incorrect font size

[jimbo jellybone]

Hi, has there been an issue reported with font size being incorrect in Affinity Designer v2? Whether I use inches or points, the size of a font is smaller than it should be. In the attachment, each of the 3 different fonts are set as 1" capital height, but measure .071" high next to the 1" square. As you can imagine, this makes it difficult to lay out text with accuracy without resorting to typing an X-height letter, manually scaling to 1" or desired height, checking to see what this equals in the font size input box, then setting the actual lettering to that size.

Thanks for your help. 

Jim

[Patrick Connor]

@jimbo jellybone

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums

For security reasons, I have changed your username as email addresses are no longer allowed unlike when you originally created this forum account. I trust this is ok

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, jimbo jellybone said:

In the attachment, each of the 3 different fonts are set as 1" capital height

How or where did you set or see that capital height & what are the 3 fonts?

With any of the 3 selected what does the Paragraph & Character panel show for anything that would affect the height?

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, jimbo jellybone said:

Whether I use inches or points, the size of a font is smaller than it should be. In the attachment, each of the 3 different fonts are set as 1" capital height, but measure .071" high next to the 1" square.

But consider this different example, again with a 1" square for reference:

As you can see, P is not the tallest capital letter, and the font size must take that into account. It also needs to take into account the descenders, such as shown here.

Edit: I didn't show it, but the height of that A is actually 64.5 pt, and the overall height from the top of that A to the bottom of the descender on the g is 79.7 pt. And I think those dimensions are correct for that Arial font at 72 pt. (though I'm not expert enough to be able to prove that).

[Alfred]

33 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

For security reasons, I have changed your username as email addresses are no longer allowed

At the time of writing, the original post to this thread says “Edited 2 hours ago by j***@g***.com”. 

[Hangman]

As a rough 'rule of thumb', the average cap height for a font is about 70% of the point size...

One inch = 72 pt, therefore the average font size to give a cap height of 1 inch would be roughly around 100 pt depending on the typeface.

[walt.farrell]

4 minutes ago, Hangman said:

One inch = 72 pt, therefore the average font size to give a cap height of 1 inch would be roughly around 100 pt depending on the typeface.

And that seems to be exactly right, for a P (in the Arial font on my computer) to match a 1" square.

[jimbo jellybone]

Trying to catch up to all the responses...

I understand all about different font having different features, causing the overall height to be varied. I am talking about the "cap height" in the diagram that Hangman uploaded (thanks), in a font where an uppercase H for example, needs to be 1" high - the H, not any of the other letters which may drop a descender below the baseline, or shoot an ascender or an accent above the cap. ht., etc. 

This cap. ht. needs to be the basis of establishing a string of text at a specified size. ADA regulations specify a 5/8" cap ht. for compliant signage. Most fire departments require a 6" and 2" cap ht. for FDC signage... the examples could go on.

Am I understanding you all that this is not possible with Designer/Publisher/Photo?

Thanks for your input, Jim

 

 

[kenmcd]

If you have the actual font to look at, so you can look at the metrics inside the font,
you can calculate exactly the point size needed for the cap height to equal some particular measurement.
As mentioned above, this will vary for different fonts.

Perhaps this should be a feature request (the math is not difficult).
Request: cap height = to x measurement by scaling point size.

If you have a font you can modify, it is also possible to modify a font for this special use case so you will get the measurement desired.
Do the math, scale it, set the odd metrics. Should work.