Re: [Groff] [off] micro-typography

[Werner LEMBERG]

> In all the examples included, I have to say that this particular
> aspect (extending and condensing fonts) was the one that improved
> quality the least. And that was also the Thanh's own conclusion from
> interviews with people looking at printed samples.
> 
> What he calls "Level 2 character protrusion", where somehow the
> character protrusion was used to calculate the breakpoints, was the
> one thing that has most positive effect.

I agree.  Besides this, I like the idea of inserting minimal
interletter space for small columns.  It is only me who can see an
improvement of grayness in Thanh's examples?  Both features could be
implemented in groff also: interletter space and protruding characters
at level 1.5 -- with `1.5' I mean that the maximal values of each
features can be applied before line breaking to check whether it
avoids `underfull' lines (to use TeX's terminology), since there is no
line breaking algorithm at paragraph level.

In addition, we should probably introduce an equivalent to TeX's
\hfuzz parameter, allowing minimal overlong lines.


    Werner