Re: TECH: more help?

On 27/06/06, Keith Gaughan <kmgaughan@...> wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Tristan Alexander McLeay wrote:
>
> > Computer Modern Roman is very dependent on the quality of the output
> > device to look good. I currently have a slightly dodgy workgroup color
> > laser printer, and the output of CMR is fantastic, and it looks pretty
> > good on most of the printers at Uni. But it looks appalling printed
> > from my consumer-level b&w laser printer. O'course, it's a lot easier
> > to change your font than your printer, and you've *still* got to cope
> > with seeing it onscreen...
>
> Sounds as if you're using the bitmap fonts generated by MetaFont rather
> than their outline alternatives.
No, certainly not. They scale brilliantly onscreen (and looking at the
PDF info confirms they're Type 1), but it's the nature of the font
design itself that means they don't look so great on a computer screen
or on my b&w laser (e.g. on the b&w printer, the letters are too
light, and so the top and bottom of round characters like l.c. "o"
just disappear; on screen, the low resolution doesn't give them the
quality they deserve). [Also, the b&w & color lasers @ 600 dpi produce
different output! It might actually be a factor of the drivers,
because printing to the color laser from my GNU/Linux box is
marginally better at doing CMR than Windows; but the b&w is a
winprinter.]

--
Tristan.