What program are you using? (I'm on Linux, so may not be available!)

Also, note that even if you were not being paid to create the logo, the fact that the end user is in business makes it "Commercial Use".
But a paid designer creating a logo for a not-for-profit might (with permission) be not regarded as commercial use.

I frequently have to make overlays to change details (e.g. dates) on signs.

So if the font is Helvetica Bold and an uppercase letter is 172mm high, what font size do I need?

Note that simply calculating 172mm x 25.4 = 6.77 inch x 72 = 487pt is not correct, because that is the height of a single-space line, not the letter height. 487pt would be too small. And the ratio of letter height to line height varies between fonts.

I usually use trial and error, but if anyone knows an online tool, that would be great.

A year later, but I have just found a solution to this problem:
The (free licensed) font Claris SIL is based on Bitstream Charter and has an extended character set.

I'm happy - now to update all our file templates!

FYI: It turned out to be the following issue: Opentype fonts cannot be embedded in PDF versions lower than 1.6. Scribus only offers support for 1.3 - 1.5, but the latest version includes PDF/X-3, which allows (nay, requires) embedding - fingers crossed that that will work. Yje new book is in inDesign, which should be less problematic.

I'm about to reset a book, and want to avoid the problem I had with the last book, where I didn't realise Calibri was not embeddable (HUGE file and the printers couldn't make minor edits).

So, can anyone recommend (or point me to a list) a good serif body-text typeface which can be embedded or subsetted? I'll be working on Linux and/or Mac.

Richard

...which is interesting, since I don't have Frutiger anything on my system. I have installed Fontforge and am trying to make sense of it.
(For example, the glyphs don't follow the unicode sequence - I guess the font predates unicode - and if I copy ä and paste it into an unused position, it replaces ALL the unused boxes)

Is there a good crash course on how to add glyphs to a font?

Richard

okay: Experimenting with a font which makes it really obvious (archisto), some component in my system is attempting to make a wider unicode set available in every font (not all code points). There appears to be a serif and a sans-serif switched in to fill the gaps depending on the base font.

Now to identify what this system is and consider disabling it, as it doesn't seem to offer any positive benefits.

Then
1) Why is my font inspector showing them?
2) Why does the a + combining macron character combo get overridden then?

I think that the general interpretation of "web safe" is that you may specify them via CSS (or HTML - shudder) without any of the newer font technologies, and have most people see them.

In which case the answer is no. There are very few web-safe fonts (basically fonts present on 80%+ of devices for a given OS), since the bit where uploading a font here magically installs it on every computer worldwide doesn't seem to be working yet. :-)

See the various sites devoted to creating CSS font stacks to see what the web-safe fonts are.

It's Postscript (Type-1) version 2.0-1.0
browsing through charmap, a lot of the extended character set looks heavy.



For now, I'm setting this passage in URW Palladio-L instead.

I will have a look when I get to work in the morning.

OS: OpenSUSE
Desktop: Gnome
Windows Manager: XCFE


According to my charmap program, Bitstream Charter contains macron vowels. However, they all have greater weight than the straight vowels, and (possibly because they are a little squashed in x-height) the a-macron is single-storey while the normal a is double-storey. This results in a passage of Maori looking as though really bad substitution is happening.

The font also contains the unicode combining macron glyph. I tried using that with a normal a, and something (LibreOffice, the OS?) decided "this font has an a-macron, I'll substitute that" - cue gnashing of teeth.

(I would include a screenshot but I'm guessing that newbies don't get the right to attach images?)

Can anyone see a way around this other than switching to a different font for the entire passage?

Thanks for the ideas so far - some good suggestions. (apart from Verdana which would exacerbate the problem, having a greater x height and width, not to mention being Windows).
When I'm next at work I shall try both open sans (already on my system) and Garamond.
I can cope with poor screen performance - the Helvetica density problem is considerably worse on screen than in print, and it's always a relief to see that the final result isn't as bad as the preview.

Does anyone know of a Linux equivalent for Garamond if I can't get Garamond itself?

Richard

I'm looking for a free font which, rather than being similar to Helvetica, is less dense but without taking any more space.

Our Cathedral's order of service is currently set in Helvetica 16pt on an 18pt leading. (It is read in a relatively poorly lit environment by parishoners with variable eyesight!). While individual lines have good legibility, longer paragraphs look horribly dense and it is easy to lose your place in them.

Space is strictly limited (the boss has set a limit of a 12-page A5 booklet) so we can't increase leading.
I figure I need a good legible body font with a smaller x-height but the same width as Helvetica. We do use bold and italic in places, so a full family is needed.

Since we occasionally publish content in te reo Maori, it would be a bonus if the font included vowels with macrons.

We use Linux and MacOS only. (I'm on Linux)

Alas, the church does not have a budget for commercial fonts.

Thanks in advance
Richard