[comp.sys.mac] What are fractional widths?

nedludd@ut-emx.UUCP (charles s. geiger, esq.) (03/09/89)

I haven't been reading this newsgroup for a while.  The Word manual
barely mentions fractional widths, other than to say that "this
[setting] activates the LaserWriter's fractional pixel width
feature to private better output for some fonts."  What does that
mean?

Interestingly (well, maybe not so interestingly) I was going to
post an article asking why words in italics are spaced so poorly on
the LaserWriter; when experimenting with fractional widths, I
discovered that this problem went away.  These fractional widths
seem to change just the space between words rather than spaces
between letters.  They are indispensable when using italics, but
otherwise I don't like the crowding of the words, especially on Old
Style fonts like Goudy.  Is there some other way around the italics
problem?

thanks in advance, and
cheers, from
charles s. geiger, esq.