Brian M. Hunt

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Happy user of Django, Python, Perl, C++, Tex, Javascript, PostgreSQL.

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	2,146 reputation	bio	website	example.com	visits	member for	2 years, 6 months
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1d	comment	Golden ratio typography in TeX Well that's hardly a ringing endorsement ...
2d	comment	Golden ratio typography in TeX For what it's worth, using the `x-height` seems to yield better results i.e. `\baselineskip=1.618\fontdimen5\font`
2d	comment	Golden ratio typography in TeX Great post. Rounding issues aside, it would be very interesting to see an example employing the equations where resulting text is decidedly sub-optimal.
May 19	comment	Golden ratio typography in TeX @morbusg: Many thanks - much appreciated.
May 19	comment	Golden ratio typography in TeX @morbusg Thanks. I don't recall Bringhurst providing that level of specificity -- sorry for the inconvenience, but do you have an edition & page number or quote? You may find this comment on Bringhurst interesting (and it agrees with my albeit vague recollection). Dawn's article is also cited in the article, incidentally. I am not sure that "everything affects everything" is helpful since it's too general; the hypothesized formula present a practical yet high level conversation piece and starting point.
May 19	comment	Golden ratio typography in TeX @morbusg: I am not sure that's right - what's your source for 66 CPL? Generally, longer line lengths are read faster, but shorter line lengths are preferred. This is supported by e.g. Duchnicky & Kolers, 1983; and, Dyson & Kipping, 1998. These articles both concluded that 75 and 100 characters per line were read faster. In particular "Dyson also noted that when testing subjects, people preferred the 55 character line length, again, despite the fact that they read longer line lengths faster." 66 CPL seems oversimplified - does it give optimal reading speed, or user retention/preference?
May 19	comment	Golden ratio typography in TeX @morbusg: From the comments in the article `[this not the proper approach because] font size, line height, and line width are all dependent variables. In other words, you cannot change one without changing the other two.` The reason why the equation you suggest is incorrect is the sine qua non of the article. :)
May 16	comment	Add vertical line margin-aligned from a given point through subsequent pages @GonzaloMedina: Thanks for the comment. The side margins will be simple text (maybe italicized, bold, ...), so nothing really special; the horizontal rule will basically always be in the same position and relative to the height of the preamble.
Mar 9	comment	Do the online LaTeX compilers use a TeX daemon to speed up their compilation? @Jubobs: :) Incidentally I use VIM, for what it's worth. My code is bad enough — with an IDE it'd be a debacle. ;)
Mar 8	comment	Do the online LaTeX compilers use a TeX daemon to speed up their compilation? @Jucobs: Linux. The purpose of the question is (albeit not directly stated) relative to high performance compilations, where for example there may be several hundred to thousands of concurrent jobs every second. One would expect a LaTeX service provider to use elastic delivery such as Amazon EC2 or Linode. Memory is also a concern - every XeLaTeX instance can consume >100mb of memory, so keeping one instance with multiple compiles in memory would be very, very handy.
Mar 3	comment	Avoid widowed signature lines Many thanks David. I didn't mean for you to have to fix my signature code too, but it is much appreciated. If I may ask, why might one prefer `\widowpenalty` to e.g. `\nopagebreak`?
Nov 7	comment	Have XeLaTeX use the default Times font in Ubuntu Thanks egreg (and @Martin Schröder).
Nov 7	comment	Have XeLaTeX use the default Times font in Ubuntu Thanks Alexander. Unfortunately this answer does not resolve the sine qua non element of the question: "[get] XeLaTeX to use a standard times font (i.e. one that would not be embedded)"
Nov 7	comment	Have XeLaTeX use the default Times font in Ubuntu @Herbert - I wanted to use the builtin fonts just to decrease the size of the PDF.
Nov 7	comment	Have XeLaTeX use the default Times font in Ubuntu @egreg: I think you're right, based on what I'd been reading too. I'd mark that correct if you posted it as an answer. :)
Nov 7	comment	Have XeLaTeX use the default Times font in Ubuntu Thanks @egreg, but alas I can confirm that both Tex Gyre Termes and even a Times truetype font are embedded in the PDF, according to popper-utils' pdffonts (and same is evident from the file size).
Nov 7	comment	Have XeLaTeX use the default Times font in Ubuntu Thanks @egreg - I do not have a Times font installed as an OTF or TTF. I would be grateful for suggestions about where one might find it. I did try Libertine Serif (as it is described in the package as having the same font metrics as Times), but it was also embedded.
Oct 10	comment	Get page numbering & page count of a given style Great answer. Thanks for editing to make it generic.
May 11	comment	Is there a way to use a global variable? @egreg: Good answer. ;)
Mar 15	comment	Add area for readers to write comments on a page This is elegant. Thank you.