Re: Emmentaler letters in LaTeX, kerning -- help wanted

[David Kastrup]

"Urs Liska" <address@hidden> writes:

> 14. August 2019 11:55, "David Kastrup" <address@hidden> schrieb:
>
>> "Urs Liska" <address@hidden> writes:
>> 
>>> Hi all,
>>> 
>>> I'm currently rewriting my lilyglyphs package
>>> ...
>> 
>> Wouldn't it be a lot more generally useful (and likely more efficient
>> since the mechanism is made for that) to just add those kerning pairs to
>> the Emmentaler font itself?
>
> a)
> How does LilyPond typeset letter combinations, would adding kerning
> pairs to the font affect the use *in LilyPond* in any way?

Sure: isn't that sort of the point?

> If not it may indeed make sense to have the kerning in the font
> itself.

Why would it only make sense to have the kerning in the font if LilyPond
ignored it?

> b)
> It seems more easy to implement directly in the LaTeX package,
> especially concerning contribution, since it doesn't rely on compiling
> LilyPond (and even waiting for a release).

Sure, as long as you are operating under the theory that nobody except
yourself will ever use Emmentaler as a font.  But I don't see that LaTeX
use is so special that it is reasonable to assume that.

> c)
> I'm thinking of a fallback solution where kerning pairs are defined
> for Emmentaler while other fonts only have to declare deviations from
> that. This wouldn't be possible with kerning built into the
> font. Plus, the current approach does not require to update an
> arbitrary number of fonts.

Nobody said that doing things in a proper and generic manner would be
less work than hot patches at the current place of need.

> d)
> What might other use cases beside typesetting in LilyPond and
> including in text through lilyglyphs be that benefit from updating the
> font itself?
>
> I'm not sure about this, asking honestly.

People write music theory texts with other typesetters than LaTeX.
People even write music with other typesetters than LilyPond.  The more
font information is routed via the fonts proper, the easier it also
becomes for LilyPond itself to utilize other fonts rather than to rely
implicitly on working with Emmentaler.

-- 
David Kastrup