From: djbpitt+@pitt.edu (David J Birnbaum)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.apps,comp.fonts,comp.os.ms-windows.apps
Subject: AmiPro 3.0 justification and kerning
Date: 24 Jan 93 17:39:20 GMT
Followup-To: comp.os.os2.apps
Organization: University of Pittsburgh
Originator: djbpitt@unixd1.cis.pitt.edu

Several months ago I described in this forum a problem with AmiPro
justification. I have since discovered what seems to be a related
problem, and I would be grateful if anyone could help me either diagnose
what's going on or (even better) suggest a way to circumvent it. Lotus
took a bug report and said that they had never heard of it before. I am
willing to believe it is user error (perhaps in font installation?), but
I am at a loss for where to look for my error.

I am using AmiPro 3.0 in a full-screen Win-OS/2 session. This should be
equivalent to running under Windows 3.0. I am trying to print text that
is both kerned and justified. I use only genuine Adobe fonts: the entire
Minion family plus Stone Phonetic. My printer is an HP LaserJet II.

Problem 1: Justified text looks perfectly justified on screen, but prints
with a slightly ragged (about one character width) right margin. Turning
off kerning is not an acceptable solution; as I mention above, I need
kerned and justified text. Has anyone else seen this? Has anyone
identified a way to deal with it short of turning off kerning? The
problem does occur with Times Roman PS (bundled with AmiPro), but is
much less noticeable, due to the narrower letter width and tighter
letter fit of Times Roman.

Problem 2: Stone Phonetic uses separately coded diacritics, which it
positions over or under base characters by using kerning tables. (This
is one of the principal reasons that turning off kerning is not an
option.) With justification and kerning turned on, this positioning
fails to happen; diacritics are displayed and printed after their base
characters, instead of over or under them. Turning off kerning does not
cure the problem, of course.  Turning off justification does, but there
are times when I need justified text. With justification turned on, the
last line of a paragraph _does_ print diacritics properly; this
suggests that the problem lies in the interaction between kerning and
justification, since the last line of a paragraph is not justified.

My diagnosis of the second problem is that AmiPro's justification
routine first diables kerning and then uses microjustification (letter
space adjustments), rather than just macrojustification (word space
adjustments), to fill the line. Where the kerning information involves
only slight movements to close up white space, its loss is not striking
and it doesn't look markedly worse than microjustification usually does.
But where kerning is used to superimpose a diacritic over or under a
base character, as it is with the phonetics font, the adjustment is
substantial and the loss of kerning information results in grossly
unacceptable printouts.

Can anyone confirm this diagnosis or propose an alternative? Can anyone
suggest a workaround? Is anyone using a Windows-based word processor or
DTP system that does not have this problem? (Any alternative application
must have support for footnotes and other important features of academic
writing.)

Thanks for any suggestions. Please respond by email and I will post a
summary of any useful comments to these groups in a couple of weeks.

--David
--
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Professor David J. Birnbaum         djbpitt+@pitt.edu [Internet]
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