Re: Xywrite antiques -Reply

[Bill Troop bill@xxxxxxxx]

> And that's the way small caps look.
Not really really really. As a part-time typeface designer who has designed
many true small cap sets, I can tell you that there is no mathematical way
of doing it. Horizontal expansion can slightly expand the horizontal
strokes, but not enough. And that leaves the _vertical_ strokes, which are
just as important. True small caps have to be about 5% wider than caps, and
usually about 60% smaller, but all the densities (not just stroke width)
have to be the same weight, or slightly greater, than the real caps. For
this reason, designing small caps is always a drag. It has to be done by
hand. That said, algorithmic small caps have their uses, but I don't expect
to see them in professional printing.
If the OpenType format catches on, more fonts will have true small caps
included in them. I think that the new OT version of Linotype Palatino
includes true small caps (as well as old style figures and at least the
standard 5 f-ligatures) -- it has several hundred glyphs.