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brewt · 07-03-2010, 11:12 PM

Hey, I get asked. I know I can't have: Big Lottery Win, Trophy Wife, Trophy Mistress, Groovy Mansion, Hot Car, Good Wine, Good Cheer, Good Song, All Tax-Free.

That being said, I'll settle for a compromise. I want to compensate for Double Quotes in Body copy in an epub, universally. Like this:

...."I want this."
.....I want this.

Notice, the 'I' lines up vertically - well, close. And when this works, it does make a difference in the reading experience, believe it or not. That's what I want; to move the double quote into the margin. I can do this by subtracting out the space differences in the css, and re-style the quote-starting lines vs the non-quote-starting lines. Laborious, but it works.

Trouble is, I don't know what font the target system is going to use, and different fonts have an actual different horizontal space reserved for double quotes. To wit:
Font............................ Double Quote in ems
ACaslonPro-Regular.............. 0.360
AGaramondPro-Regular......... 0.415
AJensonPro-Regular............. 0.320
AmericanTypewriterStd-Med.. 0.520
ArnoPro-Regular.................. 0.350
Baskerville Old Face............ 0.810
BaskervilleCyrLTStd-Upright... 0.443
BauerBodoniStd-Roman......... 0.500
Bell MT.............................. 0.355
BemboStd.......................... 0.480
Berling Antiqua.................... 0.308
Bodoni MT.......................... 0.490
BodoniStd-Book................... 0.440
BulmerMTStd-Regular........... 0.440
Century Schoolbook............. 0.390
Constantia......................... 0.360
DejaVu Serif....................... 0.510
Dutch801 Rm BT Roman........ 0.460
EhrhardtMTStd-Regular......... 0.470
FairfieldLTStd-Medium.......... 0.390
Fontin-Regular.................... 0.400
Garamond3LTStd................. 0.390
GaramondPremrPro............... 0.370
Georgia.............................. 0.410
KeplerStd-Regular................0.350
Liberation Serif Regular......... 0.440
MinionPro-Regular................ 0.400
Palatino Linotype................. 0.500
PlantinStd.......................... 0.510
PoynterOSTextTwoL.............0.440
Times New Roman................ 0.443

So, I can build a whopping table that lists a large number of possibilities, if I only knew how to tell the css which font was going to happen.
And sure, I can cascade the css call, but I don't know how to get an if-then sort of statement to work with an epub to make the compensation dynamically.

Embedding could solve this, but the embedding solutions is also fraught with peril, as there are so many epub reading implementations that all seem to take a no-doubt-original-but-different approach, that embedding is a crap shoot at best (and to port to Kindle? Right out.). Because when the font calls don't work, the compensation is obviously wrong and looks worse than no double quote compensation at all.

But, I'm afraid it's just a dream, an impossible dream, fa la la la, la laa laaa la.

Unless the wise have a solution....

-bjc

07-03-2010, 11:12 PM	#1
brewt Boo-Frickety-Hoo-Erizer Posts: 251 Karma: 686 Join Date: Oct 2007 Device: Kobo Glo HD!	What I actually want. Hey, I get asked. I know I can't have: Big Lottery Win, Trophy Wife, Trophy Mistress, Groovy Mansion, Hot Car, Good Wine, Good Cheer, Good Song, All Tax-Free. That being said, I'll settle for a compromise. I want to compensate for Double Quotes in Body copy in an epub, universally. Like this: ...."I want this." .....I want this. Notice, the 'I' lines up vertically - well, close. And when this works, it does make a difference in the reading experience, believe it or not. That's what I want; to move the double quote into the margin. I can do this by subtracting out the space differences in the css, and re-style the quote-starting lines vs the non-quote-starting lines. Laborious, but it works. Trouble is, I don't know what font the target system is going to use, and different fonts have an actual different horizontal space reserved for double quotes. To wit: Font............................ Double Quote in ems ACaslonPro-Regular.............. 0.360 AGaramondPro-Regular......... 0.415 AJensonPro-Regular............. 0.320 AmericanTypewriterStd-Med.. 0.520 ArnoPro-Regular.................. 0.350 Baskerville Old Face............ 0.810 BaskervilleCyrLTStd-Upright... 0.443 BauerBodoniStd-Roman......... 0.500 Bell MT.............................. 0.355 BemboStd.......................... 0.480 Berling Antiqua.................... 0.308 Bodoni MT.......................... 0.490 BodoniStd-Book................... 0.440 BulmerMTStd-Regular........... 0.440 Century Schoolbook............. 0.390 Constantia......................... 0.360 DejaVu Serif....................... 0.510 Dutch801 Rm BT Roman........ 0.460 EhrhardtMTStd-Regular......... 0.470 FairfieldLTStd-Medium.......... 0.390 Fontin-Regular.................... 0.400 Garamond3LTStd................. 0.390 GaramondPremrPro............... 0.370 Georgia.............................. 0.410 KeplerStd-Regular................0.350 Liberation Serif Regular......... 0.440 MinionPro-Regular................ 0.400 Palatino Linotype................. 0.500 PlantinStd.......................... 0.510 PoynterOSTextTwoL.............0.440 Times New Roman................ 0.443 So, I can build a whopping table that lists a large number of possibilities, if I only knew how to tell the css which font was going to happen. And sure, I can cascade the css call, but I don't know how to get an if-then sort of statement to work with an epub to make the compensation dynamically. Embedding could solve this, but the embedding solutions is also fraught with peril, as there are so many epub reading implementations that all seem to take a no-doubt-original-but-different approach, that embedding is a crap shoot at best (and to port to Kindle? Right out.). Because when the font calls don't work, the compensation is obviously wrong and looks worse than no double quote compensation at all. But, I'm afraid it's just a dream, an impossible dream, fa la la la, la laa laaa la. Unless the wise have a solution.... -bjc