[3784] in SIPB bug reports
[envbvs@epb11.lbl.gov: Re: fig2dev bug]
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jonathan I. Kamens)
Mon May 24 17:15:14 1993
Date: Mon, 24 May 93 17:14:45 -0400
From: "Jonathan I. Kamens" <jik@gza.com>
To: yandros@mit.edu
In-Reply-To: [3782]
Cc: bug-sipb@mit.edu
Here's what the maintainer of xfig/transfig has to say about the
subscripted text bug. The problem is that the way the fonts appear on
the screen is not exactly how they appear when they are printed.
----- Forwarded message
Date: Mon, 24 May 93 13:26:47 PDT
From: envbvs@epb11.lbl.gov (Brian V. Smith)
To: jik@gza.com
Subject: Re: fig2dev bug
> When loaded into xfig, the file below displays correctly -- the
> subscripted 1 and 2 on the third and second lines from the end are
> right next to the M.
>
> However, when converted to PostScript with fig2dev, the 1 and 2 are
> about a half inch to the right of the M.
>
> Seems like a bug in fig2dev.
No, super/sub-scripting is problematic in xfig/fig2dev because the fonts
aren't always exactly what they should be :-(
It is the basic problem that the X server doesn't have every font size
(unless you are using scalable fonts, which I can see that you are not)
so xfig must choose a font that is the closest in size.
When I display your figure USING scalable fonts, the "1" and "2" are about
1 inch to the right of their respective "M"s.
The lines with the "INDUCTOR CURRENT RISES(FALLS) WITH SLOPE M" are about
4 inches long (not including the bullets).
On your server I would guess that those lines are about 6-3/4 and 7 inches
long respectively because the server probably only has that font in
16 or 17 points and not 15.
I hope to add superscript and subscript capabilities in the future, but
for now you will have to "do it by hand".
Brian Smith
----- End of forwarded message
