Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr11/mcd_june.zip/KERNING.TXT

Text File | 1993-07-01 | 12KB | 224 lines

From the June Mastering CorelDRAW newsletter

Yearning for Kerning?

Steve Shubitz

While Draw 4 has added significant improvements in the area of type
handling, there is little change in the controls provided to adjust inter-
character spacing. In this column IÆll examine FontFiddler, a brand new
Windows application from Ares Software. Written by Dennis Harrington
and Costas Kitsos, FontFiddler permits you to easily, accurately and
permanently adjust the inter-character spacing values of your TrueType
and PostScript fonts. ItÆs a powerful tool that can dramatically improve
the appearance of your type.
Last issue we provided a discount coupon that offered FontFiddler for
$65 (regular price $99.95). If you call Ares (415-578-9090) and
mention the newsletter, you can still take advantage of this exclusive
offer.

Have You Seen a Kern?
Kerning is the adjustment of space between specific letterforms, such as
the WA pair in the illustration. Each kerning pair is stored in the fontÆs
.TTF (TrueType font) or PostScript .PFM (printer font metrics) file, and
is used by Draw or any Windows application that supports kerning. All
your jobs use the same set of kerning pairs, whether the document is
output at 300 or 1,200 dpi. Kerning is typically performed on headline
type, although many purists also kern body copy and some even kern for
a specific resolution. Since type looks lighter at 1,200 than 300 dpi, your
pairs will indeed produce a slightly different look at different resolutions.
In any case, proper kerning adds punch to headlines and makes body
copy easier to read.
Real type aficionados often manually kern specific characters in a
headline, rather than relying on the existing kerning pairs built into a
font. Draw, and most major publishing applications, support this feature.
In Draw you can adjust individual characters with the Shape b tool.
Despite the importance of kerning, the average TrueType font contains
only 100 pairs, while PostScript fonts typically contain about 200 pairs.
Some TrueType fonts don't contain any kerning pairs, such as the 22
bundled with Microsoft PowerPoint. The Bitstream fonts included with
Draw 4 are a pleasant exception; on average, they contain 300 pairs in
both formats.

Kerning the Easy Way
FontFiddler lets you kern TrueType or PostScript fonts, even if they are
not permanently installed in Windows. You can even open your fonts
directly from the Draw 4 CD-ROM disc and save the new version to
your hard disk. PostScript users should insure that ATM (Adobe Type
Manager) version 2.5 is installed before kerning. And I recommend that
you work with a backup copy of your fontÆs .TTF or .PFM file.
Study the screen shot, which displays Bitstream's Amerigo in TrueType
format. This is a beautiful face with 586 kerning pairs already defined,
although the WA pair is still a little loose for my taste. To fix it, simply
drag the kerning handle (the small square between the characters) to
tighten the pair. If you are compulsive kerner, you can create up to
8,160 kerning pairs per font, although even type purists will probably be
satisfied with 3,000 or less. Five hundred to 1,000 pairs should be
sufficient for most of us to ensure tight, evenly spaced text.
The fontÆs existing kerning pairs are displayed in the floating kerning
toolbox. As you create new pairs they are automatically added to this list.
Double-click on a pair and it displays in your window. You can also enter
a numerical value in the kerning toolbox. The kerning of type is
measured in em units, an em being an imaginary square that surrounds
the letter M in a given typeface. FontFiddler supports accuracy to
1/1000 of an em unit. Single-click on the pairs kerning handle, hold
down the Alt key and press the left or right arrow keys to change the
value by 5/1000 of an em on a VGA screen. Hold down the Alt and
Shift keys, and then press the arrow key to adjust your pair by 1/1000 of
an em.
Notice the floating word list in the illustration. Four hundred commonly
used words and their respective kerning pairs help you easily define new
kerning pairs or alter existing ones. This is a valuable feature that will
save you many hours. Double-click on a word to display it. If you want
to edit the displayed text, you can use the text box on the toolbar. I
discovered the strange overlapping characters in the f? pair by stepping
through the word list. (This anomaly is also present in the PostScript
version.) Once found, it's a simple matter to open up this pair with a
drag and drop of the kerning handle. Corel's Vivienne in TrueType and
PostScript format also has strangely overlapping letter pairs. In this case
the kerning values are incorrectly defined.

Automation with Templates and Import
FontFiddler includes eight kerning templates, which each contain over
200 defined pairs. A kerning template can be imported into a TrueType
or PostScript font that has few or no defined pairs. This is a quick way to
kern the 22 TrueType fonts included with Microsoft PowerPoint. I
opened Bookman Old Style from this collection, which was produced by
Monotype Corporation for Microsoft. Next, I selected the Serif Regular
Template. A few seconds later my typeface contained 261 kerning pairs.
These values are generic in nature and may not provide a perfect fit, but
they do dramatically shorten the procedure and eliminate the need to
start from scratch. If you only need the pairs and not the values, select
Set Import Kerning Values To Zero during the import. You can also
import existing kerning pairs from other TrueType or PostScript fonts.
Select the appropriate .TTF, .PFM or .AFM file via the import kern table
option.

