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Single letter shifts text's y-axis - Printable Version

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Single letter shifts text's y-axis - BedroomMoth - 05-20-2020

Hi, I've been working on a card game and I'd like the position of each text to be consistent.

My problem is that as soon as I type the letter "d" the font shifts slightly downward.
I can't change it back to its correct position either, gimp doesn't seem to recognize it as an actual change in positioning.
I tried seeing if I'd have the same problem in a drawing program, had about the same size, and no shift happened.

I'm using an external font I downloaded, Aquifer.
I'm thinking it could be the Aquifer font itself as I had some problems with it before in gimp.

Can anyone help me?


RE: Single letter shifts text's y-axis - Ofnuts - 05-20-2020

What makes you think that Gimp shifts the character? Did you try the same font in another application?

Also, keep in mind that in most fonts, characters with a round base (a, b ... and d among others), slightly extend below the baseline.


RE: Single letter shifts text's y-axis - BedroomMoth - 05-20-2020

(05-20-2020, 06:39 AM)Ofnuts Wrote: What makes you think that Gimp shifts the character? Did you try the same font in another application?

Also, keep in mind that in most fonts, characters with a round base (a, b ... and d among others), slightly extend below the baseline.

Yeah, I tried the same font in Krita. No shift happened.
And oh? I didn't know that about round base characters.


RE: Single letter shifts text's y-axis - Ofnuts - 05-20-2020

Looking at it again...what really happens is that the d extends beyond the declared font geometry (this is also true of thel and the f, and in the other direction for the g and the q, in both the OTF and TTF variants), so when the character is used, Gimp adjusts the character box.

Can't tell if it's a problem with the font (that could try to enforce some overlap between successive lines like on old typewriters) or with Gimp that makes a wrong assumption. In any case all characters line up correctly on the baseline, the only impact is the position of the text layer.


RE: Single letter shifts text's y-axis - BedroomMoth - 05-20-2020

(05-20-2020, 07:06 AM)Ofnuts Wrote: Looking at it again...what really happens is that the d extends beyond the declared font geometry (this is also true of thel and the f, and in the other direction for the g and the q, in both the OTF and TTF variants), so when the character is used, Gimp adjusts the character box.

Can't tell if it's a problem with the font (that could try to enforce some overlap between successive lines like on old typewriters) or with Gimp that makes a wrong assumption. In any case all characters line up correctly on the baseline, the only impact is the position of the text layer.

Oh? That's kinda interesting.
Is there anyway to sort of "fix" this or is this just something I have to work with?


RE: Single letter shifts text's y-axis - rich2005 - 05-20-2020

First, just a general comment. The font is Aquifer 28px , but in the text tools the font is Himalaya 32px. You used the on canvas dialog to change the font. Not really the way to do it, Use that to change individual characters. Use the text tool options to set the font. (otherwise it will come back to haunt you)

Back to the Aquifer font. Not wonderful, could probably be fixed. Selecting a couple of characters, you see that the descender on 'p' is too long, not noticed with a fixed text box and for reference 'H'

[attachment=4411]

Then with a 'd' added the ascender is too long and pushes the text down.  

[attachment=4412]

There is a partial fix, (apart from the whole font) select the 'd' and drop the size from 28 to 27 px That brings the top of the ascender back in line without making the rest of the character look out-of-place.

[attachment=4413]


RE: Single letter shifts text's y-axis - BedroomMoth - 05-20-2020

(05-20-2020, 07:41 AM)rich2005 Wrote: First, just a general comment. The font is Aquifer 28px , but in the text tools the font is Himalaya 32px. You used the on canvas dialog to change the font. Not really the way to do it, Use that to change individual characters. Use the text tool options to set the font. (otherwise it will come back to haunt you)

Back to the Aquifer font. Not wonderful, could probably be fixed. Selecting a couple of characters, you see that the descender on 'p' is too long, not noticed with a fixed text box and for reference 'H'



Then with a 'd' added the ascender is too long and pushes the text down.  



There is a partial fix, (apart from the whole font) select the 'd' and drop the size from 28 to 27 px That brings the top of the ascender back in line without making the rest of the character look out-of-place.
Thanks! But I guess I should probably look into a different font to use?


RE: Single letter shifts text's y-axis - rich2005 - 05-20-2020

Try Garamond

[attachment=4414]