Table field text formating

[Richard Gaskin]

John Vokey wrote:

> On 17-Dec-08, at 9:12 PM, Richard wrote:
>> If all you need is a one-pixel font, I'm sure there are plenty around.
>>
>> But perhaps we might ask why this is useful, and look one step further
>> to the mechanics of the underlying text rendering in the field  
>> object to
>> get exactly what we most want.  It may be that such additions would
>> become trivial once RunRev adds independent column alignment to  
>> fields.
>>
>> Slogging through big blocks of text line by line and/or word by word,
>> measuring each and adding/subtracting a number of special one-pixel
>> characters can be quite slow, and not the sort of thing I enjoy  
>> teaching
>> to newcomers for simple text alignment.
>>
>> So hopefully instead we can just get the appearance we want just as we
>> want it at the moment it's rendered.  I doesn't hurt to ask. :)
>>
> Yes, and we have those text-description languages available now:  
> postscript (which most of us now experience as PDF) and TeX/LaTeX--- 
> both of which microtype to way (way!) better than a 1-pixel  
> character.  Writing the code for either is (relatively) trivial.  So,  
> given every modern operating system has engines for both, all Rev has  
> to do is invoke the engines when needed.  For example, in addition to  
> html, one should be able to declare a field postscript or TeX/LaTeX,  
> put the code, and Rev simply calls the appropriate engine/renderer to  
> produce it.

A stroke of genius, Dr. Vokey.

I was pondering sub-pixel measurements over dinner this evening, unsure 
if even twips would suffice.  Then I come back to read your post. Yes 
indeed, it would seem the essentials are available for all platforms. 
Maybe somewhere down the road (after independent column alignment, of 
course <g>), we just might see that sort of text rendering flexibility 
in Rev.

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World
  Revolution training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
  Webzine for Rev developers: http://www.revjournal.com