stretching the caps

stretching the caps

[Bill McClain]

This is perhaps more of a TeX question. The typography manuals recommend
letterspacing strings of caps and small caps. I see the \stretch macro,
but it requires a box of predetermined size. I would like to do
something like:

Make the string 10% wider:

   \Mystretch {BARCHESTER TOWERS} 1.10

or: Add .2pts between each character:

   \Mystretch {FRAMLEY PARSONAGE} 0.2pts

(I swear I will never letterspace lowercase letters).

-Bill

Re: stretching the caps

[Patrick Gundlach]

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Hi Bill,

sorry, I cannot help, but I have some comments on this.

> This is perhaps more of a TeX question. The typography manuals recommend
> letterspacing strings of caps and small caps. 

Right, but not streched by a fixed amount. This should be done by kerning 
pairs. So, for example, RA needs a differend spacing then HE. 

Too bad that there is no 'kerning on the fly' for \TeX. (Or, did I miss 
something? Perhaps something for my diploma thesis?)

I would do stuff like this (and already did) with virtual fonts. So you can 
adjust the spacing properly and this is done everywhere you need the Caps.
It takes some time, but it is worth the trouble.

[...]

> (I swear I will never letterspace lowercase letters).

:) Doesn't quark express do nasty things like that?

-- 
Viele Grüße, 

    Patrick Gundlach

Re: stretching the caps

[Henning Hraban Ramm]

Am Freitag, 15. Februar 2002 21:12 schrieb Patrick Gundlach:
> :) Doesn't quark express do nasty things like that?

If you don't change the *&'%$§'* american defaults.

Grütze (statt Quark) für alle!

Re: stretching the caps

[Hans Hagen]

At 05:59 AM 2/15/2002 -0600, Bill McClain wrote:
>This is perhaps more of a TeX question. The typography manuals recommend
>letterspacing strings of caps and small caps. I see the \stretch macro,
>but it requires a box of predetermined size. I would like to do
>something like:
>
>Make the string 10% wider:
>
>    \Mystretch {BARCHESTER TOWERS} 1.10
>
>or: Add .2pts between each character:
>
>    \Mystretch {FRAMLEY PARSONAGE} 0.2pts
>
>(I swear I will never letterspace lowercase letters).

ok, in that case i'll tell you the trick:

\def\stretchedspaceamount{2pt} \stretchednormalcase{Hello World}

\def\stretchedspaceamount{3pt} \stretchednormalcase{Hello World}

beware: you need to use {\"e} or >127 ascii's for special chars

i will provide a neater mechanism some day (also outline fonts and so)

Hans

PS. See core-fnt and supp-fun for other trickery
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Re: stretching the caps

[Guy Worthington]

Bill McClain wrote
> This is perhaps more of a TeX question. The typography manuals recommend
> letterspacing strings of caps and small caps. I see the \stretch macro,
> but it requires a box of predetermined size. I would like to do
> something like:
> 
> Make the string 10% wider:
> 
>    \Mystretch {BARCHESTER TOWERS} 1.10
> 
> or: Add .2pts between each character:
> 
>    \Mystretch {FRAMLEY PARSONAGE} 0.2pts
> 
> (I swear I will never letterspace lowercase letters).

If you can live with a muddle of plain, latex and context, then
consider the soul.sty package (available on CTAN).  I've included an
example below

%--------------------------------------------------
\input miniltx
\input soul.sty

\sodef\SO{}{.08em}{.4em}{1em}%
\setuplabeltext[chapter=\SO{CHAPTER} ]
\def\ChapterTitle#1#2{%
  \vbox{
    \hbox{\midaligned{#1}}
    \blank[big]
    \hbox{\midaligned{#2}}
  }
}

\setuphead
  [chapter]
  [command=\ChapterTitle,
   page=right]

\setupbodyfont[cmr,10pt]

\starttext

\chapter{\small\SO{WHO WILL BE THE NEW BISHOP?}}

In the latter days of July in the year 185--, a most important
question was for 10 days hourly asked in the cathedral city of
Barchester, and answered every hour in various ways---Who was to be
the new bishop?

...

\stoptext
%--------------------------------------------------