Re: Font copyright infringement?

| -----Original Message-----
| From: Steg Belsky
| Subject: Re: Font copyright infringement?
|
    8< snip stuff about g-cedilla >8
| Except that i want it to still look like a cedilla, and not
| like a comma or apostraphe! :-P

        Then you have to attach it yourself to either the base of
the hook or the top of the bowl. If you attach it to the top, you
will obviously have to rotate it. (Unless you want it in the bowl,
which could look interesting.)
        If you attach it to the bottom of the hook, then it will
probably extend rather low, possibly into the next lower line
of text. If this is a problem, you will have to flatten the
cedilla. (If you raise the hook of just the g-cedilla, it will
look *very* funky. If you raise the descenders of all letters,
they will probably all look funky. Shrinking the ascender or
decender works only in a small number of fonts.)
        If you want it on the bottom, perhaps you could add a hook
to the end of g's hook?
        Ohh! You could have the hook of the g only be a quarter
circle, and then have the line bend down and continue into the
cedilla ligature! That could look interesting.
        (I could see a handwritten form either doing this, or
forming a loop on the hook that crosses at the base of the
hook and forms a cedilla, cedilla-ish squiggle, or just
a straight line going down [kind of like the French c with
the small, straight diagonal downward stroke].)
        Your total decender length is going to be your main problem.

        If you are altering an existing font, most have the
non-spacing cedilla glyph in the base ASCII plane. (I've
never understood why, since "c," looks really funky in
text [garc,on].)

        I'm assuming that you have a ttf editor. If not,
you can see if Softy is still around. Some trial software lets
you edit fonts. If you do this, PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT I'M
ABOUT TO SAY. True type fonts have an internal character
string that the operating system uses for an ID. If you
copy a ttf file, edit it, and then install both in your
fonts directory, you will probably have two fonts with the
same ID$. (I think Fontographer automatically re-assigns
a random ID$ when it opens a TTF into a fog file.) This can
cause really odd behavior in your word processors if you
use either of the twinned fonts in a document. I've noticed
that MS Office 2000 is a bit more forgiving about this,
but I've had MS Word 97 do some really wacked out stuff
because I copied the Arial file, gutted it, and made
a gnomic font.

        Also, *never* open/edit a font (with an editor that
directly edits the ttf) that is in your fonts directory.
Copy it someplace else first. This will get your computer
p|$$ed beyond belief.

        Anyway, back to the cedilla. Since it is a diacritic
that actually touches the letter, *be* *sure* to link the
outlines into one outline. NEVER CROSS LINES.
        The true type engine in most OS's is rather petulant
and irritable, and can throw tantrums if you do this.
        The post script engine (for type 1 and type 3 post
script fonts) is far worse, and will become downright
vindictive.
        One of the reasons the detached cedilla is becoming
popular is that you can cross-link it to any character and
only worry about spacing, not crossed outlines. There is also
the fact you can use it as either a cedilla or undercomman,
and only have one glyph.

        (I've found a good way to test a font for "funky things
that irritate the ttf engine" is to type several lines of
text, adjust them to multiple sizes, highlight the whole
block, copy, and paste it several times. Font problems
tend to cause issues with cut-and-paste.)


        ... I really need to get back into typography....

______________________________________
Mike Karapcik   *       Tampa, FL
Network Analyst *       USF campus
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Research Center
ConlangCode: v1.1 CIT !h+ !u cG:M:R:S:G a+ y n30:3
B+++/R:Wic A+ E+ N1 Is/d K ia-:+ p-- s- m o P S----