfonds.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1035392951 6593 80.91.224.250 (23 Oct 2002 17:09:11 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2002 17:09:11 +0000 (UTC) Cc: pdftex@tug.org Original-To: ntg-context@ntg.nl Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.comp.tex.context:2164 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.comp.tex.context:2164 ------------------------------------------------------ Let's help Thanh: http://www.pragma-ade.nl/samples.htm ------------------------------------------------------ Dear Reader, We all know Han The Thanh as the author of pdfTeX. Less known is that some features present in this program are the subject of his thesis. Although it has been discussed in TeX user group meetings and on mailing lists, some of the less known features of pdfTeX concern improving the overall appearance of the page. This is achieved by: - slightly scaling the glyphs horizontally - permitting some characters to stick into the margin Both mechanisms can be tuned at the glyph level, and both mechanisms can be applied to either metafonts, type 1 fonts and multiple master fonts. In his thesis, Han The Thanh will provide a detailed description of the principles behind these optimizations as well as explore the way they should be dealt with. Although choosing the right values and making the right decisions is biased by ones personal favourites, research has demonstrated that when rating the greyness of a page, people tend to agree. There are 8~sets of samples typeset in a 10~point typeface. There are bitmap as well as outline fonts, and both serif and sans serif fonts. - computer modern roman - computer modern sans serif - minion - myriad - palatino - helvetica The 8 files are in PostScript format, since the Acrobat viewers have problems with caching some of the fonts. We would appreciate comments on these samples. You can refer to the sets by their number and font name. We don't want to steer you into a direction, but to give you a cue on what is expected, ask yourself questions like: - which pages within a sample set look best - in what samples is the design of the font violated - what characters stick too prominent into the margin - do you think that these extensions improve the appearance - what set does produce the best results for a given font Especially if you are a happy user of pdfTeX, I think that spending some time on printing, viewing and reflection will nicely compensate the time Han The Thanh has spent on writing this marvellous extension to TeX. When these optimizations are found useful, I'm sure that their application will make it into existing font mechanisms. Han The Thanh has to finish his thesis in about a month, so the sooner you can take a look ... You can reach Han The Thanh at: thanh@informatics.muni.cz. Hans Hagen ------------------------------------------------------ Let's help Thanh: http://www.pragma-ade.nl/samples.htm ------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.nl -----------------------------------------------------------------