Re: Replacement suggestions for Century Schoolbook?

[Eben Sorkin]

On Jan 9, 2013, at 2:50 PM, Werner LEMBERG wrote:

> 
>>> What's the difference between `fine' and `laser' printing?
>> 
>> It is a question of the level of detail. If you are making a font
>> for laser printers you have to avoid certain characteristics in
>> shapes.  The shapes have to be more gross or brutal to reproduce
>> well.  If you know you want something to look great in fine print
>> (digital and offset can have very similar resolution now) then you
>> want to be sure to build in extra nuance to take advantage of the
>> medium.  Probably you would want to emphasize one over the other and
>> then test to see that the less favored medium produces results that
>> are still acceptable.
>> 
>> With laser printing and fine print the distance is far less than
>> print and web and so a nice compromise is very reachable.
> 
> OK, this is essentially the same as David's reply.
> 
>>> The font should cover the most important languages used for
>>> `classical' vocal music, especially operas.  This includes
>>> Italian, German, French, Czech (e.g. Dvořák), Russian (in
>>> Cyrillic), English, probably Hungarian (Bartók).  Today it's
>>> common that the original language is typeset in upright shape, and
>>> a translation in italic, but sometimes it's vice versa.
>>> 
>>> I've also seen a transliteration (using IPA) instead of a
>>> translation, so covering the IPA characters for the above
>>> languages would be useful also.
>> 
>> Wow.  This is a large project in terms of glyph coverage then. :-)
> 
> It can evolve, starting with Latin-1 & Latin-2, for example.

That makes sense.

> 
>> You will want someone who is sensitive to Cyrillic to Latin and who
>> can manage the difficulties of the dense use of diacritics in Czech
>> set which are significant.  Is Polish relevant?
> 
> Interestingly, no.  There aren't any Polish operas or famous
> `classical' songs I'm aware of.
> 
>> What about small caps? Do they matter?
> 
> Not really.  Of course it is good to have them, but this is not
> essential for the beginning IMHO.  Note that Lilypond currently can't
> access OpenType features.

That would be a good reason to have separate fonts for all caps then.

> 
>>> It's not clear what exactly you mean with `font for setting
>>> music'.  The font used for lyrics essentially doesn't interact
>>> with any other font.  Normally, you only see upright and italic.
>> 
>> What I mean is not that the two fonts should mix but if there is a
>> font that tends to be used for the score it will have
>> characteristics too and so it will be a good idea to design in
>> relationship to it.
>> 
>> If there are 3 music fonts that are most likely to be used then the
>> new text font should be tested next to all 3.  It is a question
>> which is a bit like does this lamp look good next to this chair?
>> The two are separate but if you know what the chair is like you can
>> better choose the character of the lamp that suits it.  I hope that
>> makes sense.
> 
> Have a look at the attached image which shows all the necessary fonts.
> The `Tempo di Menuetto' font is the lyrics font enlarged, and both
> `Servilia' and `Arie' is displayed with completely different fonts.

Right. Is that difference in the service of telling the reader different 
categories of things? Is the style a label of a category of information?

Maybe you need 4 designs - a regular high contrast condensed, a bold, a low 
contrast and an italic.

> 
>>> Most important is very good kerning to get optimal legibility with
>>> the highest possible density, since lyrics usually need more
>>> horizontal space than the associated note heads, so the smaller
>>> the needed horizontal extension, the better the layout for the
>>> music.
>> 
>> Right - this is why you want a somewhat condensed design as well.
>> It might even be a good idea to stipulate that the font should still
>> perform well even if it is tracked negatively to -5 or -10 or -15 or
>> whatever is typical.  Ideally of course a narrower font won’t need
>> that because it will be more efficient.  But it is good to set the
>> performance standards at the start!
> 
> Well, right now Lilypond's font interface is very primitive, so
> tracking or other nifty font features are not supported yet.

I see. So then you would just want to make a good compromise in the basic 
spacing to make it a very space efficient font.

-e.

> 
> 
>    Werner
> 
> <tito1.jpg>