Re: Kerning?

[Robert Holmgren holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to note from "R Tennenbaum"  Wed, 12 Feb 97 13:24:36 -0400

> I can't find this in the XyDos IV docs: how can I change the spacing
> between characters in a word? Eg,
> 	J a c k  P a a r
> instead of
> 	Jack Paar
> except of course using points or fractions of an inch instead of
> whole spaces.

I don't know of any global XyWrite setting. But there are two general
approaches to a solution. Most laborious is to alter a bitmapped font, e.g.
add a character to the font that simply outputs space in the desired
amount, or globally change the right offset for all characters (sounds
difficult, but if you have the right tools, it's really a piece of cake).
Probably easier for most people would be to incorporate within their
documents direct codes that move the cursor (printer head) to the right by
a desired amount. Unfortunately, there was a wicked problem under 3+, that
you could only issue seven PI commands per line (or was it per para? -- I
forget); "J a c k  P a a r" alone would need +|- eight; so this rendered PI
pretty useless under 3+ (Bob Locher and I had a compleat kerning system for
Xy3+ finished and ready-to-run, which was stymied by this ding-dong bug,
only discovered in the late stages of testing). Whether that limitation
still applies in Xy4, I dunno (I think Sig overcame it -- I should retool
the kerning idea for Xy4...). But you could assign a PI command to a key,
thus (move cursor 1/10th inch on X axis if resolution=300x300dpi):

 nn=NOBX,P,I, ,{27},*,p,+,3,0,X,Q2

or Put it in one of half a dozen other ways ... This technique will work
with any PCL printer, i.e. H-P laser, inkjet, whatever. You gotta turn JU
off (i.e. set NJ), because your PI command isn't reckoned within Xy's
running count of character widths (how could it be? PI is a wild, anything-
goes, manual intervention); you may need to insert some manual carriage
returns, if you use too many spaces on one line, lest print run off the
page toward the Orient.


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Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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