Text descenders cropped

[anweid]

Affinity Publisher 1.10.5.1342 for Windows behaves as follows:

• When using the font 'Landa Italic', all descenders are clipped away when printing to a pixel-based printer. Screen display, printing to Postscript printers, export to PDF and export to pixel images all work fine.
• Since I couldn't reproduce this problem with any other font, it's probably some strange issue with the font metrics. Though the ascenders grossly differ, all other metrics seem to be rather similar. I don't know why the font foundry defined the metrics this way, but, since everything but the pixel-based printing in Affinity Publishers works nicely, I still think this might be a Publisher bug.
• In the attachments, the pixel-based printing is simulated with the '...-SnagItPrinter.png', which produces the same results as a 'real' print on a non-Postscript printer.

This of course is low-priority, since printing the PDF export is an obvious workaround. In case you do want to check this further, I can send you the font files to a private link (they're commercial and licensed).

Andreas Weidner

TextCrop.afpub TextCrop.pdf

[kenmcd]

What do you mean by "pixel-based printer"?
I tested your document by printing to ImagePrinter Pro printer, SnagIt 2021 printer, FinePrint printer, TIFF printer - they all look fine.

The version of the fonts I have are 2048 UPM, so I tested by changing the Italic to 1000 UPM - and it now matches the metrics in your screenshots.
What we cannot see in your screen shots is the WinAscent/WinDescent settings (which are probably on the TrueType-specific Metrics tab. Those settings can sometimes cause clipping in Windows applications. But those settings look fine on my modified font (and my original).
All the vertical metrics look fine.
There should be no clipping on any OS or in any app.

So my guess is the "pixel-based printer" driver is the issue.

Note: Be happy to look at your version of the fonts to make sure they do not have any metrics issues. But if it is a vertical metrics issue I would expect it to show-up in other places/output/printers since you are on Windows.

[anweid]

• With 'pixel-based printer' I mean any printer driver that requires the operating system to convert everything to pixels before sending it to the printer. This is in contrast to Postscript-based printer drivers, which convert everything to Postscript vectors, and the conversion to pixels is done by the Postscript interpreter inside the printer itself. The problem happens with all printers that are not Postscript (but I only have two such printers, one being an Epson inkjet, the other the SnagIt 2022 virtual printer).
• Since the font version you have seems to be TrueType format (2048 UPM), it differs from mine, which is OpenType (Postscript outlines) with 1000 UPM. It might well be that your version is wonderful, but mine isn't by some reason.

Further investigation produced the following results. Since printing on paper with my Epson printer produced exactly the same results as the SnagIt virtual printer, I only tested with SnagIt this time:

• The problem also appears in all other applications I tried: PagePlus X9, InDesign CS5.5, LibreOffice 7.2.6, WordPad, TextMaker 2021.
• In the latter, the problem can also be seen directly on screen during typing. This makes it highly probable that the problem is really the font itself – otherwise, TextMaker and two printer drivers would need to have the same bug.

Therefore, I withdraw my bug report and declare that it's not a problem of Affinity, but the font is somehow screwed up. Perhaps manually correcting the metrics will help. I will try that in the next months...

Andreas Weidner

[kenmcd]

2 hours ago, anweid said:

• The problem also appears in all other applications I tried: PagePlus X9, InDesign CS5.5, LibreOffice 7.2.6, WordPad, TextMaker 2021.
• In the latter, the problem can also be seen directly on screen during typing. This makes it highly probable that the problem is really the font itself – otherwise, TextMaker and two printer drivers would need to have the same bug.

Hmmm ... I have both OTF and TTF versions and they are both OK. But they may have been fixed previously.

Can you provide a screenshot of the TrueType-specific Metrics tab? Also need to know if the Use Typo Metrics flag is On.

And/or just send me the fonts to test/check/compare.

Also ... What font app is this in the screenshots?

[anweid]

Thanks for the tip with the TrueType-specific metrics: For all italic fonts, all metrics, especially WinAscent and WinDescent were wrong. The type foundry was even so friendly as to provide me with updated fonts with correct metrics – wonderful! Unfortunately, for these updated fonts, the weight information is wrong everywhere, so again all programs become confused. I will keep contact with the type foundry, and either they correct the values, or I just correct them myself with my ten year old battered copy of 'FontLab Studio 5.2'. This is also where the screenshot comes from – newer versions of that software are not to my taste...

Andreas Weidner

[kenmcd]

43 minutes ago, anweid said:

Unfortunately, for these updated fonts, the weight information is wrong everywhere, so again all programs become confused.

FontLab's TransType is great for quickly fixing all the Weight settings in an entire font family.