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The La- part of LaTeX, who is Leslie Lamport (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Lamport https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Lamport), made a huge contributi

by JadeNB 3y ago

The La- part of LaTeX, who is Leslie Lamport (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Lamport https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Lamport), made a huge contribution to TeX, but Computer Modern, and the hyphenation algorithms, were already part of plain TeX. And, if you're going to refer to the typographic capabilities of TeX (or to LaTeX), it's a shame not to try to reproduce the distinctive styling of the word that Knuth says proudly in the TeXbook shows off precisely those typographic capabilities. I don't know how to do it here, but you can see it reproduced at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeX https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeX. (Instead the author uses `<code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">LaTeX</code>`, which … I am not a webdev, and don't know what's providing this highlighting, but, whatever it is, it makes the word "LaTeX" look significantly worse to me than if it were just styled the same as every other word.)

venice_benice 3y ago
I disagree. The spacing of the stylized TeX/LaTeX logo is very sensitive to the font used (especially the LA pair); most LaTeX users already don't adjust it when they use a font other than Computer Modern. Even when they can see the A halfway on top of the L, they don't change the spacing. But with PDF you at least have the knowledge that the font will be the same no matter who sees it. Webpages have no such guarantees (and indeed some people disable web fonts completely for whatever reasons) and it will only end up looking ugly as hell. On the web, the typographer's instructions are more of a suggestion, and we should lean into a more declarative style of layout, instead of trying to hack up something resembling precise position that will end up looking completely out of place anyways. I say this remembering in horror the many websites where people wanted the staggered look, and ended up producing a monstrocity.
- JadeNB 3y ago
  > I disagree. The spacing of the stylized TeX/LaTeX logo is very sensitive to the font used (especially the LA pair); most LaTeX users already don't adjust it when they use a font other than Computer Modern. Even when they can see the A halfway on top of the L, they don't change the spacing. I'm not sure with which part you disagree. If the sentence: > And, if you're going to refer to the typographic capabilities of TeX (or to LaTeX), it's a shame not to try to reproduce the distinctive styling of the word that Knuth says proudly in the TeXbook shows off precisely those typographic capabilities. … then, you're right, I overstated it by saying that you should try to reproduce the logo when just referring to the typographic capabilities of TeX. But I still think that, if you wish to write a post about how to make web pages look more like compiled (La)TeX documents, then it is a shame not even to try to reproduce the distinctive typographic marker in the name of the language itself. Of course there's space for disagreement even with that more mild claim—but can we at least agree that the solution implemented, that visually sets off the word "LaTeX" but in no way that resembles how it ideally should be styled, is worse than just leaving the word alone?

by JadeNB 3y ago

venice_benice 3y ago

I disagree. The spacing of the stylized TeX/LaTeX logo is very sensitive to the font used (especially the LA pair); most LaTeX users already don't adjust it when they use a font other than Computer Modern. Even when they can see the A halfway on top of the L, they don't change the spacing. But with PDF you at least have the knowledge that the font will be the same no matter who sees it. Webpages have no such guarantees (and indeed some people disable web fonts completely for whatever reasons) and it will only end up looking ugly as hell. On the web, the typographer's instructions are more of a suggestion, and we should lean into a more declarative style of layout, instead of trying to hack up something resembling precise position that will end up looking completely out of place anyways. I say this remembering in horror the many websites where people wanted the staggered look, and ended up producing a monstrocity.

JadeNB 3y ago
> I disagree. The spacing of the stylized TeX/LaTeX logo is very sensitive to the font used (especially the LA pair); most LaTeX users already don't adjust it when they use a font other than Computer Modern. Even when they can see the A halfway on top of the L, they don't change the spacing. I'm not sure with which part you disagree. If the sentence: > And, if you're going to refer to the typographic capabilities of TeX (or to LaTeX), it's a shame not to try to reproduce the distinctive styling of the word that Knuth says proudly in the TeXbook shows off precisely those typographic capabilities. … then, you're right, I overstated it by saying that you should try to reproduce the logo when just referring to the typographic capabilities of TeX. But I still think that, if you wish to write a post about how to make web pages look more like compiled (La)TeX documents, then it is a shame not even to try to reproduce the distinctive typographic marker in the name of the language itself. Of course there's space for disagreement even with that more mild claim—but can we at least agree that the solution implemented, that visually sets off the word "LaTeX" but in no way that resembles how it ideally should be styled, is worse than just leaving the word alone?