this paper we often use the term "character" rather more loosely, and more in keeping with tradition and ordinary language, to mean an element of a script or a unit of a writing 0894--3982/93/030999--01$5.50 Received 1 September 1993

First, a survey on optical scaling is carried out, both from the traditional point of view and from that of today’s digital typography. Then the special case of large characters, such as braces or integral signs, is considered. It is shown that such variable sized symbols should be computed at print time in order to approach the quality of metal typesetting. Finally, an implementation of such dynamic fonts, still in progress in the Grif editor, is described.

Typesetting of mathematical formulae has conflicting requirements: on the one hand, optical scaling is a need for large symbols; in the other hand, large symbols are made of composite items that are neither easily nor nicely put together.

picture A specific language, called P language, is used to describe presentation rules for each type of element defined in the DTD. Interpretation of these presentation rules is based on the concept of abstract pictures [27]. When Grif has a document to print or to display in a DYNAMIC OPTICAL SCALING AND VARIABLE-SIZED CHARACTERS 245 Formula String "m = " Sum Lower_exp String "k = min(1,i)" Symbol " " Upper_exp String "n" Operand String "sin" Superscript "2" String "x" Subscript "k" Figure 13. Abstract picture corresponding to formula (1) window, it first builds an abstract picture which is a high-level description of that document image. This description is device-independent and allows the editor to update the image dynamically in a simple way. In a second step, it translates this abstract picture into the real image which is displayed on the screen or printed on paper sheets. The abstract picture is the interaction support between the application and the user...

Copyright © 1996 by Bernard Desruisseaux À ma mère, qui aurait sûrement trouvé cela amusant À mon père, sur qui je peux toujours compter Contents Abstract vi Résumé vii

First published 2007-11-27. Latest version: 2011-12-20. Abstract This document provides instructions for installing and using the L AT E X 2ε class file, sp.cls, and the BibT E X formatting file sp.bst.