kerning changes

[bkph@ai.mit.edu (Berthold K.P. Horn)]

> Date: Fri, 29 Mar 1996 07:23:10 +0100
> From: Laurent Siebenmann <lcs@topo.math.u-psud.fr>

> I have the following request from Manfred Karbe  
> <100065.2202@compuserve.com>

>  > Perhaps you can help me; some time ago I purchased Berthold
>  > Script fonts, but up to now I did not care about kerning. Can
>  > you give me some reference  ...  how to learn changing tfm files
>  > in the right way?

> Larry Siebenmann

The `right' way is to modify the AFM file (if it lacks kerning pairs) and to
run AFMtoTFM to make a new TFM file, complete with kerning and ligatures.

As for kerning pairs, the font should come with kerning pairs by the font
designer.  If not, and you think that the font could benefit from kerning
pairs, you can add your own.  

This can become quite tedious.  Some automation is available.  The best (in
my limited exposure) is `Kernus' from URW.  It can be tuned to worry only
about digraphs occuring in your language of choice.  Like all auto-kerning
generators, it produces more pairs than an expert doing it by hand would,
but the extra cost in TFM and DVI file size is not worth worrying about.
You may want to inspect what Kernus produced, because a small percentage
of the pairs it outputs sometimes to dnot make much sense...

Regards, Berthold (no relation :=)