[Libreoffice-bugs] [Bug 137296] New: Artificial character spacing limitation of -2.0 points (next to Kerning) is INSUFFICIENT for a font like Lucida Casual when using Small Caps for a word like "The". Need at least flexibility to go to -14.0 points.

[bugzilla-daemon at bugs.documentfoundation.org]

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=137296

            Bug ID: 137296
           Summary: Artificial character spacing limitation of -2.0 points
                    (next to Kerning) is INSUFFICIENT for a font like
                    Lucida Casual when using Small Caps for a word like
                    "The".  Need at least flexibility to go to -14.0
                    points.
           Product: LibreOffice
           Version: 7.0.1.2 release
          Hardware: All
                OS: All
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Severity: enhancement
          Priority: medium
         Component: Writer
          Assignee: libreoffice-bugs at lists.freedesktop.org
          Reporter: thuck777 at yahoo.com

Description:
Artificial character spacing limitation of -2.0 points (next to Kerning) is
INSUFFICIENT for a font like Lucida Casual when using Small Caps for a word
like "The".  Need at least flexibility to go to -14.0 points.

In a word like "The" for a title using a font such as Lucida Casual (e.g.,
Regular), which is available for download at
https://fontsgeek.com/fonts/Lucida-Casual-Regular , it is NOT possible to
properly kern the characters "Th" when using Drop Caps with a hard limit of
-2.0 (minus 2.0).  There is no good reason for such a hard limit condensing the
space.  We can expand spacing (going the other direction) far beyond 2.0; here
we need to be able to condense the spacing beyond -2.0 (e.g., to -14.0) to get
the desired pair kerning for "Th" using Drop Caps.  This limitation, if it
remains a hard limit like this, forces use of another word processor (e.g., MS
Word) just to produce the title on a page using such a font.  (That happens to
be the font I HAVE to use in my case.)

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Download and install Lucida Casual font (regular and italic), getting it
from https://fontsgeek.com/fonts/Lucida-Casual-Regular
2. Add a 42-point title such as "The Document in LibreOffice" to a page, select
it, and while it's selected, go to Character -> Character... -> Font Effects,
and specify "Small capitals".
3. Select "Th" in the title text, go to Character -> Character... -> Position
-> Character Spacing, and there enter the highest NEGATIVE number you can in
Writer, which currently has a hard limit of "-2.0 pt".  Look at the result,
which is UNSATISFACTORY.

Actual Results:
With a hard limit of -2.0 pt for condensing text such as "Th" using small
capitals in a title with the word "The", we CANNOT get sufficient reduction in
the space between the "T" and "h" to achieve proper kerning.  We need to be
able to enter a higher negative value to achieve tighter kerning, such as -12.0
or -14.0, in this case.

Expected Results:
I need and want to be able to further decrease the space between characters,
beyond what the strange hard limit of -2.0 can achieve.  (Lucida Casual is NOT
the only font with such an issue in LibreOffice, it's just the one I need to
immediately address in this context.)


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No



Additional Info:
There are two downloadable versions of the Lucida Casual font at
https://fontsgeek.com/fonts/Lucida-Casual-Regular , each with Regular and
Oblique styles.  Either one of those downloadable fonts will suffice to
demonstrate the above issue / unnecessary limitation.  (I would prefer to not
have to go to a paid word processor such as MS Word to do the title, which is
currently the only reasonable workaround.)

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