Small Caps

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bigcaat
Posts: 17
Joined: 2004-06-16 15:20:29
Location: California

Small Caps

Post by bigcaat »

It's nice that Pro has small caps, but it appears that once you convert them to small caps there is no way to change them to anything else, down the line, if you change your mind.

Am I missing something?

Caat
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greenmorpher
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Post by greenmorpher »

Hiya Caat

There is a bug in the "Convert to..." actions, by the looks.

I just tried converting to small caps and back again in Edit | Convert | ..., and it didn’t work properly the first time, then it did work. Then part of it didn’t work properly, but when I tried to replicate that, it did work aso I am not in a position to clarify what is going on!

There was a question about the SIZE throughout -- the small caps in most fonts are fake, of course. NW (like other programs) simply converts the lower case into caps and reduces the size to 75% (or thereabouts). When you convert back from small caps to lowercase, the size is not changed back. It should be.

There is also the Format | Remove Attributes ... command. When you have converted to small caps, the Remove Attributes command changes the type size back to the originals ... but leaves the type as caps.

There is also the Format | Character case | Display as ... command. That moves back and forth fine.

EXCEPT that neither process respects the capitalized initial letter of a sentence when you convert back to lowercase.

In the Display as ... situation, though, you can get back to your original with the capitalized initial (or other capitalization among lower case) by using the Remove Case Change Attribute in that sub-menu.

This stuff needs to be worked through again, I think. Martin explained once why the two different methods were available; I don't see it as necessary. I do see the need for a single tools that works a bit better than either.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com
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martin
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Post by martin »

Probably Caat was using the menu Format > Character Case > Display as Small Caps. This works just like any other formatting, eg: it persists in all text you type until you remove it. Just select the menu No Case Change to turn off the small caps. You can also toggle them on/off using the Small Caps button in the Character Palette.

There is also the menu Edit > Convert > To Small Caps but it works in a completely different way and is not preferred for a variety of reasons:

1. It does not make use of small cap features an advanced font may provide (eg: completely different set of glyphs).
2. It changes the underlying text and font sizes that you have previously applied.
3. If you modify or correct your text you may have to redo the conversion.

Really the only reason we provide the Convert menu entry is for exporting text to applications that do not support small caps properly.
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Elbrecht
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Joined: 2007-03-31 14:59:22
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Post by Elbrecht »

Well,

there is nothing but true Small Caps, that's for sure - I would never use fakes for these myself. Yes and the only reason for Nisus to provide the menu SC entry should be for exporting text to applications that do not support Small Caps properly. Is there any experience on this available?

<sc>Jan Tschichold</sc>: 'Der richtige Satz von Literaturnachweisen (englisch: References, Französisch: Sources) und Bibliographien, <i> Ausgewählte Aufsätze über Fragen der Gestalt des Buches und der Typographie</i>, Basel: Birkhäuser, 1987.

Sorry - don't know about available translations...

HE

Still hackin' -
http://www.sir.elbrecht.com/sirfonts/
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