Print and Save
Creating new kerning requires lots of print samples, and FontFiddler
provides six different kinds: Sample Text, Paragraph Text, List of
Kerning Pairs, Character Set, Font Summary, and Word List. The List of
Kerning Pairs printout lets you examine exactly which pairs have been
defined. The Word List prints all 400 words using your typeface. Don't
forget to print at the intended printer resolution. I usually ærough outÆ
my pairs at 300 dpi and then switch to 800 dpi, via my LaserMaster
WinJet 800, for fine tuning. If you are kerning for 1,200 dpi output, you
can change target printers and create your service bureau .PRN (print to
disk) file directly from FontFiddler's print dialog box.
When it's time to save your new typeface, follow the file naming
convention I outlined in last monthÆs column. In the Save dialog box
you can automatically create kerning pairs for corresponding accented
character pairs. Accented characters are found in slots 128 through 255.
This is a valuable feature for those of you in foreign countries in which
many of these characters are frequently used, and is a quick way to add
another 300 kerning pairs to a font.

Repair Me
You may discover some TrueType fonts that were incorrectly created.
This usually occurs with shareware or freeware fonts; I havenÆt
discovered any Bitstream or Corel fonts that have this particular
problem. An example is Rothman, which was included on our May 1993
newsletter disk. When you first open this font, FontFiddler displays a
warning that the stroke weight setting is invalid. This anomaly was
caused by an early version of Fontographer for the Macintosh, which
produced this font, and has since been corrected. To repair the font,
click on the OK button and then select Font Properties from the Edit
menu. Change the Stroke Weight Field from Unknown to Thin, click on
OK, and save this font under another file name. Open this copy and you
are ready to start kerning. It's important to note that FontFiddler does
not alter any of your font outlines or hinting.

Name Change
Last month I mentioned that many of the Bitstream typefaces, and all of
the Corel fonts, don't use industry-standard Windows menu names. For
example, BitstreamÆs Aldine 401 in TrueType or PostScript format has
an industry-standard name of Bembo, which is used by Adobe,
Varityper, Agfa and Linotype-Hell. Happily, FontFiddler lets you quickly
change this name.
Select the Font Properties option and your cursor is conveniently
positioned in the Family Name field. The Family Name field entry
appears in the type menus of all your Windows applications. Change
Aldine401 BT to Bembo BT. As you do this, the Full Name field is
automatically changed for TrueType fonts. The Full Name field is an
internal resource used by Windows that isnÆt displayed inside
applications.
Follow this same procedure if you use PostScript fonts, making sure you
change all four members of the typeface family to the exact same Family
Name. I don't recommend you change all 750 typefaces included with
Draw 4 in one session. Rather, before you install a new font, change the
Windows menu name. Other useful data displayed in this dialog box is
the number of kerning pairs, embedding parameters and the Copyright
field.

The Final Pair
FontFiddler is a powerful and easy-to-use tool that will produce better
looking type in a relatively short time. Many of you may have over 1,000
fonts from Draw 3 and 4 alone, plus dozens more you may have
purchased. With a large collection of fonts, it's important to define
logical and efficient procedures to improve the appearance of your type.

- Properly install some of your TrueType or PostScript fonts and use
them with Draw and your other Windows applications before you kern
them.
- Examine your printouts for headline or body copy that's set too loose.
- Open these fonts and kern them with FontFiddler. Figure about three
hours to kern four weights in a family.
- Print samples frequently from FontFiddler.
- Repeat steps three and four until the desired results are obtained.

TIP

Don't bother trying to kern the base 35 PostScript fonts found in most
PostScript printers. Unfortunately, the kerning pairs in the .PFM files are
hard-coded into the Windows PostScript driver and can't be modified. If
you use Times Roman, for example, and crave more than the 282
kerning pairs it contains, first make a copy of this typefaceÆs .PFB and
.PFM files. Then change these file names and the WindowÆs menu name
with FontFiddler and kern this new typeface. When youÆre done, install
this new font in Windows and use it instead of Times Roman, as a
downloadable font.

Next Month: The Last Word on Kerning

My July column will cover how Draw 4 handles the kerning information
in your fonts. ThereÆs lots of tricky, undocumented things happening
here that you need to know.

Steve Shubitz is president of Published Perfection! and wrote the
mammoth Chapter 16 for Mastering CorelDRAW 3 (Peachpit Press).
Readers may contact Steve at [phone] or on the Corel forum of
CompuServe (go corel) at 72047,3402.


Contents Copyright Kazak Communications, 1993.


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