Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!ubc-cs!havarti.cc.ubc.ca!halliday
From: halliday@havarti.cc.ubc.ca (Laura Halliday)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Outline fonts and Font sizes
Summary: Geometric progression is the key.
Keywords: System 7.0 fonts
Message-ID: <5211@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Date: 10 Oct 89 02:56:15 GMT
References: <7994@microsoft.UUCP>
Sender: news@cs.ubc.ca
Reply-To: halliday@cc.ubc.ca (Laura Halliday)
Organization: UBC Computing Centre, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lines: 27

In article <7994@microsoft.UUCP> benw@microsoft.UUCP (Benjamin Waldmin) writes:
>(stuff deleted...)
>But what happens when outline fonts come along?  Does RealFont always
>return TRUE for any size of an outline font?  If so, then what kind
>of menu/list box should one build--how many sizes should it include, and
>what point sizes should those be?  Of course, one can always include
>9, 10, 12, 18, and 24.  But do we include 14? 36? 27? 48? 
>
>Has anyone thought about this issue?

Fonts are generally used in sizes that form a geometric progression. For
example, TeX fonts come in 10, 12, 14, 17, 21 and 25 point sizes (among
others), so the common ratio of the progression is 1.2. Sizes have to be in
geometric progression because human senses (sight included) measure things
logarithmically.

The solution? Have a suitable collection of sizes available on a menu, and
have an escape (like PageMaker's `Type specs' dialog) available for very large
and/or oddball sizes. This would map well onto MS Word, for instance - put
the preset sizes in the `Font' menu, and let `Format Character...' be the
oddball size escape...

>Ben Waldman
>Software Design Engineer,
>Microsoft Corp.

...laura