[Fontinst] Vector file for small caps in 8x fonts

[Hilmar Schlegel]

Lars Hellström wrote:
> 
> At 01.36 +0100 2002-12-14, Philipp Lehman wrote:
> >While working on a fontinst tutorial, I've been looking through some
> >old fontinst drivers of mine. I found an encoding vector intended to
> >build a T1 encoded small caps font based on an upright 8r font plus
> >the corresponding 8x font. Basically, all it does is:
> >
> >\setcommand\lc#1#2{#1small}
> >\setcommand\uc#1#2{#1}
> >\setcommand\lctop#1#2{#1small}
> >\setcommand\uctop#1#2{#1}
> >\setcommand\lclig#1#2{#1small}
> >\setcommand\uclig#1#2{#1}
> >\setcommand\digit#1{#1}
> >\inputetx{T1}
> 
> This differs from t1c.etx only in that the latter says
> 
>   \setcommand\uclig#1#2{#1spaced}
> 
> I believe these `...spaced' glyph names are some invention of Alan's, but I
> don't know what reason he may have had for this.
> 
> t1c.etx also contains a lot of code for setting various integers, but most
> of that is rather pointless (e.g., must be in an MTX file rather than an
> ETX file if it is to have any effect). The only potent part is
> 
>   \ifisint{capspacing}\then
>      \setint{letterspacing}{\int{capspacing}}
>   \fi
> 
> and I can't recall ever having seen a use for that either.

Some people are used to rather wide spaced small caps fonts - just due
to the purpose to use small caps not necessarily in running text. If a
faked small caps font is made this would be usually too tight and to
cure this one applies spacing. To get this right for faked ligatures
(FFL) this mechanism of "spacing inside" was introduced...

Correct me if I'm wrong ;-)

Regards,
Hilmar Schlegel

###

> :-( who had planned to spend this weekend finishing a new release of
> fontinst, but instead finds himself forced to spend it filling in a
> research grant application)

first get the grant straight...