Optical margins are margins made to look visually straight. FrameMaker
makes them actually straight. So, if you have a line that begin with,
say, a quotation mark or an apostrophe, there is a bit more white space
at that point on the line, because the character is small. Your eye
notes that and your brain tells you that the column edge isn't exactly
straight. With optical margins, characters are shifted slightly to make
them visually appear straight. Here's a short article with a graphic
that shows it:
https://indesignsecrets.com/tip-of-the-week-using-optical-margin-alignment.php
Yes, FrameMaker can use old style numerals if the file has them, but not
automatically. You can't just type the numbers and get oldstyle, you
have to use the Character Map to find them in the font and then copy or
type in their Alt-codes. Programs that support OpenType features can be
set to automatically convert to old style numerals.
Again, yes, there are also fonts that have numerators/denominators and
super/subscripts, and you can use them if you set up variables or go the
Character Map route, but that's extra work. If Frame just had separate
settings for them, instead of just one, you wouldn't even need a font
that contained these characters. Or, if Frame utilized OpenType
features, it would pick those automatically.
But, you're right, I should file them as a feature request. Again. :)
Mike
On 1/16/2020 7:48 AM, Lin Sims wrote:
What is an optical margin?
Also, if you're looking for "old style numerals", are you talking about
where numbers like the 3 extending slightly below the baseline? That
appears to be a function of the font set as much as anything else. I'm
pretty sure I've seen fonts that provide that still.
As for super/subscripts or numerators/denominators, again, depending on the
font you use, there are font sets that include super and subscript glyphs
that work well as numerators and denominators, instead of using the
superscript/subscript function on the character designer. I've got a whole
set of variables that are just constructed fractions using built-in font
glyphs. (We use Source Sans Pro because it has a lot of the mathematical
symbols we need and it also lets us construct those fractions.)
At any rate, if there are features you'd like added, you can always put in
a feature request: https://tracker.adobe.com/#/home
Talk about them here and I'm sure a bunch of us would vote for them. You
can also make requests on the Adobe FrameMaker forum:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/framemaker/bd-p/framemaker?page=1&sort=latest_replies&filter=all
and
tag it with Feature Request.
On Wed, Jan 15, 2020 at 6:17 PM Mike Wickham <[email protected]> wrote:
New versions of FrameMaker always seem to concentrate on adding features
for the structured community. I get it. That's the strenght of the
program. But the new features I'd like to see involve handling of
graphics and type. For example, it would be nice to be able to make a
graphic float in the middle of a two-column page, and have both columns
wrap around it. Or how about taking advantage of the various OpenType
features that InDesign can handle with ease, but Frame is clueless
about-- like easy, true small caps, or oldstyle numerals? Or optical
margins and hanging indents, for a more modern, refined look in printed
docs? Or a separate offset setting for numerators and denominators?
Right now, you can set superscript and subscript offsets to work for
either super/subscripts or numerators/denominators, but not both.
Mike
On 1/15/2020 2:54 PM, TW Smith wrote:
Over the years, I've beta tested a few FrameMaker versions. I always test
on live projects, which I know isn't the best idea, but it gives me
information about how the beta works in the real world. Before the beta
concludes, I save my project files as MIF, so I can continue documenting
in
the non-beta, current FM version. Not sure what I need in a new version
of
FM. Probably stronger Word filters, a better way to round-trip MIF, and a
more robust and straightforward way of finding missing fonts in the
actual
files. Cheers.
On Wed, Jan 15, 2020 at 2:58 PM Robert Lauriston <[email protected]>
wrote:
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