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From: dhosek@euler.claremont.edu (Don Hosek)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Preview font resolution (was Re: emTeX Previewer -- Changing the "zoom"
Message-ID: <1991Mar27.204952.1@euler.claremont.edu>
Date: 28 Mar 91 04:49:52 GMT
References: <nc7f9h_@rpi.edu> <1991Mar27.172248.22659@watmath.waterloo.edu>
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Organization: Harvey Mudd College
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In article <1991Mar27.172248.22659@watmath.waterloo.edu>, nmouawad@watmath.waterloo.edu (Naji Mouawad) writes:
> The problem with gray scaling (that's what the /ox and /oy commands do)
> is speed ... even if the scaling is optimized for even values (I suggest
> you use 4 for both) it is still slow. EM warns of this in the document.
 
> What happens is that v show the fonts `real size'. Since we are using
> 300dpi fonts, that explains the huge size on the screen.
 
> The best solution, I think, would be to use smaller fonts. Something
> like 90 and 75 dpi which are better suited for the screen.

Hmm, I haven't really noticed any serious degradation in speed
due to grey scaling (I use as my default /o2/s2). Then again, I
have a 25Mhz 386.

As for getting better quality using low res fonts, I have yet to
see a previewer where that's the case. I think possibly MF is to
blame in producing poor-quality low resolution bitmaps, but it
seems that even the dumbest remapping of pixels (DVItoVDU for
various vector-like displays is a good example) produces superior
output to the low res bitmaps. Plus you save a pile of diskspace.

-dh

Don Hosek                  
dhosek@ymir.claremont.edu  
Quixote Digital Typography 
714-625-0147