[texhax] Tex Queries (3): Cases for italic correction

[Paul Stanley]

 > regarding the lack of an italic correction
 > on the d, paul stanley asks,
 >
 >     Am I correct in thinking that there's very little italic correction
 >     possible for the d? If my memory serves me well, the right-most point on
 >     the baseline is very close to the actual right-most point of the glyph
 >     (the real width?)
 >
 > no, actually quite a bit of correction could
 > be made for the italic d.  although the d is
 > a bit less tall than the ell, the slope is
 > the same, and the top serifs have similar
 > shape so they don't have any effect.
 >
 > so "dx" has quite a different appearance than
 > "lx", although if both d and l are variables,
 > one would expect about the same space between
 > them and the x.  and it's not there with d.
 >
 > if one is using d as a variable (though it's
 > apparently rather rare, relative to the use
 > of d as the differential), manual spacing
 > is sometimes necessary (for computer modern).

is this --- and other similar apparent inconsistenceis --- part of 
the basic makeup of TeX (i.e. the primitives), or are they part of a 
more high-level TeX format specification (e.g. plain TeX) and can 
therefore be changed at that level if required?

Thanks,
Paul