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Date:      Tue, 17 Apr 2001 12:47:57 -0600
From:      Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>
To:        Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in>
Cc:        James Howard <howardjp@well.com>, Joseph Mallett <jmallett@newgold.net>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: banner(6)
Message-ID:  <4.3.2.7.2.20010417124229.0458bec0@localhost>
In-Reply-To: <20010417095140.A74385@lpt.ens.fr>
References:  <4.3.2.7.2.20010416211727.045766e0@localhost> <Pine.GSO.4.21.0104161028290.23302-100000@well.com> <20010416191256.R27477@lpt.ens.fr> <Pine.GSO.4.21.0104161028290.23302-100000@well.com> <20010416193151.U27477@lpt.ens.fr> <4.3.2.7.2.20010416211727.045766e0@localhost>

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At 01:51 AM 4/17/2001, Rahul Siddharthan wrote:

>I think that needs clarification.  Merely scaling a font (multiplying
>by a factor x) doesn't create a new font.  A scalable helvetica
>postscript font is the same font at all sizes.

Not true. Adobe, and others, have sometimes misused the word 
"font," applying it to what is correctly callled a typeface.
You don't scale a font; you scale a typeface in the process
of rendering a font (see below).

>Traditionally, when you scale a typeface (in particular, make it
>smaller) you're supposed to change its appearance to improve
>readability.

Not quite. When you create a font from a typeface (a process which
is called "rendering"), you may choose to employ tricks such as
anti-aliasing. The purpose of these tricks is not to change the
appearance of the typeface but rather to preserve it! Most of these
tricks deal with the pixellated nature of modern computer displays.
Some of them even employ sub-pixel rendering; see

http://grc.com/cleartype.htm

--Brett


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