Superscripting isn't working [1.9.0.887]

[Chris Christner]

Superscripting doesn't work for capital letters or cap-height letters such as "l" and "h" (see video).

[walt.farrell]

The options in the Typography section of that panel require support from the font that you're using. If some character won't superscript, that means it is not available in superscript format in your font.

To get around that, you can use the S option in the Positioning and Transform section of the panel, which will provide support for faking the superscript and subscript appearance, and should work for any characters in the font.

[Chris Christner]

Thanks again for the assist!

Question, though: How can you tell whether an OpenType font includes the sub/superscript characters? Hopefully not by trial and error.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Chris Christner said:

How can you tell whether an OpenType font includes the sub/superscript characters? Hopefully not by trial and error.

You're welcome.

The font documentation might tell you, if you want to find it and read it. Or if you have a font design tool, you might be able to examine the font with it and see that way.

Trial and error is probably faster, and you learn over time, especially for fonts you use often. Also, there are some commonly supported characters, and some less commonly supported ones, and maybe some very seldom supported ones for each option. You'll learn those, too

Also, if you click the 3-dot icon at the end of the Typography section of the Character panel (or use Text > Show Typography) you'll open the Typography panel. There, with a short text string selected (4 characters or less) or the text cursor in such a string, you'll see the effect of all the typography options on all those characters. It can be helpful to try it with and without the "Hide Irrelevant Features" option enabled.

[Chris Christner]

Well, thanks again. That does seem like an incredible blindspot in Publisher, especially since the other major apps (InDesign, Quark, Word, etc.) handle this sort of formatting without making users break out manuals and trusting to luck that the font they've been using can do subscripting.

I trust Affinity has addressing this feature on a roadmap so eventually it'll work as expected.

[walt.farrell]

8 minutes ago, Chris Christner said:

I trust Affinity has addressing this feature on a roadmap so eventually it'll work as expected.

It is working as they want, I believe.

The rationale, as I understand it, is that the faux super- or subscripts are created by adjusting the size and baseline of the letters, and they cannot reliably match the appearance of the true characters provided by the font. A super- or subscript character is often not simply a smaller version of the original character, but in a high quality font the characters will actually have a different shape. So, if you mix some true characters with some faux characters there will be a visible style difference that will annoy the users reading the document.

 

[Chris Christner]

I understand their reasoning, but it's flawed, otherwise the top apps in the industry wouldn't be using faux characters to annoy their users' customers. For purists with lots of time on their hands, I'm sure they admire Affinity's stance on this. Those of us with deadlines to meet...not so much.

[Joachim_L]

In the end it can be reduced to: Mark text and click somewhere.

So defining a Character Style will work as well >> Mark text and click somewhere. This is what I am doing, because I disliked the height and size of sub- and superscript of our CI font.

[walt.farrell]

If speed and deadlines are your overriding concern, you might consider ignoring the super- and subscript options in Typography, and using only the S option in Positioning and Transform.

[Chris Christner]

9 minutes ago, Joachim_L said:

In the end it can be reduced to: Mark text and click somewhere.

So defining a Character Style will work as well >> Mark text and click somewhere. This is what I am doing, because I disliked the height and size of sub- and superscript of our CI font.

Thanks, that's the workaround I'm using too. I created a character style with the font, size, and baseline I needed for superscripting. Of course it's only good for that font and size, but it works.

[Chris Christner]

13 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

If speed and deadlines are your overriding concern, you might consider ignoring the super- and subscript options in Typography, and using only the S option in Positioning and Transform.

I need to get glasses, because when you suggested this earlier, I missed the S in the P and T panel and tried clicking on the S in Typography instead, which didn't work. Now that I've found the S it does exactly what I need.

[walt.farrell]

13 minutes ago, Chris Christner said:

I missed the S in the P and T panel

I think when I posted that I was on my phone, not one of my PCs, and so I couldn't include a screenshot. Sorry.

Glad it helps