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Message-ID:  <9704101247.AA08131@sgibulirsch6.mathematik.tu-muenchen.de>
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In-Reply-To:  <Pine.SOL.3.93.970410115619.27446C-100000@sun2> from "Matthias
              Clasen" at Apr 10, 97 12:07:02 pm
Date:         Thu, 10 Apr 1997 14:47:16 +0200
From: Johannes Kuester <kuester@MATHEMATIK.TU-MUENCHEN.DE>
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To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L
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Subject:      Small caps is not a shape
Status: R

This is to point at a shortcoming of NFSS2: (I don't know whether
this has already been discussed when designed NFSS)

There is such a thing as a slanted/italic small caps font
(see Sebastian Carter's "Typographers on Type" for an example:
it contains a page showing different fonts of the Zapf Renaissance (1986)
family, including such a font).

So it doesn't seem appropriate to classify small caps as a shape,
rather, I think, it should be considered as a case. Thus resulting
in control sequences like
  \textcaps{...} and {\capscase ...}
or the like, analogous to uppercase and lowercase.

With the current fonts and current NFSS, it is e.g. not possible
to markup names with small caps without having a double markup
of names when occuring in italics (as this is rendered then in
small caps and uppercase, which seems to be too much emphasis).
So small caps should be independent of italics and other "shapes".

Unfortunaly I can't think of any way to incorporate this easily
in NFSS and especially in its current interface.

Johannes Kuester

--
Johannes Kuester                    kuester@mathematik.tu-muenchen.de
Mathematisches Institut der
Technischen Universitaet Muenchen