omo@mcnc.org (Julie E. Omohundro) (08/30/88)
I posted this once, got some help, but still no complete solution: Is there any way to make pronunciation marks on my Mac? I mean pronunciation marks, like in a dictionary entry, not accent marks like in a foreign language, so the normal key caps options aren't sufficient. I am investigating a font editor, but would appreciate a cheaper/easier way to do this. I want to have this capability on both the Imagewriter and the Laserwriter, although separate methods for each printer would be okay. Also, must be usable with all fonts (or at least a decent selection). I own a MacPlus w/20meg HD and use MS Word mostly.
landman%hanami@Sun.COM (Howard A. Landman) (09/01/88)
In article <3444@alvin.mcnc.org> omo@mcnc.org (Julie E. Omohundro) writes: >Is there any way to make pronunciation marks on my Mac? I mean pronunciation >marks, like in a dictionary entry, not accent marks like in a foreign language, >so the normal key caps options aren't sufficient. I want to know this also, however I can live with a *single* pronunciation mark, the overbar indicating a long vowel. This is all that's required to transliterate Japanese. Any "romaji" fonts? Also, I received a disk with the "Palencia" font on it. I really like this font, and the great variety of sizes, but I have no idea whether it's public domain or not. Can anyone tell me? Also, is it available in laserwriter form? Howard A. Landman landman@hanami.sun.com UUCP: sun!hanami!landman
fons@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu (09/02/88)
I have used microsoft words formula mode to write long marks for Japanese. It is a little bit tempermental, but it does work just fine if one does NOT use the fractional space option on the laserwriter dialog box. I defined a glossary entry for it and my wife used it without trouble extensively for a book she was writing. In particular I just used the overstrike mode within a formula. Something like formula character O(x,option -). Anyway take a look at key caps there is a overbar in times for instance.
kent@lloyd.camex.uucp (Kent Borg) (09/02/88)
In article <66425@sun.uucp> landman@sun.UUCP (Howard A. Landman) writes: >In article <3444@alvin.mcnc.org> omo@mcnc.org (Julie E. Omohundro) writes: >>Is there any way to make pronunciation marks on my Mac? I mean pronunciation >>marks, like in a dictionary entry, not accent marks like in a foreign language, >>so the normal key caps options aren't sufficient. > >I want to know this also, however I can live with a *single* pronunciation >mark, the overbar indicating a long vowel. This is all that's required to >transliterate Japanese. Any "romaji" fonts? Julie: To get all those strange symbols used as pronounciation marks you will need a special font. I think BitStream has fonts like that, but I don't know of any that have been made available for the Macintosh. If you can't buy one, you could make one. Fontastic seems to be a good editor for creating a bitmapped font. Fontographer on the high end will let you create a LaserWriter font. The bad news is that creating a good looking font is a lot of work, and something that not just anybody will be able to do. Howard: If all you need is a single character it is reasonable to add it to an existing font. A few points to remember. You must add it to each size of the bimapped version of the font you are modifying. If the font is only bit mapped, you are done, if the font is a downloadable LaserWriter font you will need to add it to the downloadable file too. If it is a built-in LaserWriter font you will not be able to change what is in ROM. A further nasty: modifying a copyrighted font is likely to violate copyright law, and for downloadable fonts they might have done some copy protection sort of thing to the font to prevent modifications. Once you get past that, here is how you can make a single overbar but use it with different letters. Use a double strike. Create an overbar character that prints, but itself has no width, that is, the imaginary pencil that draws your letters does not get advanced by this character. In the font editor you use, move the little pointers that show the character's width together until they are on top of each other. Put them to the left of the overbar if you want to type the overbar before you type the letter, or put them on the right if you want to type the overbar after the letter. This is a fairly easy way to do your overbar, but you will have to compromise the overbar's position and length to make it look reasonable in all the combinations--so it won't look really great in any of the combinations. To make it look really good, you will need to create a separate character for each combination. One other thing, for doing Japanese, look at KanjiTalk available from APDA (at least for the moment, for as long as they exist...). Kent Borg kent@lloyd.uucp or hscfvax!lloyd!kent
jack@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin) (09/02/88)
landman@sun.UUCP (Howard A. Landman) wrote: > omo@mcnc.org (Julie E. Omohundro) writes: > >Is there any way to make pronunciation marks on my Mac? I mean > >pronunciation marks, like in a dictionary entry, not accent marks like > >in a foreign language, so the normal key caps options aren't sufficient. > I want to know this also, however I can live with a *single* > pronunciation mark, the overbar indicating a long vowel. This is all > that's required to transliterate Japanese... If you precede the character you want to overbar with option ` in the Symbol font (or maybe option ` option ` or option `` - I'm not sure quite what the difference is, and I don't think they work the same on all keyboards and systems) you will get it overbarred in the printed version; it will look like a prefixed overbar on the screen. WYSIalmostWYG. It will usually look terrible; the bar isn't sized or centred to the character it's over. I think it only works with Laserwriters; I don't have an Imagewriter to check it on. Not having accents (as opposed to accented characters) was the worst single mistake Apple made with the Mac software design. Over and over there have been letters to user magazines asking "how can I get a circumflex over a Y for Welsh?" and the like. Typewriter designers got this more nearly right 80 years ago, so they don't have much excuse. -- ARPA: jack%cs.glasgow.ac.uk@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk USENET: jack@cs.glasgow.uucp JANET:jack@uk.ac.glasgow.cs useBANGnet: ...mcvax!ukc!cs.glasgow.ac.uk!jack Mail: Jack Campin, Computing Science Dept., Glasgow Univ., 17 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow G12 8QQ, SCOTLAND work 041 339 8855 x 6045; home 041 556 1878