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> I have a question about a font's default leading, i.e. the distance > between baselines. I have done some experimenting with the Distiller > and can't quite figure out how it computes the default leading. > For example...Where is the extra 1.52 coming from? It's important to realise where the decision making is done. Distiller makes absolutely no decisions about text placement or leading. It is the application or driver which is responsible for deciding where, exactly, each character is placed. Distiller just preserves it. So what you are seeing is not in any sense the behaviour of Distiller. It is the behaviour of Word and the PostScript driver, on your particular combination of software and operating system. Better typesetting systems will allow the user to select a leading. > I am also facing a more complex problem - how to compute distances > between lines of text of diffrent point size (e.g. line 1 is size 12 > and line 2 is size 8). Apparently I need to take into account the > upper line's descender value and lower line's ascender That would be ideal, but I think every common program is likely to simply use the size of the second line. You are heading in two directions, and I'm not sure which it is: laying out text, or typography? In the former case, developers make arbitrary decisions in a vacuum, resulting in wildly different behaviour. In the second, typography is a huge and complex subject, especially in the area of hyphenation and justification. There seems little written down, but pinning down someone who once set hot metal may help. Results vary even more wildly, and most users won't notice the difference, but professionals might be happier. You have to decide which path you are going down... Aandi To change your subscription: http://www.pdfzone.com/discussions/lists-pdfdev.html
