[XeTeX] asterism

[Khaled Hosny]

On Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 11:43:21AM -0800, Michiel Kamermans wrote:
> Ross,
> 
> question pertaining to the boxes from Apple Symbol: am I correct in
> noting that the pseudo-asterism (via the \asterism command in this
> thread) actually generates too much vertical space, compared to a
> real asterism? Or would this not interfere when setting a
> linespacing of 0pt?

This can't be generalized, because the .notef glyphs (the boxes) have a
larger hight and depth unlike the real asterisk glyph.

The \asterism command can be a bit more clever and check the existence
of asterism glyph in the font before attempting to construct it.

> If it does generate extra vertical space, this would seem to me a
> pretty good argument to not use a compound construction like this,
> but instead to try and find a font with the actual asterism, or
> petition the forge/people that makes the font you use to add one to
> their font.

Editing fonts isn't usually that easy, legally and technically, and
waiting for some commercial fonts to fix bugs or add new glyphs can take
ages, if it ever happens. TeX is a powerful engine and can sometimes do
what is otherwise almost impossible (I don't know any other typesetting
system that would allow me to move glyphs in the two dimensions freely),
and shouldn't be afraid to make use of it, even TeX's logo demonstrate
this :)

Regards,
 Khaled


-- 
 Khaled Hosny
 Arabic localiser and member of Arabeyes.org team
 Free font developer