glenn@suphys.physics.su.OZ.AU (09/07/90)
Decorative initial letter macros are great. Does anyone have one that can mortise type? e.g., /\ NOTHER macro to produce this mortised effect would be very nice. I don't /--\ know whether it is simple to do in TeX or not. One would have to do / \ something with the font metrics in order to get it right I think. Of course each letter could be treated differently using \if. Is there an easier way? Cheers, Glenn glenn@qed.physics.su.oz.au -- Glenn Geers | "So when it's over, we're back to people. Department of Theoretical Physics | Just to prove that human touch can have The University of Sydney | no equal." Sydney NSW 2006 Australia | - Basia Trzetrzelewska, 'Prime Time TV'
dhosek@frigga.claremont.edu (Hosek, Donald A.) (09/08/90)
In article <1990Sep7.074335.9271@metro.ucc.su.OZ.AU>, glenn@suphys.physics.su.OZ.AU writes... >Decorative initial letter macros are great. Does anyone have one that can >mortise type? >e.g., > /\ NOTHER macro to produce this mortised effect would be very nice. I don't > /--\ know whether it is simple to do in TeX or not. One would have to do >/ \ something with the font metrics in order to get it right I think. Of >course each letter could be treated differently using \if. Is there an >easier way? No, the only way to handle mortising is with a \if selection. Fortunately, the affected letters are few (I am of the school that in dropped caps, only the first line should be mortised, which means the only letters affected are A and L. One third the width of the A and two-thirds the width of the L work sufficiently well. ++++ |-- |or a raised cap, mortising is somewhat more difficult since the number of letters affected is greater (F, P, T, V, W and Y), but again, some experimentally determined fractions work well. (One of my books on typography in a discussion on this sort of thing gives directions on cutting the lead type). My macro for a two line dropped cap with mortising is in [anonymous.tex.inputs.local]clinicsheet.sty on ymir.claremont.edu A few other tips on dropped caps: align the cap with either the bottom of the lowest line it touches or the tops of the letters of the first line (my preference is for the former) or both. The initial should usually be in the same font as the surrounding text, although there are some cases where another face will work (one that looks very nice is a Lombardic capital with sans-serif type). -dh --- Don Hosek TeX, LaTeX, and Metafont support, consulting dhosek@ymir.claremont.edu installation and production work. dhosek@ymir.bitnet Free Estimates. uunet!jarthur!ymir Phone: 714-625-0147 finger dhosek@ymir.claremont.edu for more info
palmerp@galois.math.orst.edu (Paul A. Palmer) (09/08/90)
I saw the following file advertised:
Path: orstcs!ogicse!decwrl!uunet!jarthur!frigga.claremont.edu
From: dhosek@frigga.claremont.edu (Hosek, Donald A.)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: Bigletter macros and mortising
Message-ID: <8319@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>
Date: 7 Sep 90 18:25:58 GMT
Sender: news@jarthur.Claremont.EDU
Reply-To: dhosek@frigga.claremont.edu
Organization: Quixote
Lines: 46
Posted: Fri Sep 7 11:25:58 1990
[stuff deleted]
My macro for a two line dropped cap with mortising is in
[anonymous.tex.inputs.local]clinicsheet.sty on ymir.claremont.edu
-dh
---------------
I tried unsuccessfully to ftp this file. Seems I am not permitted access to
the file or the directory. Is there another way to obtain it?
Thanks for any help.
--
Paul Palmer
Department of Mathematics E-mail: palmerp@math.orst.edu
Kidder Hall 368
Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331-4605dhosek@sif.claremont.edu (Hosek, Donald A.) (09/11/90)
In article <PALMERP.90Sep7172144@galois.math.orst.edu>, palmerp@galois.math.orst.edu (Paul A. Palmer) writes... >I saw the following file advertised: > My macro for a two line dropped cap with mortising is in > [anonymous.tex.inputs.local]clinicsheet.sty on ymir.claremont.edu >I tried unsuccessfully to ftp this file. Seems I am not permitted access to >the file or the directory. Is there another way to obtain it? >Thanks for any help. The file and directory are both fine. The following commands should get it for you: cd [anonymous.tex.inputs.local] get clinicsheet.sty -dh --- Don Hosek TeX, LaTeX, and Metafont support, consulting dhosek@ymir.claremont.edu installation and production work. dhosek@ymir.bitnet Free Estimates. uunet!jarthur!ymir Phone: 714-625-0147 finger dhosek@ymir.claremont.edu for more info
lee@sq.sq.com (Liam R. E. Quin) (09/15/90)
>glenn@suphys.physics.su.OZ.AU writes... >>Decorative initial letter macros are great. Does anyone have one that can >>mortise type? dhosek@frigga.claremont.edu writes: >No, the only way to handle mortising is with a \if selection. Well, Don Hosek is usually right about TeX things... but in this case, I'm not sure. With kerning versions of troff at least, you can do better. /=====/ | | he letters that stick up are easy: Suppose the cap-height of the normal-sized letters is comparable to a lower-case `e' in the larger size. Then all we do is find the difference between the width of ``Te'' the width ot `T' plus the width of `e' (in other words, the kern for Te). This is how much closer to move the "he" to the "T" in the beginning "The" on the first line. For letters that stick down, kern against a T instead, since the first line of text will behave like the cross-bar of a T. (If the difference in size is smaller, kern against W). This works quite well in practice, even if it sounds strange, and doesn't require special cases for each (letter, font) combination. Lee -- Liam R. E. Quin, lee@sq.com, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, +1 (416) 963-8337 [Granny weatherwax] was opposed to books on strict moral grounds, since she had heard that many of them were written by dead people and therefore it stod to reason reading them would be as bad as necromancy. [Equal Rites 118]