fonts
I would like to make writing practice sheets similar to the following.
How can you make "dotted" fonts like this?
The closest I saw on this forum was How can I convert text to paths with pdflatex? but I don't know if \pscharpath can be modified/used to do this job. Or maybe there is a TikZ solution?
Update. My plan was to position the horizontal lines using trial and error. Is there, alternatively, some way to get the correct height of a lower case and upper case letter automatically?
I don't think I have a full answer but I found myself with a similar problem one day and solved it using bold versions of smaller fonts. For som fonts it works and for some it doesn't. This is where you skill and taste comes into effect. Here is my case where I think it works: (the \hskips are cause it's an abbreviation)
\documentclass[12pt]{memoir}
\usepackage[osf]{mathpazo}
\begin{document}
\newcommand{\inchi}{%
\mbox{\textsc{i}%
\hskip 0.1 em {\scriptsize \textbf{n}}%
\hskip 0.1 em {\normalsize \textsc{c}}%
\hskip 0.1 em {\scriptsize \textbf{h}}%
\hskip 0.1 em {\normalsize \textsc{i}}%
}
}
Lorem ipsum \inchi dolor\ldots
\end{document}
Here is another solution, without the need of calculating the line number and the possibility to span text over several pages. I used the lineno to have “every line” hook and then I redefine the line numbers to be the grid instead of the actual number.
\documentclass[12pt]{article}
% necessary packages
\usepackage{tikz}
% set the font
%\usepackage{fontspec}
%\setmainfont{Zapfino}
% increase baseline skip
\usepackage{setspace}
\setstretch{1.5}
% define height of lowercase letters
\newcommand{\lowercaseheight}{1ex}
% define height of uppercase letters
\newcommand{\uppercaseheight}{2ex}
% define depth of descenders
\newcommand{\descenderdepth}{-0.5ex}
% you may add more values here and then use them in the {tikzpicture}
% to add more line to your grid
% package to have a "every line" hook
\usepackage{lineno}
\newenvironment{drillsheet}{%
% let the "line numbers" start directly at the text
\setlength\linenumbersep{0pt}%
% let the "line numbers" be the grid
\renewcommand{\thelinenumber}{%
\begin{tikzpicture}[overlay]
% baseline
\draw ((0,0) -- ++(\textwidth,0);
% lowercase height
\draw [ultra thin] ((0,\lowercaseheight) -- ++(\textwidth,0);
% uppercase height
\draw (0,\uppercaseheight) -- ++(\textwidth,0);
% descender depth
\draw [ultra thin] (0,\descenderdepth) -- ++(\textwidth,0);
\end{tikzpicture}%
}%
% the font and color of the numbers must be set explicitly
\renewcommand\linenumberfont{\normalfont\color{black}}
% start "line numbering", i.e. the grid
\begin{linenumbers}%
% set text color to gray
\color{black!25}%
}{
% end "numbering", i.e. the grid
\end{linenumbers}%
}
\newenvironment{fakedisplaymath}{%
\begin{center}%
$\displaystyle
}{%
$%
\end{center}%
}
\begin{document}
\Large
\begin{drillsheet}
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed $a^2+b^2=c^2$
incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis
nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu
\begin{fakedisplaymath}
A=\int_0^2f(x)\,dx
\end{fakedisplaymath}
fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in
culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
\end{drillsheet}
\end{document}
Math
Inline math works as expected:
But displaystyle math is a little harder, since lineno ignores display math. I added the {fakedisplaymath} environment to add rudimentary support for equations.
But I’d say it's hard to draw the drill line for math, how about fractions for instance …?
Best Answer
Here's something that seems similar to what you're after. The macro is:
The height of scaled upper and lower case x's in the document font are measured to draw the lines. The dotted effect comes from
\pdfliteral{q 1 Tr [1 4]0 d}#2\pdfliteral{Q}where:The pdf commands are documented in Chapter 4 of the PDF Reference
qsaves the graphic state1 Trtraces the outline of the glyph rather than filling it[1 4]0 dsets the stroke style to (pretty much) dashed1on4off starting with a dash.Qmeans restore the graphics state to what it wasEdit: Apparently the settings above are somewhat viewer dependent. The given settings with Sumatra, give the output pictured below. To get the "same" output with Adobe Reader (at least my version) Change the line given above to:
I tried it with a bunch of fonts from The LaTeX Font Catalogue and while most worked, some didn't (in particular Calligra...not sure why). As mentioned in the comments, if you could find a suitable font then this might work for you. A couple examples of output below:
