Re: relative scaling for fonts

["Thomas A. Schmitz" <thomas.schmitz@uni-bonn.de>]

On Nov 16, 2006, at 9:56 AM, Pablo Rodríguez wrote:

> My most common scenario for font scaling is not roman with  
> sansserif or
> typewritter, but roman Latin with roman Greek characters and  
> setting the
> same x-height for both. And I thought there were fine with the same
> x-height for both.
>
> My typographical ability wouldn't let my set other relative scaling
> factor other than 1 or the same x-height for both fonts.

But will that work? What is the x-height of a Unicode font (and  
AFAIK, XeTeX can't handle any other font) that has Latin and Greek  
letters? You have to rely on the fact that the font designer will  
have implemented an equal x-height for all his characters - which is  
simply not the case for a majority of fonts, IMHO. So I'm not sure  
that this is a necessary or useful thing to have. When all is said  
and done, I still see no possibility other than looking at the  
printed page and deciding yourself whether the relation between both  
fonts is "right." Btw, most publishers don't seem to bother anymore  
and just set the fonts at whatever is their design size. OUP, e.g.,  
uses Porson, which is a lot smaller than most Roman fonts, but they  
don't scale. I find this horrible, but what I want to say is: there  
doesn't seem to be an established typographical practice that could  
just be automated.

Best

Thomas