Font Rendering in Nisus versus Pages

[jabalczar]

Hi,

I've been using Nisus since Classic. Recently, on a whim I tried Pages. I printed out two identical documents, one on Nisus Pro, one on Pages, deliberately using Hoefler Text as the font, seeing as it uses Apple's AAT advanced typography, and so that the printout wouldn't be skewed by how OTF fonts are rendered.

I was surprised at the difference in the print outs. It was subtle, but those subtle differences made the Pages document look more professional, and the typeface looked stunning.

Can anyone explain what is going on?

I thought Nisus (unlike Adobe Reader for example) made use of Apple's own font rendering engine, the same as TextEdit. So I thought output would be the same; or does Pages use some extra features to render the fonts?

If it helps I'm using Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and a HP Laser Printout.

Thanks

[martin]

Nisus Writer does use Apple's text engine. This text engine (the Cocoa text engine) is used by both Nisus Writer and TextEdit, but is different than the one used by Pages, which uses WebKit. However, they both in turn use a lower level text rendering engine which handles fonts/AAT.

One thing to test: are you seeing a different between Hoefler Text in TextEdit vs Pages? That test would tell us more about what might be going on.

[jabalczar]

Thank you for your reply.

I just printed out the same piece of prose in Hoefler Text from TextEdit and Nisus. Again, there is a noticeable difference in the printout, though again it's subtle.

The Textedit printout is superior. It is slightly darker, the shapes of the lettering appear more faithful to the typography of Hoefler Text, and there is a noticeable difference in the spacing between letters. In fact, it's quite a remarkable difference.

[jabalczar]

Sorry, I misunderstood your request and printed out a comparison of Nisus and TextEdit, rather than Pages and TextEdit, though it proved a useful exercise.

Pages and TextEdit print the same work in Hoefler Text differently. In fact, the TextEdit piece (as indicated in my previous post) is very nice indeed and faithful to the typography of Hoefler Text. In my opinion, it is a better print out than Pages.

So I have three print outs of the same piece. All rendered differently. In order of quality I would rank them as

1. TextEdit
2. Pages
3. Nisus
4. (Word does something completely different).

If Nisus could print like TextEdit I'd be very happy indeed. Even the number of words on a line changes with the same margins, typefaces, spacing, sizing etc.

I'm using the new beta of Nisus

[martin]

Thanks for testing that. I gave it a try myself, and the printouts from TextEdit and NWP don't seem any different to me. Of course, your printer might affect things, or your eyes might be better than mine.

Another question: do you see any difference in the PDFs that TextEdit and NWP generate? That's an easier thing to compare. I'll attach a screenshot here (TextEdit on the left, NWP on the right). They seem identical to me.

comp.png (51.63 KiB) Viewed 4055 times

[jabalczar]

Thank you for your reply. The individual differences are subtle but do add up when the work is printed out and taken as a whole

Take for instance the spacing on the Print to PDF sample you posted.

Measure with a ruler the distance between the 'H' in 'This' (second line Caps) to the 'I' in 'In' (second line caps).

You will find that the distance is 'less' in the NWP sample compared to the Text Edit sample. by about 1.5mm. Not a lot, but this is just a small piece of text. When taken across the whole printed page the eyes view the typeface differently.

I can see this with the naked eye too. The 'THIS IS' in your TextEdit sample is clearly spaced more generously than the 'THIS IS' in the NWP sample. I wonder why this is when they are both based on the same engine.

Below/attached (sorry I can't embed it in the message) is my image of TextEdit, NWP and Pages. Ignoring Pages for the time being, look at the spacing between individual letters, particularly the 'rn' in 'born', 'at' in 'that', and 'ry' in 'country'.

Look at the word 'that' in the second line. The spacing between 'th' is different; 'ha'; and 'at'. You'll also notice that the bottom curve of the 'a' in 'that' in NWP sits slightly below the line compared to TextEdit.

It's all very subtle but noticeable to the naked eye, and over the course of a whole printed page these letter changes become more noticeable to one's vision. And I don't think it's just my set up or printer, because as noted above I can see the difference in your PDF sample too.

[martin]

Thank you for the screenshot and detailed description. You're right, there do seem to be some slight differences. I'm not sure what could cause them, but it's something we can file to take a look at. Thanks again.