Xref: utzoo comp.sys.mac.apps:5691 comp.sys.mac.misc:11557 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!think.com!mintaka!bloom-beacon!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!hsdndev!husc6!wjh12!kik From: kik@wjh12.harvard.edu (Ken Kreshtool) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps,comp.sys.mac.misc Subject: Re: Can't get character in Macrite II Message-ID: <595@wjh12.harvard.edu> Date: 30 Apr 91 20:28:44 GMT References: <1991Apr19.191136.18750@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu> <6233@crystal.UUCP> <6315@crystal9.UUCP> Reply-To: kik@wjh12.UUCP (Ken Kreshtool) Distribution: na Organization: Harvard University, Cambridge MA Lines: 65 In article <6315@crystal9.UUCP> derosa@motcid.UUCP (John DeRosa) writes: >>>[deleted attributions] > >>>I have also noticed that there are characters >>>in most every font that *CANNOT* be reached from the keyboard. > >> I don't know how you can have characters that you can't get from the >>keyboard but if you have Norton Utilities, they has a 'Key Caps' like DA >>which also shows the required keystrokes. I don't think that I have seen >>any that don't have a key stroke associated with it! But then maybe I >>haven't seen them all... > >Yessir-re-bob, most every font has these hidden characters. I first >noticed them when I began to use PopChar. PopChar allows you to >pull down a menu of all the possible characters in the active >font, select the one your want and...pop...it is part of your document. In addition to these points and the suggestions regarding using Word's approach, there's another whole realm of characters hiding in your Adobe fonts that are not within range of the standard ASCII 256. Maybe this is what John DeRosa found with PopChar. To quote Adobe: the standard character set for Adobe text typefaces is ISOLatin1. (Whatever that means.) Know how it's impossible to type pretty fractions? Well, the darned things are actually ALREADY in the fonts, if only we could get at them -- at least, onehalf, onequarter and threequarters are! Answer honestly: would you rather have, as we currently do, ordmasculine and ordfeminine (little o and a underlined; option-9 and option-0) available from the keyboard, or onehalf and onequarter? If anybody is interested, it IS possible to print these pretty little fractions on a postscript printer (or using a postscript interpreter such as Freedom of Press Light). I discovered this when desparately trying to typeset a catalog for King Brand, the music paper and music writing supplies company. Paper, especially music paper, is an ancient and noble product, and ain't sold by the decimal dimension, not no how. Fractions or bust. What you can do (short of buying ParaFont) is this: (1) Use some offbeat stand-in character of about the right width (e.g. Capital-O-circumflex) for the fraction you want to print. (Widths are in the .afm doct that you always wondered when to throw away. Or just guess; fractions in most fonts tend to be kind of plump.) Then (2) print the postscript to disk INCLUDING the LaserPrep header (immediately after clicking 'OK' in the Print dialog, press and hold Cmd-K until you see a message about PostScript). (3) edit the postscript file to take out your standin and print the fraction in its place: look for the NAME of your standin character (e.g. Ocircumflex) in a list of character NAMES separated by slashes (e.g. trademark/Ocircumflex/AE/oe). Carefully replace the standin's name with the fraction's name (e.g. onehalf or onequarter or threequarters)(note that threequarters is plural). This is the only place you have to do this editing; it will control ALL occurrences of the standin character in the document. (4) Send this edited file DIRECTLY to your printer, using some utility like SendPS. Don't print from your wordprocessor; it will append another LaserPrep header and screw things up. (5) Check your output carefully. Some fonts are happier about this substituting business than others, and some standins seem to work more reliably than others. Helvetica gave me problems once but only once; maybe it was that corrupted version that has been mentioned in this group. Sorry about the length of this posting -- but this simple workaround saved my neck, and you might enjoy having typeset fractions, too. Ken Kreshtool kik@wjh12.harvard.edu Disclaimer: I have no connection with King Brand Products (212) 246-0488, the finest supplier of music writing papers, supplies and reproduction services in the world, except that my sister helps run the place. Reasonable prices. Beautiful catalog.