Path: inforamp.net!woody07.inforamp.net!user From: poynton@poynton.com (Charles Poynton) Newsgroups: comp.text.frame Subject: Re: Small Caps character formatting Date: Thu, 02 Feb 1995 19:23:16 -0500 Lines: 46 Message-ID: References: <3gpmb1$cog@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: woody07.inforamp.net In article <3gpmb1$cog@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>, George Thiruvathukal wrote: > Does anyone know how to format text as small caps in FrameMaker 4? > If I am not using the correct Frame lingo, I'm using small caps to > describe text in which the lower case letters look like capitals, > except that they are slightly smaller than true capital letters. You accurately describe word processor and even page layout lingo for small caps but they generally look terrible, because they are produced in exactly the way you describe: the smaller caps are just shrunk big caps. The problem is that the stem width -- line weight, if you like -- changes in proportion to the shrinkage. At 72 dpi you can't tell the difference but it doesn't cut it as typography, not even on a 300 dpi LaserWriter. You can do this in Frame, if you like, by clicking the Small Caps attribute in the Character Designer, or the comparable attribute in the Default Font panel of the Paragraph Designer. If you want typographic-quality small caps, then you have to buy an "expert" font that includes, in addition to the uppercase alphabet, a small-caps alphabet whose stems have the right weight. These "real" small caps can really make a polished document. You get them simply by choosing the font -- the big ones are where you expect on the keyboard, and the little ones are .. well, they're where you expect, too. . Expert fonts usually also include old-style figures (OSF), in other words lower-case figures, with descenders. In non-technical matter -- and even technical matter set classically -- these can look very sharp. This all paraphrased from Robert Bringhurst, "The Elements of Typographic Style". Want more info? Ask in comp.fonts. C. Charles Poynton [Mac Eudora, MIME, BinHqx] tel: 416 486 3271 fax: 416 486 3657