Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!rice!uw-beaver!Teknowledge.COM!polya!Neon.Stanford.EDU!kaufman
From: kaufman@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Marc T. Kaufman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: ATM (Adobe Type Manager) Problems
Keywords: Adobe ATM Type
Message-ID: <12451@polya.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 15 Oct 89 07:44:06 GMT
References: <45@fleet.UUCP>
Sender: news@polya.Stanford.EDU
Reply-To: kaufman@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Marc T. Kaufman)
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
Lines: 28

In article <45@fleet.UUCP> mel@fleet.UUCP (mel) writes:
-While our user group was given a preview of ATM (Adobe Type Manager) we
-noticed that type had somewhat irregular spacing between letters in all
-of the word processors that we tested it with.  The same text placed into
-Pagemaker looked fine.  Printed output did reflect the same spacing
-irregularities as shown on the screen - meaning Pagemaker's output was
-fine but the word processors kept the erroneous spacing. 

-I guess this effect is caused by the inability of the word processors
-to process the kerning information?  Or was this caused by the fact that
-we're looking at a pre-release version of ATM?

Actually, it is caused by the word processors' ABILITY to process the kerning
information.  Many WPs attempt to out-guess quickdraw.  QD doesn't use the
kerning pairs in the FOND.  The WP wants to (on Quickdraw devices).  So, the
WP resorts to individually placing each character and drawing it with DrawChar.
If the output driver is smarter (say, with a LaserWriter), then you pass the
entire string to DrawString, possibly after modifying SpaceExtra and/or
CharExtra to control the total width.  In this case, the driver is free to
re-set the characters any way it likes, so long as the TOTAL width is correct.
If the character widths are not EXACTLY those specified in the Font Width
tables, you will get bad results if you try to set each character individually.

This problem will probably go away with System 7, as that is what the Layout
Manager is for (except for ideosyncratic offerings from the NorthWest).

Marc Kaufman (kaufman@Neon.stanford.edu)
the "correct" way to do it, as you can then tweak DrawString