Re: Standard space again

[Mark Barratt <markb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Victor Caston wrote:
> For Monotype Bembo, 14 pt has a standard space of .28 em, but .25 em
> for 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 pt).

In the font itself, the space character has a width of 278 units.
PostScript fonts are conventionally but not necessarily built to a
1000-unit em, so this probably equates to 278/1000 ems.

> 
> But notice what happens with Monotype Ehrhardt (which is what I need
> to use for one of my documents):
> 
>         8 pt    has a standard space of .24 em
>         9                               .25
>         10                              .25
>         11                              .24
>         12                              .23
>         13                              .24
>         14                              .23
>         16                              .25
>         18                              .23
> 
> Goes up and down -- not even a linear progression.

Monotype PostScript Ehrhardt has a wordspace of 235 units. I can't
replicate your results: Frame claims Standard Space = 0.23 at every size
(Win2000, ATM DeLuxe 4.1, FrameMaker+SGML 6.0, unified PostScript
driver). This is what I would expect to see. 

> 
> If the standard space for Framemaker were always M/4, and each font
> size has its own em measure, should they all be .25?

Some apps do set their own wordspace values, but Frame takes it from the
font (at least if the font is PostScript - don't know if this is the
same in TrueType/OpenType).

The space character (ASCII 32) width in the font itself is set by the
font designer. Fashions in wordspacing change, and the value in the font
probably reflects when it was designed and the opinions of the designer.
Usually they are too wide IMHO, and I set the optimum to 80% of the
design width and see what it looks like.

The actual visual value of the space also depends on the kern-pair
settings. Some fonts have kern values for letter-space and
punctuation-space pairs. If you want to be appalled, try setting 'off.
When' in Monotype Bembo with kerning switched on.

-- 
Mark Barratt
Text Matters
phone +44 (0)118 986 8313
fax +44 (0)118 931 3743
email markb@textmatters.com
web http://www.textmatters.com

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