Narrow/Condensed fonts, font-stretch, any real utility?
SVG style has a font-stretch parameter, however, as near as I can tell it does not do anything. Set it to Normal or Condensed and nothing changes, for either "Arial" or "Arial Narrow". When a condensed font (Arial Narrow) is specified font-stretch says "Normal" even though the font used is actually condensed. Just to make life really miserable, FontConfig matches "Arial Narrow" on linux to "DejaSans", it only gives "DejaVuSansCondensed" if the font name used is "Arial Narrow:width=75" or "Arial:width=75". Near as I can tell Inkscape does not pick up from the font name alone that "Arial Narrow" is a condensed font. It is possible to force the issue by editing the SVG to
font-family:Arial Narrow:width=75;
in style, in which font-stretch will be set to Condensed. However on linux it is of little use because both of the Deja fonts are so much wider than "Arial Narrow" that the rendered text invariably overruns whatever text follows it. (This was with separate <text> sections, imported from an EMF file. If the pieces are put together with sequential <tspan>s then the text shifts around, but it does not overlap.)
Copying the Arial Narrow file ARIALN.TTF from a Windows system to the linux font directory let Inkscape render text in that font at the proper size, but this isn't a general solution since it isn't a "free" font.
Other SVG viewers (ie, Firefox) also seem to be mostly "miss" when it comes to rendering condensed/font-stretch SVG.
What's the consensus - is this style parameter supposed to do more, in particular, emulate somehow a narrow or wide font from the base font? Is it best to just avoid condensed fonts altogether?
Thanks,
David Mathog mathog@...1176... Manager, Sequence Analysis Facility, Biology Division, Caltech
On Tue, Oct 16, 2012 at 4:01 PM, mathog <mathog@...1176...> wrote:
Inkscape does not pick up from the font name alone that "Arial Narrow" is a condensed font.
Is the font in question "Arial Narrow"->"Regular" or "Arial"->"Narrow"? I've seen both variations in the wild - the former won't be picked up as a condensed font in any software I know of, while the latter may or may not (IMHO that should have named it "Arial->Condensed" instead).
Chris
On 17-Oct-2012 13:55, Chris Mohler wrote:
On Tue, Oct 16, 2012 at 4:01 PM, mathog <mathog@...1176...> wrote:
Inkscape does not pick up from the font name alone that "Arial Narrow" is a condensed font.
Is the font in question "Arial Narrow"->"Regular" or "Arial"->"Narrow"?
Hmm, well, double clicking on it in Windows it says:
Arial Narrow OpenType Font, Digitally Signed, TrueType Outlines Typeface name: Arial Narrow File size: 170 KB Version: Version 2.37 (C) 2006 The Monotype Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
fc-list -v shows
weight: 80(i)(s) width: 75(i)(s)
whereas regular Arial is:
weight: 80(i)(s) width: 100(i)(s)
I've seen both variations in the wild - the former won't be picked up as a condensed font in any software I know of, while the latter may or may not (IMHO that should have named it "Arial->Condensed" instead).
The only font description in an EMF file is the name, so if "Arial Narrow" can mean two different things, there would be no way to determine which was intended.
Thanks,
David Mathog mathog@...1176... Manager, Sequence Analysis Facility, Biology Division, Caltech
On Wed, Oct 17, 2012 at 4:09 PM, mathog <mathog@...1176...> wrote:
The only font description in an EMF file is the name, so if "Arial Narrow" can mean two different things, there would be no way to determine which was intended.
I created this EMF in Illustrator, using the Arial->Narrow variant. Does the EMF list it any differently?
...and wait. I've just discovered that the font that's reporting itself (in XP) to be Arial->Narrow is in fact really Arial Narrow->Gras (Bold). So my earlier hints might be a waste of time :(
Sorry for the noise...
Chris
On 17-Oct-2012 16:13, Chris Mohler wrote:
Which program made that EMF? It opens OK in PowerPoint and XP preview but crashes old versions of Inkscape and looks terrible even in my development EMF version. The text shows up way outside the page (up and to the right) and looks like:
This here s some Arial->Narro w...
Ah, I see why the "'" is missing, that's a bug I can reproduce and fix. Not sure yet where the funky spacing is coming from.
I created this EMF in Illustrator, using the Arial->Narrow variant. Does the EMF list it any differently?
lfFaceName:Arial Narrow lFWeight:FW_BOLD
...and wait. I've just discovered that the font that's reporting itself (in XP) to be Arial->Narrow is in fact really Arial Narrow->Gras (Bold). So my earlier hints might be a waste of time :(
Right, it was bold.
The "Arial Narrow" on my system, on the other hand, shows up in the EMF as
lfFaceName:Arial Narrow lFWeight:FW_NORMAL
Are you sure that the narrow was not in the "bold" state in whichever program you used to make the EMF? (I used PowerPoint 2003.)
Regards,
David Mathog mathog@...1176... Manager, Sequence Analysis Facility, Biology Division, Caltech
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