Optical scaling

Optical scaling

[Michail Vidiassov]

Dear All,

among advertised advantages of TeX there used to be "optical scaling",
when text in the same font but in different sizes has different shapes of
glyphs. That used to be the feature of metafont fonts and derived
PostScript ones (like cm-super).

But it seems now, with TeX Gyre becoming the default free fonts set, it
seems the idea is dropped. Is it really so or one just needs some
commercial OpenType font family to use it (Adobe Opticals)?

                Sincerely, Michail

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Re: Optical scaling

[Mojca Miklavec]

On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 9:30 AM, Michail Vidiassov wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> among advertised advantages of TeX there used to be "optical scaling",
> when text in the same font but in different sizes has different shapes of
> glyphs. That used to be the feature of metafont fonts and derived
> PostScript ones (like cm-super).

That mostly means:
- TeX supports optical scaling
- the default font inscludes optical sizes

> But it seems now, with TeX Gyre becoming the default free fonts set, it
> seems the idea is dropped.

It's not about dropping the idea, but about too much work that needs
to be invested into adapting some font for different optical sizes.

> Is it really so or one just needs some
> commercial OpenType font family to use it (Adobe Opticals)?

If free fonts don't satisfy your needs ... then yes.
Another option is funding development of free fonts :) :) :)

Mojca
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Re: Optical scaling

[Idris Samawi Hamid ادريس سماوي حامد]

Hi,

On Wed, 03 Dec 2008 01:30:33 -0700, Michail Vidiassov <master@iaas.msu.ru>  
wrote:

> among advertised advantages of TeX there used to be "optical scaling",

It still is

> when text in the same font but in different sizes has different shapes of
> glyphs. That used to be the feature of metafont fonts and derived
> PostScript ones (like cm-super).

Or Latin Modern, also derived from the meta sources.

> But it seems now, with TeX Gyre becoming the default free fonts set, it
> seems the idea is dropped.

LM is default, and is fully optically scaled

> Is it really so or one just needs some
> commercial OpenType font family to use it (Adobe Opticals)?

TeX/ConTeXt supports optical fonts, such fonts (=LM) are still the  
default, and you can plug any commercially available set like Minion  
Optical Pro into the system.

Best wishes
Idris

-- 
Professor Idris Samawi Hamid, Editor-in-Chief
International Journal of Shi`i Studies
Department of Philosophy
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523
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Re: Optical scaling

[Michail Vidiassov]

Dear All,

On Wed, 3 Dec 2008, Idris Samawi Hamid wrote:

>> That used to be the feature of metafont fonts and derived
>> PostScript ones (like cm-super).
>
> Or Latin Modern, also derived from the meta sources.
>
>> But it seems now, with TeX Gyre becoming the default free fonts set, it
>> seems the idea is dropped.
>
> LM is default, and is fully optically scaled

But lacks cyrillic.
Is there any mkiv-style support for cm-super?

           Sincerely, Michail
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Re: Optical scaling

[Wolfgang Schuster]

[-- Attachment #1: type-cmu.tex --]
[-- Type: application/octet-stream, Size: 2843 bytes --]

\starttypescriptcollection [computer-modern-unicode]

\starttypescript [serif] [computer-modern-unicode]
  \setups[font:fallback:serif]
  \definefontsynonym [Serif]           [CMUSerif-Regular]
  \definefontsynonym [SerifBold]       [CMUSerif-Bold]
  \definefontsynonym [SerifItalic]     [CMUSerif-Italic]
  \definefontsynonym [SerifBoldItalic] [CMUSerif-BoldItalic]
\stoptypescript

\starttypescript [serif] [computer-modern-unicode]
  \definefontsynonym [CMUSerif-Regular]    [name:CMU Serif Roman]                [features=default]
  \definefontsynonym [CMUSerif-Bold]       [name:CMU Serif Bold Extended Roman]  [features=default]
  \definefontsynonym [CMUSerif-Italic]     [name:CMU Serif Italic]               [features=default]
  \definefontsynonym [CMUSerif-BoldItalic] [name:CMU Serif Bold Extended Italic] [features=default]
\stoptypescript

\starttypescript [sans] [computer-modern-unicode]
  \setups[font:fallback:sans]
  \definefontsynonym [Sans]           [CMUSans-Regular]
  \definefontsynonym [SansBold]       [CMUSans-Bold]
  \definefontsynonym [SansItalic]     [CMUSans-Italic]
  \definefontsynonym [SansBoldItalic] [CMUSans-BoldItalic]
\stoptypescript

\starttypescript [sans] [computer-modern-unicode]
  \definefontsynonym [CMUSans-Regular]    [name:CMU Sans Serif]                       [features=default]
  \definefontsynonym [CMUSans-Bold]       [name:CMU Sans Serif Bold Extended]         [features=default]
  \definefontsynonym [CMUSans-Italic]     [name:CMU Sans Serif Oblique]               [features=default]
  \definefontsynonym [CMUSans-BoldItalic] [name:CMU Sans Serif Bold Extended Oblique] [features=default]
\stoptypescript

