[reportlab-users] Fwd: Font size, baseline and typography stuff

[Dinu Gherman]

"Andy Robinson" <andy at reportlab.com>:


> On 15 August 2011 09:08, Dinu Gherman <gherman at darwin.in-berlin.de> wrote:

>> So I looked into the file rl_config.py, but it doesn't

>> help much to find out which font file is really used in

>> the end when I give a name like "Times-Italics". Is there

>> any method of finding this out without analysing the

>> whole code?

>

> It won't help even to analyse the code!

>

> If you use one of the standard Postscript font names, then

> the PDF viewer (Acrobat Reader, evince or whatever) decides

> which actual font file to use.  Our code simply doesn't know.

> We are using canned text metrics taken originally from the standard

> fonts which used to ship in early versions of Acrobat Reader when

> RL was first launched.


Interesting, or scary... or both. In fact, I've temorari-
ly uploaded some PDFs in this archive here which are dis-
played differently, indeed, when opened in Preview.app or
Adobe Reader 9.1 (2.3 MB):

   http://www.dinu-gherman.net/test_nanotypometrics.tgz

At least they look the same with Adobe Reader 9.1 on Mac
and Windows XP. But, still, funny interpretation of the
term "standard", I guess.

Even with Adobe Reader there are slight differences be-
tween the single characters and the paths drawn on top.
So I wonder if these typefaces/paths evolved since you
first grabbed them in the early days of ReportLab, Ltd?


> If you use the getBounds feature in the graphics, or indeed you try

> to create output to formats other than PDF, it requires that you

> have installed some font files, (the infamous 'pfdfer.zip') which, as far

> as we know, are the same ones that were used back then.  We need

> actual font files for the FreeType engine to work on.

>

> If you register your own font file (PS or TT) then of course you know

> which file you are using and this is the approach I would strongly

> recommend if you want to get accurate typography.


Right, sounds like good advice, thanks!

BTW, if you want to include the code into your test
suite, feel free!

Regards,

Dinu