Re: [Groff] Devps unmatched metrics

[Robert Thorsby]

On 01/05/08 03:59:10, Tadziu Hoffmann wrote (in two posts):

> For the sake of argument, I will contest
> this.  The default setup for the ps device
> -- analogous to, for example, the lj4 device
> -- should create output that can be sent to
> the corresponding printer -- Postscript or
> PCL -- using whatever fonts are provided by
> the device itself.  As such, the metrics
> should correspond to those of the builtin
> fonts. Anything else should be delegated to
> an add-on package.

and

> The neat thing about groff's way of having
> the (editable) metrics file separate from the
> actual font file (as opposed to, say, a system
> where the metrics are read directly from a
> not-so-easily-editable truetype or opentype
> font file), is that it is extremely easy to
> adjust things like the subscript kern for
> individual letters or to add new kerning pairs.

On a quick first reading of Tadziu's posts I thought he was being 
inconsistent, saying diametrically opposed things: on the one hand, use 
"standard" fonts; and, OTOH, hack them.

However, I realised that Tadziu was describing a feature, not an 
inconsistency. If the hacked font is renamed, which takes it out of the 
"standard" set, then it should end up embedded in any postscript output 
file.

For example, if I type a business letter [we all use groff for our 
business letters, don't we?] I really don't care if groff sets it in 
Adobe's version of Times, gv renders it in URW, and my laser printer 
prints it in Who-Knows-What.

However, if I play around with micro-typography, for example, using the 
"Up a bit, Down a bit" manipulations of the s and H registers, then I 
really do want a **particular version** of Times to be used in all 
three applications. This, I think I can achieve by copying and renaming 
the "standard" fonts and then calling the renamed fonts, which should 
force the exact font I call to be embedded into the postscript output.

Thus both objectives can be achieved. 

BTW, Ted Harding whose post to this mailing list introduced me to "The
\s'-360u'\H'+360u'quick\H'0\s0 brown fox" should be taken out and 
publicly flogged. Ted, do you realise how much time you have cost me 
with that little gem?

Robert Thorsby
Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself.
                -- Simone Weil