Re: [Groff] [off] micro-typography

[P. Alejandro Lopez-Valencia]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Werner LEMBERG" <address@hidden>
To: <address@hidden>
Cc: <address@hidden>
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2002 5:51 PM
Subject: Re: [Groff] [off] micro-typography


>
> Interestingly, even TeX can't do this, apparently for good reasons.
> In groff, .shc only works with real glyphs from the font.  I assume
> that the insertion of the hyphen in both programs occur at a very late
> point in the processing; restarting the whole mechanism to parse and
> handle a macro (via .char, for example) would make the algorithm much
> more complicated if not impossible to work.

TeX can do it with real characters from fonts too, but with the added
possibility to use virtual fonts. Thus, for example, in the Cork (T1)
encoded virtual fonts for postscript fonts it is customary to add the
hanging hyphen by recycling the normal hyphen but smashing its width to the
left and setting the width to zero.

Now, if groff could use some sort of virtual fonts..., else you'll need to
write the routine in PS and attach it to your font instead of the original.