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RE: A few questions about Lout
From: |
Mats Broberg |
Subject: |
RE: A few questions about Lout |
Date: |
Wed, 9 Mar 2005 18:17:27 +0100 |
Jeff et al,
Many thanks for your comments & answers to my questions about Lout!
Best regards,
Mats Broberg
> -----Original Message-----
> From: address@hidden
> [mailto:address@hidden On Behalf Of
> Jeff Kingston
> Sent: den 8 mars 2005 04:02
> To: address@hidden
> Subject: Re: A few questions about Lout
>
>
> In reply to Mats Broberg's questions:
>
> > 1: Font installation in TeX & Children deterred me ALOT. To
> install a
> > complete font with small caps, old style figures, alternate
> characters
> > etc one needs to write a fontinst file, comprising a couple
> of hundred
> > lines of code. Not good for us mere mortals! I get the
> impression that
> > this is considerably more easy in Lout? Correct?
>
> It's easy to install a font. This does not include old style
> figures and alternate characters. You would need a separate
> font containing those. Lout does however produce small caps
> automatically for any font.
>
> > 2: Is hanging punctuation (= commas, periods, colons, semicolons,
> > quotation marks and hyphens protruding slightly into the margin)
> > possible to achieve in Lout?
>
> Yes, but it is not provided in the standard packages, so you
> would need to do some programming, and even then it does not
> happen automatically; i.e. you would need to invoke a symbol
> to get it rather than just typing the character.
>
> > 3: Is it possible to have multiple series of footnotes and margin
> > notes, separated with definable rules and vertical spaces? E.g.
> > something like
> > this:
>
> > Main text main text main tex main text @FootNoteSeriesA { A
> foot note
> > in series A. } Main text main text main tex main text
> @FootNoteSeriesB
> > { A footnote in series B } Main text main text main tex main text.
> > Main text main text main tex main text.
>
> Not really. There are margin notes and footnotes, but only
> one series of each. Again, in principle Lout could do this
> but the programming effort would be significant.
>
> > 4: If it turns out the last line of a paragraph has only one or two
> > words, is it possible to slightly, slightly tighten the
> paragraph so
> > that the short line moves back to the preceding line? Can this be
> > automated (for long documents)?
>
> Lout has fixed rules for optimal paragraph breaking that
> cannot be changed. They generally give a pretty good result,
> comparable with TeX, and they include trying to avoid short
> final lines of paragraphs.
>
> > 5: I seem to remember from browsing the archive that someone asked
> > about line numbering and got the answer that this is not
> possible in
> > Lout?
>
> Correct, not possible.
>
> > 6: Is it possible to typeset on a grid in Lout? E.g. if there is a
> > figure at the top of the page, make sure that the following
> main text
> > starts at a multiple of the line spacing used, so that
> lines on both
> > sides of the paper line up when you hold up the sheet?
>
> You can't say, "typeset on a grid". What you can do is set
> the various options for paragraph spacing etc., and specify
> the exact height you want each figure to have. With a bit of
> care, you can get this.
>
> > 7: At GNU, it says that Lout does "optimal paragraph and page
> > breaking". AFAIK, TeX & Children only do optimal paragraph
> breaking.
> > In what way does Lout improve the page breaking?
>
> Lout can do optimal page breaking in a manner entirely
> analogous to optimal paragraph breaking turned sideways.
> However it does not work very well when there are many
> floating footnotes and figures.
>
> > 8: How about letterspacing? Is it possible to letterspace
> e.g. small
> > caps or caps?
>
> Yes, here and there by using a symbol that requests this. If
> you want something that happens automatically every time you
> invoke, say, small caps, then no.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Jeff Kingston
>