\starttypescript [mono] [computer-modern-unicode]
  \setups[font:fallback:mono]
  \definefontsynonym [Mono]           [CMUMono-Regular]
  \definefontsynonym [MonoBold]       [CMUMono-Bold]
  \definefontsynonym [MonoItalic]     [CMUMono-Italic]
  \definefontsynonym [MonoBoldItalic] [CMUMono-BoldItalic]
\stoptypescript

\starttypescript [mono] [computer-modern-unicode]
  \definefontsynonym [CMUMono-Regular]    [name:CMU Typewriter Text Regular]     [features=default]
  \definefontsynonym [CMUMono-Bold]       [name:CMU Typewriter Text Bold]        [features=default]
  \definefontsynonym [CMUMono-Italic]     [name:CMU Typewriter Text Italic]      [features=default]
  \definefontsynonym [CMUMono-BoldItalic] [name:CMU Typewriter Text Bold Italic] [features=default]
\stoptypescript

\starttypescript [computer-modern-unicode]
  \definetypeface [\typescriptone] [rm] [serif] [\typescriptone] [default]
  \definetypeface [\typescriptone] [ss] [sans]  [\typescriptone] [default]
  \definetypeface [\typescriptone] [tt] [mono]  [\typescriptone] [default]
  \definetypeface [\typescriptone] [mm] [math]  [modern]         [default]
\stoptypescript

\stoptypescriptcollection

\endinput

[-- Attachment #2: cmu-test.tex --]
[-- Type: application/octet-stream, Size: 802 bytes --]

\usetypefile  [cmu]
\usetypescript[computer-modern-unicode]
\setupbodyfont[computer-modern-unicode]

\starttext

\rmtf ABC abc 123 Нормальный текст \par
\rmit ABC abc 123 Нормальный текст \par
\rmbf ABC abc 123 Нормальный текст \par
\rmbi ABC abc 123 Нормальный текст \par

\blank

\sstf ABC abc 123 Нормальный текст \par
\ssit ABC abc 123 Нормальный текст \par
\ssbf ABC abc 123 Нормальный текст \par
\ssbi ABC abc 123 Нормальный текст \par

\blank

\tttf ABC abc 123 Нормальный текст \par
\ttit ABC abc 123 Нормальный текст \par
\ttbf ABC abc 123 Нормальный текст \par
\ttbi ABC abc 123 Нормальный текст \par

\stoptext

[-- Attachment #3: Type: text/plain, Size: 1141 bytes --]


Am 03.12.2008 um 20:34 schrieb Michail Vidiassov:

> Dear All,
>
> On Wed, 3 Dec 2008, Idris Samawi Hamid wrote:
>
>>> That used to be the feature of metafont fonts and derived
>>> PostScript ones (like cm-super).
>>
>> Or Latin Modern, also derived from the meta sources.
>>
>>> But it seems now, with TeX Gyre becoming the default free fonts  
>>> set, it
>>> seems the idea is dropped.
>>
>> LM is default, and is fully optically scaled
>
> But lacks cyrillic.

And it's not planned to add it, here is a quote from
the EuroTeX 2005 preprints:

Although the LM glyph repertoire is already fairly rich, it can
and should be extended further: the next step will be perhaps
the addition of glyphs specific for African Latin-based alphabets.
It is not within the scope of the project, however, to include
Cyrillic and Greek alphabets.

> Is there any mkiv-style support for cm-super?

You should take a look at the computer modern unicode¹ fonts.
I wrote a typescript for the basic styles and a short test file
but optical sizes are missing.

¹http://canopus.iacp.dvo.ru/%7Epanov/cm-unicode/

Wolfgang


[-- Attachment #4: Type: text/plain, Size: 487 bytes --]

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Re: Optical scaling

[Martin Schröder]

2008/12/3 Michail Vidiassov <master@iaas.msu.ru>:
>> LM is default, and is fully optically scaled
>
> But lacks cyrillic.

Well, the L in LM stands for "Latin" :-)

Best
   Martin
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Re: Optical scaling

[Hans Hagen]

Martin Schröder wrote:
> 2008/12/3 Michail Vidiassov <master@iaas.msu.ru>:
>>> LM is default, and is fully optically scaled
>> But lacks cyrillic.
> 
> Well, the L in LM stands for "Latin" :-)

indeed

also, there has been discussions about cyrillic in gyre but somehow we 
cannot get cyrillic users organized in a way that they can do quality 
assurance etc etc. maybe the context cyrillic users can organized 
themselves in a group who is willing to help getting it done in lm and gyre

Hans


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