[New user] local horizontal and vertical corrections

[Thomas Baruchel]

Brest, le dimanche 19 janvier

Hi,

I am a new user. I came from TeX to groff !!! But I want to
write a document with much mathematics, and I don't like
groff for mathematical typesetting. I don't want either to user
La(TeX) because I really don't like the Computer Modern Fonts.
The font I use for everything is Utopia Type 1. I installed it
for lout, everything is OK. I also Installed Coronet for
calligrahic letters in equations.

  a) Speaking of Coronet:
     I have something like
     @Eq {u sub i = {Coronet Base 18pt} @Font l sub i}
     I put 18pt for optical reasons. Of course, base size is
     12pt for everything else like the first 'u'.
     But I would like to have the baseline of 'u' and baseline
     of 'l' (Coronet 18pt) to be the same !!! which isn't the case
     (probably because lout thinks the 'l' is an object that has
     for the baseline the middle of its height or some reason like
     that. The single correction I found is 9.4p @VShift. But in order
     to find 9.4p I had to look at the postscript output and try values
     until both baseline were the same. Is there a way to tell
     "keep the current baseline for the 'l'" ???

   b) If I put @Eq {u sub i = v sub {i sup 2}}
     I notice that both 'i' don't have the same baseline. I understand
     clearly why: {i sup 2} having a greater height than i. But I would
     like to have same baseline for both i and i². Is there a way to
     fix that ?

   c) With my calligraphic l sub i
      I notice there is a big amount of horizontal space between the
      'l' and the 'i' because of the shape of the 'l'. With troff
      I would put a backward horizontal movement: \h'-1p'. Is there
      a way to do that ? With LaTeX I would do the same thing by
      encapsulating the 'l' in a box with a null or very small width
      in order to let the processor think that 'l' has a smaller
      width than it really has. How can I do it with lout ?

    d) When I type normal text (not equations), I want to have
       fixed-width spaces before ?;:! (which is the rule in french).
       Is there something shorter than:
           hello world{4p @Wide {}}!

  Thank you for everything ;-)

-- 
Deux choses remplissent le coeur d'une admiration et d'une vénération
toujours nouvelles et toujours croissantes, à mesure que la réflexion
s'y attache et s'y applique : le ciel étoilé au-dessus de moi et la loi
morale en moi. (Emmanuel Kant)