Bodoni 72 Small Caps Book Font 32
Edelira Longinotti
My goal with Warbler Text was to spend more time using it than I spent making it. To narrow my focus, I decided that 20 pixels would be the onscreen target size for this font, and used a custom stylesheet to override my browser fonts so I could do all my reading in it. There were periods where I was regenerating a new version every five minutes or so, just to see how my small changes would play out at the target size.
The vertical position of text with the "small caps" attribute is calculated differently depending on whether or not there is any space or punctuation. Consider these two text boxes with text formatted identically in every respect:
Interesting observation. I do have the issues with Times New Roman (perhaps I have a different font version), but I do notice that some other fonts I tried do not have the issue. My guess is that the difference has to do with real opentype small caps versus "faked" small caps.
I noticed it in "normal" work. Does that count? Admittedly, where I noticed it, it was merely a distraction. In my working document, I had initial words mapped to a character style with small caps, and I noticed that the baseline position would jump when I was typing the first words of a new paragraph. This of course did not have any real impact on the result in this case. However, it is not hard to imagine scenarios where this would impact the finished result. Examples would include small caps in headings**, where some headings have just one word, while others have multiple words. Here is a mockup of a scenario that is not at all unrealistic, using a real text, and using an outline that would be typical for that text.
The subheadings are small caps. I marked up the spacing between the headings.The two examples with more than one word have more space above than the other examples with just one word. The point is that this issue makes spacing difficult to manage.
**I do sometimes find occasion to choose small caps for a heading style, so I would disagree with the statement that "smallcaps isn't meant to be used as a paragraph style but as a character style only." Of course, we are free to have differing opinions on questions of style, but the fact that Publisher allows one to set small caps in a paragraph style seems to indicate that Serif at least conceived of the possibility for those who chose to use it. They also did not put it under the character section of the edit text style dialog.
I opened the idml in QXP and it is proper whether I switch from fake or OT small caps. But, I'm also using Adobe's (Linotronic-licensed) version of Palatino here. So I cannot tell if this version, like TNR, simply "works" or if what application is involved.
All caps can look too large in certain settings and reducing the text's point size in order to create faux SCs creates a difference in "weight" versus properly drawn small caps. The below brings capitalized letters down to the same apparent 16 pt size as the real SCs are using.
A couple potential reasons come to mind. The main benefit is that true small caps usually have a different weight than capitals reduced to equivalent size, so that the look is more uniform. Second benefit is when the heading style inherits from a body style, then you do not need to change the heading font size if you later decided to change the body text size: it scales in a uniform way. This latter especially amounts to a workflow preference.
Also just to clarify (since you put me in mind to double check) the setting I am referring to is actually called "All small caps," since the one called "Small caps" leaves the as-typed capital letters at their full size.
While I wouldn't expect the same aesthetic perfection as I do with fonts that are in particular designed as caps (often named with 'SC', e.g. Corporate ... SC, Bodoni ... SC). For those SC fonts the line height issue doesn't occur in 'normal' workflow at all because neither the button "Small Caps" nor "All Caps" needs to be used.
Also just to clarify (since you put me in mind to double check) the setting I am referring to is actually called "All small caps," since the one called "Small caps" leaves the as-typed capital letters at their full size.
Skilled designers can use the variable setting to increase legibility at large or small sizes while still making sure it fits the look and feel of the brand. All other users should use the preset styles within the font family. The Display Italic style should only be used in large stylized headlines, while Regular and Italic can be used in body copy for a more formal look and feel.
OpenType is a new standard for digital type fonts, developed jointly by Adobe and Microsoft. OpenType supersedes Microsoft's TrueType Open extensions to the TrueType format. OpenType fonts can contain either PostScript or TrueType outlines in a common wrapper. An OpenType font is a single file, which can be used on Macintosh and Windows platforms without conversion. OpenType fonts have many advantages over previous font formats because they contain more glyphs, support more languages (OpenType uses the Unicode standard for character encoding). OpenType fonts also support rich typographic features such as small caps, old style figures, and ligatures, all in a single font.
Beginning with Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop 6.0, applications have begun to support OpenType layout features. OpenType layout allows you to access features such as old style figures or true small caps by simply applying formatting to text. In most applications that do not support such features, OpenType fonts work just like other fonts. Although, the OpenType layout features are not accessible.