Re: "Kerning?"

["..." adpf@xxxxxxxx]

 > The term for what you dudes are trying to do with the wrong tools is
 > letterspacing, not kerning. 				--a

≪ Kerning is actually the reduction of space between letters (I believe
 it arose from the problem that italics tend to create too much space;
 properly, the upper portion of an italic character should overhang
 the bottom of the next character, and to get that effect with cold type,
 you needed to pare down the right "corner" of the shank).

Robert--Kerning pre-dates cold type by centuries and is used to make
type more readable by balancing the optical (vs physical) space
between characters. The examples always given are VA or WA, which
would be unpleasantly widely spaced without kerning. Nothing to do
with itals.

≪ Nonetheless, the common Xy thread is the PI command. ≫

Necessary only if PS is absent.

≪ Can I get any old H-P PCL laser printer to print with a PostScript
 "interpreter"? ≫

Why the quotes? PS is an interpreted language. Without an interpreter
all you've got is source code (usually generated by a PS driver).

≪ Since my printer is not natively a PS printer, what XyWrite
 printer file do I use? ≫

The most generic PostScript driver, usually a LaserWriter PS driver.
If your printer has no PS chip, the software interpreter negotiates
with the printer with another driver. Software interpreters have
drivers for all popular printers--laser, inkjet, or dm.

≪ What about speed? Will I get the high speed (8-16 ppm) of a PCL
printer? ≫

PS's strength is quality, not speed, but with a software interpreter
in a fast PC you shouldn't suffer a bad performance hit.

≪ PCL isn't too bad, you know, if all you're doing is typing out
 monospaced texts... ≫

No reason to use PS in that situation. The issue was letterspacing.

≪ Is it automatic? Press a button in XyWrite and finished --
or do I need to open the interpreter and do some additional procedure? ≫

After you get it set up the way you want it, yes. How fancy you
want to make the setup is up to you. Can use it out of the box
or go to the other extreme, as I did. I wanted to use xyW as a
PS IDE, so adapted the CorelDraw PS prolog as my xyW PS driver fb<
and wrote some xpl that does various intricate things. You
absolutely do NOT have to do that to use PS with xyW, but PS--
you're hereby forewarned--is as addictive as xpl. 	--a