Discussion:
[pdftex] Could Adobe Photoshop's "blending options" for text be supported in a future {Pdf|Xe}TeX variant
Philip Taylor (RHUoL)
2018-04-04 18:38:44 UTC
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<p>I have been playing with Adobe Photoshop's "blending options" for
text recently, adding a gold or metallic texture to otherwise
plain text.  The results are visually very striking, and I
therefore began to wonder whether similar functionality might one
day be added to Pdf/XeTeX, in the former case natively and in the
latter case via \specials and an extended (x)dvipdfm(x) driver.</p>
<p>Three examples of the sorts of effect I have in mind can be seen
at :</p>
<ul>
<li><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/b7a1383rb1dx2vp/Ao%20dais.pdf?dl=0">https://www.dropbox.com/s/b7a1383rb1dx2vp/Ao%20dais.pdf?dl=0</a></li>
<li><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/7s6s7n9w8popiyg/MENU%20001%20new%20ellipse.pdf?dl=0">https://www.dropbox.com/s/7s6s7n9w8popiyg/MENU%20001%20new%20ellipse.pdf?dl=0</a></li>
<li><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/smmcjy9zuuxa1nu/MENU%20001%20%28metallic%20gold%20text%20demo%29.pdf?dl=0">https://www.dropbox.com/s/smmcjy9zuuxa1nu/MENU%20001%20%28metallic%20gold%20text%20demo%29.pdf?dl=0</a></li>
</ul>
<p>I would be interested in others' reactions to this.</p>
<p>Philip Taylor<br>
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Reinhard Kotucha
2018-04-07 19:44:41 UTC
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Post by Philip Taylor (RHUoL)
I have been playing with Adobe Photoshop's "blending options" for
text recently, adding a gold or metallic texture to otherwise plain
text.  The results are visually very striking, and I therefore
began to wonder whether similar functionality might one day be
added to Pdf/XeTeX, in the former case natively and in the latter
case via \specials and an extended (x)dvipdfm(x) driver.
Three examples of the sorts of effect I have in mind can be seen at
[omitted]
Sorry Phil, this can't and shouldn't be done by TeX engines.

The only reasonable way to achieve such effects is:

* convert each glyph to a standalone vector graphic (PostScript,
SVG, or similar)

* process each vector graphic with external tools and export the
results to PostScript

* create a new Type 3 font with the original, maybe adjusted,
metrics

Type 3 fonts can contain arbitrary PostScript code (scalable, with
colours and shading) and are supported by all PDF-creating engines and
dvips already.

The best tool for vector graphic processing I'm aware of is Inkscape.
I have absolutey no experience with Inkscape and don't know whether it
has a scripting language built-in. The latter is required in order to
process a complete font without manual interaction.

I suggest to move this discussion to texhax because there is no way to
add such a feature to TeX engines and because I'm convinced that you
get more feedback there.

Looking forward to meet you at BachoTeX,
Reinhard
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