Hacker News Reader

Comment by grumblepeet | Hacker News Reader

Surprised that nobody has noticed that the “a” - with a tiny riser - is used in Roman version of many typefaces and the other “a” is used in the italic version of the font. See this article for more information on that https://creativepro.com/dont-commit-the-type-crime-of-applyi... I see this mistake being made all over the place which as a former graphic designer makes me sad.

View on HN

A big benefit of using LaTeX for writing is that it enforces typography rules like this out of the box, without having to study typography beforehand. I hadn't really really why italics just look so much better in LaTeX than Word, so thanks for sharing.

Well, Word only does this if there isn't an italic variant of the font. In which case I don't see how LaTeX could provide proper italics either.

It wouldn't by default without effort (or at all). Which is valuable if you don't want to mess things up without knowing.

Worth mentioning: LaTeX (and TeX) support "slanted" fonts that are different from "italic". Example image:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Modern#/media/File:CM...

> True, for many typefaces, Word will automatically apply the proper italic fonts (if you have them installed)

That was good to know. Relieved me of angst for the guilt I was going to feel knowing I would never be the guy changing the font for one italicized word. :)

Baskerville is one such font. The italic version is single-story, but the regular version is not.

Even worse is that this shift doesn't occur between the letters g.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com