Inconsistency in link numbering sizing

Please post all questions and comments regarding Help & Manual 7 here.

Moderators: Alexander Halser, Tim Green

Post Reply
User avatar
itexnz
Posts: 137
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2009 10:09 pm
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
Contact:

Inconsistency in link numbering sizing

Unread post by itexnz »

I'm finding font used in some of the PDF page referrers icons is very inconsistent when it comes to 3+ digit page numbers - see example...
2019-06-19_12-14-13.png
And of course, the boss wants this particular design. Bah! Hoping there is a quick and easy fix
(ps. the default "Large page icon" type seems the most consistent for some reason - I would have thought they would be all just as consistent per type)
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
David Scott
Documentation Infrastructure Consultant
https://www.sourceone.co.nz
SourceOne. Documentation, engineered.
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23153
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: Inconsistency in link numbering sizing

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi David,

I'm not sure on this myself but I'm looking into it with the HM developers. We'll get back to you on it as soon as we have more information. It may have something to do with using a proportional font for the numbers. The referrers all have to be exactly the same size to avoid changing the pagination, and if the sizes of the individual digit characters vary their representation must be scaled to fit in the box. This can happen even if the number of digits are the same, because the individual digit characters have different widths in proportional fonts.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
User avatar
Alexander Halser
EC-Software Support
Posts: 4098
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 7:24 pm
Location: Salzburg, Austria
Contact:

Re: Inconsistency in link numbering sizing

Unread post by Alexander Halser »

Hi David,

The referrers at Evernote and Microsoft Exchange do indeed look odd. I am not sure if this is just a coincidence and would be glad if you could send me an example project to duplicate this. Just email it to alexander.halser (at) ec-software.com.

However, the numbers can have different sizes and that is inevitable. When rendering the PDF manual, Help+Manual reserves a fixed space for the page referrers - yet now knowing the page number that goes into that space. The space is calculated (I should better say: guessed) on the overall size of the user manual. It makes a difference if a user manual has 50 topics or 5000, the latter gets more space because the numbers expected will be larger.

When the manual has finished rendering and the output to PDF begins, those reference numbers are filled in. And they must fit into the reserved space. If that space turns out too small (555 takes more space than 111), the font size is decreased to make the page number fit. That seems to happen in those 2 instances in your screenshot, though at a quick glance this shouldn't be necessary. If you send me an example to duplicate it, I can test it here.
Alexander Halser
Senior Software Architect, EC Software GmbH
User avatar
itexnz
Posts: 137
Joined: Tue Jan 06, 2009 10:09 pm
Location: Wellington, New Zealand
Contact:

Re: Inconsistency in link numbering sizing

Unread post by itexnz »

Hi, attached to separate email is a quick test project which demonstrates the issue - the problem does not seem to be the number in the link referrer - it seems to be dependent on the characters in the title of the topic that are affecting it. E.g. where the topic name is consistent the number sizings are consistent - as soon as the titles have mixtures of characters that need extra kerning (I guess), the link referrers get screwy. The title should not have anything to do with the referrer link font - weird

Also try different link referrer icon types for different results
2019-06-20_11-13-16.png
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
David Scott
Documentation Infrastructure Consultant
https://www.sourceone.co.nz
SourceOne. Documentation, engineered.
Post Reply