How to change line spacing without changing WinAscent

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1

I have added accents to an existing font (An Indian language script). In order to get the accents to show up when I print or create PDF’s I had to increase the Win Ascent from 1056 to 1604. But that increased the line spacing which I want to stay the same as it was before I increased the Win Ascent value. It displays without the line spacing getting bigger but when I print or create a pdf the line width is now wider.

The Metrics of the font now are (to be able to print the accents).
Win Ascent 1604 Win Descent -411
Typo Ascender 1076 Typo Descender -411
Typo Line Gap 33
Ascender 1076 Descender -411 Line Gap 33

The Metrics previously were the same as above but with the Win Ascent set to 1076.

I have tried with “Use typo metrics for line spacing” checked and also with it unchecked.

I want the accents I added to the font to show up when I print or create PDF’s but I want the line spacing to stay the same as it was before I increased the Win Ascent to make the accents visible. The font will be used in Word on both Windows computers and Macs.

Thanks,
Harry

2

Basically, you cannot fit a quart into a pint pot. Calculate the correct metrics for the font, and use settings in the word-processing application to control line-spacing.

See this recent thread.

3

Not all software make use of the same global metrics, so better test in InDesign, Word, a web browser, and possibly more.

4

Thank you Bhikkhu and Erwin,

I’ve gotten it to work (old line spacing and display accents) in Word and PDF on Windows and Mac by:
setting Typo line gap and line gap to 0.
setting Win Ascent high enough to include accents
setting Typo Ascender and Ascender to original value before adding accents.
checking “Use typo metrics for line spacing”.

To set “Use typo metrics for line spacing” I had to set the font version to 5. Can someone tell me what exactly is “font version”?

Thanks,
Harry

5

I think you mean Contents and Layout Version. This is what the help file says:-

Contents and Layout Version

It can take years before operating systems and software support changes to the OpenType specification. For compatibility reasons it is possible to choose between these versions:

Version 3: Released October 2002.

Version 4: Released May 2008. Added Oblique as additional font style, use typo metrics, and WWS support

Version 5: Released March 2015. Added Size-specific Design Selection Mechanism