Subscript and Superscript - Position Adjustment in Italic/oblique/slanted Styles

Position Adjustment in Italic/oblique/slanted Styles

Another subtle adjustment that is most often forgotten in renderers, is controlling the direction of movement for superscripts and subscripts, when they don't lie on the baseline. It should notably take into account the current font's style for italics, notably its slanting direction; most renderers only adjust the position vertically, and forget to shift it horizontally as well. This creates collision with surrounding letters in the same italic size. One can see an example of such collision on the right side when rendered in HTML. To avoid such problem, it is often necessary to insert a small positive horizontal margin (or a thin space) (on the left side of the first the superscript character), or a negative margin (or a tiny backspace) before the subscript. It is more critical with glyphs from fonts in "Oblique" styles that are more slanted than those from fonts in Italic style, and some fonts reverse the direction of slanting, so there's no general solution except when the renderer takes into account the font metrics properties that provides the angle of slanting,

But more generally, the same problem occurs as well between spans of normal glyphs (non-subperscript and non-subscripts) when slanting styles are mixed.

Read more about this topic:  Subscript And Superscript

Famous quotes containing the words position, adjustment, oblique, slanted and/or styles:

    My position is a naturalistic one; I see philosophy not as an a priori propaedeutic or groundwork for science, but as continuous with science. I see philosophy and science as in the same boat—a boat which, to revert to Neurath’s figure as I so often do, we can rebuild only at sea while staying afloat in it. There is no external vantage point, no first philosophy.
    Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)

    The adjustment of qualities is so perfect between men and women, and each is so necessary to the other, that the idea of inferiority is absurd.
    “Jennie June” Croly 1829–1901, U.S. founder of the woman’s club movement, journalist, author, editor. Demorest’s Illustrated Monthly and Mirror of Fashions, p. 204 (August 1866)

    The jeweled stripes on the window ran straight down when the train stopped and got more and more oblique as it speeded up. The wheels rumbled in her head, saying Man-hattan Tran-sfer Man-hattan Tran-sfer.
    John Dos Passos (1896–1970)

    They all came, some wore sentiments
    Emblazoned on T-shirts, proclaiming the lateness
    Of the hour, and indeed the sun slanted its rays
    Through branches of Norfolk Island pine as though
    Politely clearing its throat....
    John Ashbery (b. 1927)

    There are only two styles of portrait painting; the serious and the smirk.
    Charles Dickens (1812–1870)