[scribus] Kerning with combining diacriticals

John Jason Jordan johnxj at comcast.net
Mon Aug 10 01:42:01 CEST 2009


Using 1.3.5 Rc3 on Jaunty.

I do work in linguistics which requires frequent use of combining
diacriticals. Unfortunately, the combining diacriticals are spaced so
they are pretty well centered on letters like n or x, but not on a thin
letter like an l or a thick letter like an m. To see what I am talking
about. type "l n m" and after each enter the combining diacritic for
voiceless, which is Unicode 325. If no diacritic appears switch to a
font that has combining diacriticals. The voiceless character is a
small circle that should appear centered under the letter.

If you followed me so far you should see that the circle is centered
under the n, but not under the l or the m.

If I am just doing a quick and dirty term paper I don't care. But when
I am preparing a book that I intend to sell I want perfection. I can
kern the character using Story Editor so the diacritic is perfectly
centered, but then the letter and its combining diacritic are both
kerned so they appear incorrect next to adjacent letters. 

As an exercise to see what I am talking about, type "plosive" and put a
voiceless diacritic under the l. Now kern the diacritic and the l so
the diacritic is centered (about -8% should do it). The diacritic will
be centered, but the l will suddenly be spaced too far from the p. That
is because to select the diacritic you also have to select the l. 

I've tried everything I can think of, but I can't get it to work right.
Does anyone have any suggestions?




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