4 ms·

I think the real lesson here is that, for the fixed cost of learning LaTeX once, you get a significant benefit in improved rendering and layout (and that's befo

I think the real lesson here is that, for the fixed cost of learning LaTeX once, you get a significant benefit in improved rendering and layout (and that's before even accounting for formulas) on par with what would be rather significant incremental effort in each Word or Writter document you created. I also love using LaTeX because I can grab a set of template and style files from whatever publication I might be writing for, and I can be sure that the outcome will be in line with what they were expecting. True, I could also get a Word template, but I've always found that with Word templates I hit backspace at some inopportune location and ruin the layout. "A set of finely tuned defaults" indeed!

nailer 17y ago
I don't get the same impression from the authors output as the author did. For example: http://oestrem.com/thingstwice/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/small-caps.png http://oestrem.com/thingstwice/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/sm... The left hand side of the capital D on the LaTeX output (bottom) looks thinner compared to every other vertical in the sentence. Word (top) clearly doesn't have this problem.
- jamie_ca 17y ago
  It looks right to my eye. Image editor says the vertical on the B, D, and right hand of M are all 3 px wide for LaTeX. Writer is 4, 3+2 anti-aliased, and 3+1 anti-aliased (both equating to approximately 4, but the M winds up rendered with a very slight slope. Word is 4, 4, 3+1 with the same slope issue. Interestingly, the smallcaps B in LaTex has a wider vertical (4px) where Writer and Word are smaller - 2px and 3px, respectively, after accounting for anti-aliasing.
  - nailer 17y ago
    > Image editor says the vertical on the B, D, and right hand of M are all 3 px wide for LaTeX. Yes, but the smaller caps should have thinner lines. Instead the larger font is thinner.
    - ugh 17y ago
      “Yes, but the smaller caps should have thinner lines.” That’s not true. Small caps should be drawn so that their line widths about match those of capitals. They should not just be smaller versions of capitals. Both Word and Writer fake small caps by making capitals slightly smaller. That’s just wrong. “Instead the larger font is thinner.” As it can be. The thinnest lines of the capitals should in most cases be thinner than the widest lines of the small caps. That’s just normal.
      - nailer 17y ago
        > The thinnest lines of the capitals should in most cases be thinner than the widest lines of the small caps. That's not what's happening here - open up an image editor and measure it: the thickest line of the small caps is thicker than the thickest line of the caps. Only LaTeX has this problem.
        ugh 17y ago
        Then that’s how they were drawn. LaTex doesn’t fake Small Caps. No shrinking, no fake boldness, no nothing. They are displayed as is.
        nailer 17y ago
        Shrinking would give the right results, with line thicknesses proportionally smaller than regular caps. Keeping the same weight and squashing vertically would also give results that, although skewed, wouldn't have fatter lines that the originals. Whether you label those techniques as 'fake' or not does not change that LaTeX and/or Metafont's displayed results are poorer than Word and OpenOffice in this aspect.

nailer 17y ago

I don't get the same impression from the authors output as the author did. For example: http://oestrem.com/thingstwice/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/small-caps.png http://oestrem.com/thingstwice/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/sm... The left hand side of the capital D on the LaTeX output (bottom) looks thinner compared to every other vertical in the sentence. Word (top) clearly doesn't have this problem.

jamie_ca 17y ago
It looks right to my eye. Image editor says the vertical on the B, D, and right hand of M are all 3 px wide for LaTeX. Writer is 4, 3+2 anti-aliased, and 3+1 anti-aliased (both equating to approximately 4, but the M winds up rendered with a very slight slope. Word is 4, 4, 3+1 with the same slope issue. Interestingly, the smallcaps B in LaTex has a wider vertical (4px) where Writer and Word are smaller - 2px and 3px, respectively, after accounting for anti-aliasing.
- nailer 17y ago
  > Image editor says the vertical on the B, D, and right hand of M are all 3 px wide for LaTeX. Yes, but the smaller caps should have thinner lines. Instead the larger font is thinner.
  - ugh 17y ago
    “Yes, but the smaller caps should have thinner lines.” That’s not true. Small caps should be drawn so that their line widths about match those of capitals. They should not just be smaller versions of capitals. Both Word and Writer fake small caps by making capitals slightly smaller. That’s just wrong. “Instead the larger font is thinner.” As it can be. The thinnest lines of the capitals should in most cases be thinner than the widest lines of the small caps. That’s just normal.
    - nailer 17y ago
      > The thinnest lines of the capitals should in most cases be thinner than the widest lines of the small caps. That's not what's happening here - open up an image editor and measure it: the thickest line of the small caps is thicker than the thickest line of the caps. Only LaTeX has this problem.
      - ugh 17y ago
        Then that’s how they were drawn. LaTex doesn’t fake Small Caps. No shrinking, no fake boldness, no nothing. They are displayed as is.
        nailer 17y ago
        Shrinking would give the right results, with line thicknesses proportionally smaller than regular caps. Keeping the same weight and squashing vertically would also give results that, although skewed, wouldn't have fatter lines that the originals. Whether you label those techniques as 'fake' or not does not change that LaTeX and/or Metafont's displayed results are poorer than Word and OpenOffice in this aspect.