LucidaBright kerning of uc letters
Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2006 1:25 am
Capitalized words typeset in LucidaBright font using LaTeX's lucimatx
and amsmath packages exhibit visually irregular intra-letter spacing.
E.g., in the word {\large MATHEMATICS} letters are very tightly spaced
(much more so than in CM fonts) except for noticeable gaps between A and
T; the effect is as if the word was written on a typewriter with a
sticky carriage. This elicits the question if the kerning data
were properly implemented.
In response, the author of lucimatx package offered the following
dubious explanation: "Kerning of upper-case letters is always crucial.
There is no font in the world, which would yield satisfactory results
with _any_arbitrary_word, regardless of how elaborated its kerning data
are. The Lucida text fonts are somehow special: They were designed to
go without any kerning data at all."
On the other hand, in his "Travels in TeX Land: Using the Lucids Fonts"
David Walden claims, on p. 2, that Y&Y created "the necessary TeX font
metrics (.tfm) for all Lucida fonts, including the fussy details TeX
needs for math typesetting."
Since these statements are contradictory, I wonder who is correct.
and amsmath packages exhibit visually irregular intra-letter spacing.
E.g., in the word {\large MATHEMATICS} letters are very tightly spaced
(much more so than in CM fonts) except for noticeable gaps between A and
T; the effect is as if the word was written on a typewriter with a
sticky carriage. This elicits the question if the kerning data
were properly implemented.
In response, the author of lucimatx package offered the following
dubious explanation: "Kerning of upper-case letters is always crucial.
There is no font in the world, which would yield satisfactory results
with _any_arbitrary_word, regardless of how elaborated its kerning data
are. The Lucida text fonts are somehow special: They were designed to
go without any kerning data at all."
On the other hand, in his "Travels in TeX Land: Using the Lucids Fonts"
David Walden claims, on p. 2, that Y&Y created "the necessary TeX font
metrics (.tfm) for all Lucida fonts, including the fussy details TeX
needs for math typesetting."
Since these statements are contradictory, I wonder who is correct.