Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu From: flank@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Brett Jacobson) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: WriteNow (underline option) Summary: A bit of typographic ideals Message-ID: <40280@ut-emx.uucp> Date: 28 Nov 90 01:44:06 GMT References: <659718190@ <61300056@m.cs.uiuc.edu> Sender: news@ut-emx.uucp Reply-To: flank@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Brett Jacobson) Organization: The University of Texas at Austin Lines: 42 In article <61300056@m.cs.uiuc.edu> gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu writes: > >Actually, most postscript fonts include underline characters, and many >word processors use overstrikes to accomplish underlining. This has >the benefit of providing different-thickness underlines for >different-thickness fonts. > >It has the disadvantage of underlining some characters with heavy >strokes, and others with light strokes, when different font facs (i.e. >normal & italic) are mixed and underline on the same line. > > F O R e x a m p l e > ===== ------------- > >This kind of underlining would occur if "FOR" were in a bold face, and >"example" were in a light face. > While this may be true in some instances, the "correct" way to create an underline is to draw a .5pt line under the characters (perhaps a bit larger if the font is 24+pts). A system that uses overstrike will fail alot, since most systems do not provide an underscore character that will connect to another. In this instance, you would get some thing lik this: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ You would get a small bit of white-space between each underscore. This doesn't happen on typewriters since they are mono-spaced, but the majority of fonts on the NeXT are proportional (Courier exempted), and would exibit this effect. Note: An underline is NOT a valid accent in the typesetting world. An underline comes from the paste up marking to signify italics, hense the reason nroff creates underlines (for printers), and troff/psroff creates italics (for typesetters). Just though I would clear the air on this (I used to be a graphics designer in my previous years, at least for a while anyway...) Chris Petrilli Austin, Texas (512) 327-0986