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Font looks crappy in Word

Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2003 10:03 am
by H@gar
I am creating a font, it's going great, lot of work, but looking very nice.
One of the programs I use for testing every once in a while is Microsift Word. When I print it, it's really looking great, but on screen in word it sucks! How come? It's a minor thing, I will use the font for printing and designing, so it doesn't really need to look good in word, but still... Can it be resolved?

Hinting and Greyscale

Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2003 1:13 pm
by Bhikkhu Pesala
It is probably because the font lacks hinting information. If it is a spindly script font, it might not look too good on screen. Have you got font smoothing turned on? Right-click on Desktop, Display Properties, Effects.

Also take a look at the thread on Aliasing on this forum.

Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2003 2:47 pm
by H@gar
Wow, what a difference! No, I did not have font smoothing, now I do, and there is a heck of a difference!
It's just that I created a font that is similar to for instance Garamond. When I typed in Word in Garamond, I could read it. In my font, it was impossible to read the text. So there must be some sort of difference between the two fonts, question is, what's the difference?
Might be that hinting information? Could you tell me some more on that?

Hinting Information

Posted: Mon Feb 03, 2003 3:22 pm
by Bhikkhu Pesala
As far as I know, Font Creator only supports hinting that already exists, you cannot add hinting information. I hope that Erwin or someone else will soon correct me if I am wrong about that.

As you found, with font-smoothing turned on, hinting is not necessary at all. It only applies to low resolution devices (displays) or very small print on 300 dpi printers. At resolutions of 600 dpi or more you are unlikely to notice any effect of font hinting. Very high resolution devices like typesetter discard hinting information altogether.

You can read all the details on the Microsoft Typography page.

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/dev ... inting.htm

Please see my other thread on this forum, under Specifications, for useful links to various matters typographical.

Also have a look at the item below yours in this thread on Aliasing.