Special Characters

[Petar Petrenko]

Hi,

there are some special characters (see attachment) that are not included in every font so it would be nice if we could have an opportunity to "create" them when we need them. The file I included is from Quark's "preference" but I strongly recomend they ought to be included into character local and style panels.

[loukash]

2 hours ago, Petar Petrenko said:

"create" them when we need them

And you can:

Character panel > Positioning And Transform
What we don't have are the detailed options that XPress seems to have (after all, it's been here for 30 years now). So modify as you see fit and save as a Character Style with a keyboard shortcut for frequent use.

[Petar Petrenko]

2 minutes ago, loukash said:

And you can:

Character panel > Positioning And Transform
What we don't have are the detailed options that XPress seems to have (after all, it's been here for 30 years now). So modify as you see fit and save as a Character Style with a keyboard shortcut for frequent use.

Sorry I forgot to mention, but I thought it would be obvious from the file I attached -- all values must be relative (%), not absolute (n). So, you create one character style and you use it for text, headings, footnotes... instead of creating multiple styles.

[loukash]

1 minute ago, Petar Petrenko said:

all values must be relative (%)

I see. Yes, that would be nice. I definitely want my subscript to be on the baseline without offset.

[Alfred]

48 minutes ago, loukash said:

I definitely want my subscript to be on the baseline without offset.

Really? In the example below, the one on the left looks completely wrong to me.

[loukash]

Just now, Alfred said:

Really?

Really.
But that's just me.
Me and the Swiss typographer who in the 1990s wrote an excellent book (forgot the name but it's buried somewhere in my studio) on QuarkXPress in particular and on typography in general, and pointed out that setting the subscript baseline offset to 0% is always among the first things he does when setting up a new XPress installation. Made sense to me, so I've adopted that for XPress, adopted that later for InDesign as well, can't adopt it for Affinity now.

Not a big deal though, as I rarely needed it in the past decades.

5 minutes ago, Alfred said:

In the example below, the one on the left looks completely wrong to me.

Context matters™, I guess.

[Petar Petrenko]

9 minutes ago, Alfred said:

Really? In the example below, the one on the left looks completely wrong to me.

So, that is why I insist on relative values. everyone can adjust them at will.

[Alfred]

3 minutes ago, loukash said:

Context matters™, I guess.

Can you show me an example where a so-called ‘subscript’ is better on the baseline (i.e. not really ‘sub’ at all)?

[loukash]

Just now, Alfred said:

Can you show me an example where a so-called ‘subscript’ is better on the baseline

Likely so, if I would dig through the hundreds of broschures I laid out in the past, say, 20 years. Which I won't do, sorry. But it popped up a few times.
So, yes, I can also work around by using V/H scale instead.

Anyway. The point being that setting relative sizes for fake sub/superscript or small caps has been a standard option in "pro" layout apps since the 1990s:

[Petar Petrenko]

These are InDesign's defaults.

[Alfred]

13 minutes ago, loukash said:

Anyway. The point being that setting relative sizes for fake sub/superscript or small caps has been a standard option in "pro" layout apps since the 1990s:

Ah, but now you’re talking about size rather than vertical position. I completely agree that being able to set relative sizes should be a standard option.

[loukash]

Just now, Alfred said:

but now you’re talking about size rather than vertical position.

Sigh… *rolls eyes*
Come on, Alfie, of course I also meant positions while I have posted that screenshot from the corresponding ID preference window.

[Alfred]

5 minutes ago, loukash said:

Sigh… *rolls eyes*
Come on, Alfie, of course I also meant positions while I have posted that screenshot from the corresponding ID preference window.