Re: [libreoffice-users] Writer: Fake vs. Real Superscripts in advanced fonts

On 12/6/2020 6:00 PM, Richard England wrote:
> "cuyfalls",
>
> I may not have your discerning eye, but using LO v7.0.3.1 on a Fedora 
> v33 box, when I check the automatically converted superscript with one 
> that is created manually by selecting the ordinal abbreviation and 
> changing it to a superscript they look identical for me. I checked two 
> different fonts. My OCD may not be as intense as yours.  :-)
>
> Could be a difference in LO releases or operation system fonts (?).
>
> ~~R
> StGeorge  
Richard

A lot depends on your OS and its available fonts. Not all fonts have 
advanced features built in. I have found that Windows 10 seems to have 
more fonts with the available features than my implementation of Puppy 
Linux. On Windows, I can use Sitka Text, Palatino Linotype and Linux 
Libertine G to achieve true and proper superscripts. I'm sure there are 
others; I just haven't checked them all yet. On my Puppy Linux system, 
it seems that only Linux Libertine G and Source Serif Pro have the 
available features. Having never used Fedora, I have no idea what you 
might have available to you. If you're at all interested in fonts, I 
would highly recommend obtaining Linux Libertine G and its sans serif 
companion Linux Biolinum G. They are available in the Ubuntu-based 
repositories, so I assume they would be in whatever Fedora uses.

To see what advanced features are available on your particular machine 
for a given font, from within LO, click on Format > Character > Font and 
then click on the "Features" button directly below the font-size drop 
down list. You will then see a dialog box that will show the available 
features for that font. Not all features are available for all fonts, so 
you'll have to scroll through each font and click "Features" to see 
which ones are available.

Your results will also depend on how you "manually" create a 
superscript. As with all things LO, there are multiple ways to skin the 
cat and not all of them produce the desired results.

There are at least four different ways to obtain superscript ordinals. 
The first three listed below will produce what I'm calling "fake" 
shrunken superscripts with lighter stroke weight and condensed spacing. 
Only the fourth will produce properly weighted and spaced superscripts.

*Option 1* (fake superscript) --  With the option to "format ordinal 
numbers suffixes" selected in Tools > AutoCorrect Options > Localized 
Options just type the number desired (1st, 2nd, etc.) and press spacebar 
and the ordinal will automatically be converted to a "fake" superscript.

*Option 2* (fake superscript) -- With the AutoCorrect option 
UNnselected, type the number desired. Then select the ordinal ("st," 
"nd," "th", etc.) and click on the superscript icon in the Formatting 
Toolbar (assuming that icon appears in your particular toolbar as they 
are customizable). This will also produce a "fake" superscript. This is 
simply a manual way of achieving the same result that the AutoCorrect 
option automatically obtains.

*Option 3* (fake superscript) -- Again with the AutoCorrect option 
UNselected, type the number desired and select the ordinal. Then click 
on Format > Character > Position > Superscript. This is just another way 
of achieving the same results as found in Options 1 and 2, and will 
produce the same "fake" superscript. However, with this option, you can 
manually control how much LO shrinks the superscript and how much it 
raises it above the surrounding text. At least, with this option, you 
can reduce the adverse effects of LO's default font shrinking.

*Option 4* (true superscript) -- This option depends upon the font you 
use. Many fonts will have access to true superscripts; others will not. 
In Windows, for this test, you can use Palatino Linotype or Sitka Text. 
In Linux, if you have it, try Source Serif Pro. For both OS's you can 
use Linux Libertine G (http://www.numbertext.org/linux/). As with the 
other options, type the desired ordinal number in the appropriate font 
and select the ordinal to be raised to a superscript. Then click on 
Format > Character > Font. Make sure your desired font is selected in 
the drop down list of fonts. Then, click on the Features button 
immediately below the font size drop down box. In this dialog, you'll 
see a host of advanced features available for the font you've chosen, 
and the features will be different for each font. With Sitka Text, 
Palatino Linotype (Windows) and Source Serif Pro (Linux), you'll have an 
option to select superscript. Click on that. You will then immediately 
see the font name change to something like "Sitka Text:frac=1&sups". 
Everything after the : consists of a code implementing an advanced 
feature. The "frac=1" implements true fractions. (On my LO, this seems 
to be a default setting). The "sups" implements true superscripts with 
the "&" separating the codes. In addition to selecting features from the 
dialog box, you can manually type in the codes once you get to know 
them, and delete the codes you don't want. Once you select the advanced 
features you want, click OK or press Enter and you will see your 
beautifully formatted superscript, and even a non OCD impaired viewer 
will see that its stroke weight is more even with the surrounding text.

This same dynamic can also be seen when setting text in small caps. 
Normally LO (and other word processors) will just shrink a normal 
capital down to create fake small caps. Their stroke weight is then 
reduced and the letterspacing is condensed and the whole effect looks 
horrible and amateurish. (It's a shame to see professionally typeset 
books with small caps artificially generated this way.) You can create 
true small caps through the Features dialog of the applicable font. Once 
you do this, you'll never go back to the fake small caps.

It used to be that I had to use LaTeX to get these more advanced 
results, but now I can achieve them with LO and a decent font. One of my 
favorites is Linux Libertine G, which is full of features and well 
paired to the companion sans-serif Linux Biolinum G. As a set, they 
provide everything one needs to achieve really good typographic results. 
Check out http://www.numbertext.org/linux/fontfeatures.pdf for a list of 
the available typographic features in these wonderful fonts. And, 
despite its name, Linux Libertine G works on Windows.

Okay, I know I've written far more than anyone wants to read, but that's 
my superscript story, and more than anything, demonstrates the extent of 
my OCD font sickness.

Virgil


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