Typophile - How bold of me? - Comments

Thanks all. We’ve migrated

dberlow — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 10:13:42 -0700

Thanks all. We’ve migrated them to seperate houses as part of our overdue diligence program and the need for italics.

The Mac heaviness solves a

Nick Shinn — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 14:35:38 -0700

The Mac heaviness solves a lot of screen-rendering problems for a lot of fonts.
And on a bright, high-resolution LCD screen, it’s not too fuzzy at all.

This is to get around the

John Hudson — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 10:15:57 -0700

This is to get around the problem that I can make a regular and bold that work on the Mac, but regular is then too light for Windows, so it gets hinted to be heavier for windows, no problem. But then the printing of regular is too light if I do it thus so we want a bolder regular to be used only for that purpose...

So the source of the problem is what happens on the Mac side, yes? You need to make the regular light for Mac’s hint-free screen rendering, but then it is too light for printing.

What you are doing on the Windows side, using hints to beef-up the type on-screen, is one approach, but it seems to me that if you are contemplating using different outlines for printing you could also use different outlines to address the Windows screen rendering.

But it seems to me that the Mac screen rendering is the exceptional environment:

Mac screen = needs to be lighter
Mac print = needs to be heavier
Win screen = needs to be heavier
Win print = needs to be heavier

So in theory the most efficient approach would be to make the heavier regular outlines the ’default’ and address the Mac screen with exceptional lighter outlines, rather than making the latter the default and then have to jump through hoops on three fronts in order to support the majority need for heavier outlines.

As I say, this is in theory. The practical question is whether folk at Apple or Microsoft are more interested in the issue.

Think of it as separate

dezcom — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 05:52:08 -0700

Think of it as separate bedrooms for a Hollywood couple who are married for convenience :-)

ChrisL

“sassy theorems” Thanks

dberlow — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 05:32:49 -0700

“sassy theorems”

Thanks guys, I found the name of my new band...

“How nostalgic of you!”

Separate platforms, renderers, applications, sizes, styles...the moo cows have left us the most fertile field imaginable, much to my dismay.

If MPS[] worked reliably,

j.hadley — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 08:52:48 -0700

If MPS[] worked reliably, you’d be all set ;-)

Separate fonts for separate

Nick Shinn — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 08:42:56 -0700

Separate fonts for separate platforms?
How nostalgic of you!

How about a method to have 2

crossgrove — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 08:27:11 -0700

How about a method to have 2 sets of hints; one for screen and one for print? Or turn hints off at printing? Are these TT or PS outlines? Seems to me you might ask Matthew or Tom about Verdana on this one.

Or is this one of your sassy theorems? ;)

How bold of me?

dberlow — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 07:42:58 -0700

I’ve got a very picky client who wants everything right. By everything, I mean the fonts are targeted for use on Mac and Windows, and for print. By right, I mean the regular and bold are the proper distance in weight from each other on both platforms, and when printed.

I can solve everything except this one thing: is it possible to use one digital outline for the screen, but when it goes to print (a word document), another font is substituted? This is to get around the problem that I can make a regular and bold that work on the Mac, but regular is then too light for Windows, so it gets hinted to be heavier for windows, no problem. But then the printing of regular is too light if I do it thus so we want a bolder regular to be used only for that purpose...

Any route known for this, or should I start mixing some Cool-Aid, just like the big guys do? ;-)