Vertical metrics: identical across all styles?

You still need to sync uprights and italics. That’s why I always set them with the Set Vertical Metrics script. Sets them for all open fonts in one user interface.

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Just as a follow-up in case someone stumbles across this: Rainer’s script is now called “Vertical Metrics Manager”. It can be installed using the Plugin Manager, Scripts, “mekkablue Scripts”. Works well for me!

Another note for beginners (or as a basis for discussion):

Apart from ensuring that nothing is clipped, vertical metrics control two things:

  • Default line height
  • Vertical positioning within <div>s or HTML buttons, for example.

Both can be controlled – and fixed, if necessary – by the font user. To me as a font maker, though, getting the latter right is much more important. As a web typographer (or mobile app maker), I’d say having to set the line height explicitly is a normal part of my job as a typographer. If I had to introduce a vertical shift to make text vertically centred on a button that would feel like a hack, like a fix for a flawed font. Fonts should just work out of the box in this respect, I would say.

TL;DR: Always test your fonts with HTML buttons with all caps and mix case text, and ensure it’s visually vertically centred. Automatically measuring the font’s extrema is helpful but not enough.

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Yes! The Test > Webfont Test HTML creates a Test HTML with an option called Metrics, which gives the tightest possible div around your sample text:

image

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