Re: Should vertical motions be in vees or ems? Where does the baseline go?

[Peter Schaffter]

On Wed, Nov 17, 2021, Tadziu Hoffmann wrote:
> 
> > - General typographic convention is to measure vertical
> > motions in v's, not m's.  CSTR #54's definitions of \u, \d,
> > and \r do not align with this common expectation.
> 
> I think this depends on what you consider the purpose of \d
> and \u to be.  Obviously they are not needed: everything they
> do can be achieved with \v.  However, if we assume they were
> intended as an easy way to get super- and subscripts (e.g., for
> footnote markers, or as in "H\d2\uO"), then you definitely want
> the motion to be in units of the current font size and not in
> baseline spacings.  Otherwise, those super- and subscripts
> would be ripped from the text lines they belong to if you
> were to try setting the text double-spaced by requesting
> (say) .vs 24 for a 10-point font.

I've been meaning to weigh in on the subject with the same
observations.  Thanks for saving me the trouble.

-- 
Peter Schaffter
https://www.schaffter.ca