[pdftex] Optical alignment (OA)

[John Culleton]

On Friday 28 March 2003 02:27 am, The Thanh Han wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> there were a number of problems related to protcode.tex, due to my fault
> to test it carefully. I would like to fix them now. Here is a version that
> contains a few fixes from various people. Please have a look and give
> feedback if you find something that should be changed. Then I will put
> the final version on http://vinux.sourceforge.net/pdftex/macros
>
> This version doesn't check whether margin kerning is supported -- ie it
> will fail if an earlier version of pdftex (without primitives
> \rpcode/\lpcode) is used.
>
> Best,
> Thanh

My tests are successful. using font ppl8r (a version of Palatino.)
 
I also tested the same text with cmr8 and the appearance was satisfactory.

I am typesetting a novel for a customer. There are many quotations (dialog) so 
line breaking-justification gets a full workout.  Very short paragraphs are 
the norm. If the paragraph is only one line long then OA doesn't occur. 

It is possible in my text for a line to end with a fragment such as:

breathe fire. ``I

This is ugly, so I inserted a manual \break just before the opening quotes.  
OA still took place.  the period after ``fire'' protruded.

IMO optical alignment is very satisfactory.  The only thing that InDesign 
purports to do that cannot yet be matched by pdf(e)tex is check for "rivers 
of type" (a paragraph where spaces on successive lines seem to line up.)
This is a minor advantage that no doubt someone will handle someday.

Many thanks!

John Culleton