A friend asked me to scroll wooden house numbers for him using the
numerals 2 and 7. I said would size them so that each number would be
the largest that would fit on an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper. I then went
to MS word, set all the margins to .5", the font size to 900 and typed
the numeral 2.

What I got was a numeral 2 that was truncated at the bottom with about
3" of space above it. I think the numeral would fit on the page if I
could remove the 3 " of space above it. Anyone have any ideas?

TIA and Happy New Year to all.

I'm a write and was a book publisher for 30 years. Magazines and other
publications don't just magnify type to get it bigger or smaller. It
doesn't look right, and the eye picks up on it immediately.

Get a bunch of magazines and look for appealing numbers in their
full-page advertising. Then copy those.

The big stuff is called "display type", and it is special. Ladies
fashion magazines and travel publications often have large numbers in
the ads.

Good luck.

Gary Curtis - Los Angeles

In article .com,
wrote:

It
doesn't look right, and the eye picks up on it immediately.

That's correct. Most word processors do not bother making the letter 'o'
larger than the letters beside it, which proper type-setting programs
will do.

Or you could use a proper vector/Postscript based program, such as Adobe
Illustrator. Set Page set-up to 'landscape' and type in 27. Highlight
and choose your font. Then use the scaling tool to enlarge the type till
it fits the page. Then select 'create outlines' under the text menu and
print. You can even adjust the 'stroke' of the outline to the thickness
of the blade you are using.

wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm a write and was a book publisher for 30 years. Magazines and other
publications don't just magnify type to get it bigger or smaller. It
doesn't look right, and the eye picks up on it immediately.

Get a bunch of magazines and look for appealing numbers in their
full-page advertising. Then copy those.

The big stuff is called "display type", and it is special. Ladies
fashion magazines and travel publications often have large numbers in
the ads.

Good luck.

Gary Curtis - Los Angeles


The OP stated that he selected an absurdly large font size. That will
result in a properly proportioned numeral. His problem is that it is not
printing on the page correctly - it is leaving a very larger header space
and running the print off the bottom of the page. I'd just use an 8 1/2 X
14 sheet of paper.

--

-Mike-

On Wed, 4 Jan 2006 22:32:27 -0500, "Mike Marlow"
wrote:

The OP stated that he selected an absurdly large font size. That will
result in a properly proportioned numeral. His problem is that it is not
printing on the page correctly - it is leaving a very larger header space
and running the print off the bottom of the page. I'd just use an 8 1/2 X
14 sheet of paper.

That should work. Also, he might try changing the leading for the
number. That's the space built into the font to permit one row on top
of another without bumping into each other. Couldn't tell you off hand
what value to set it to. I think nominal is 120%, so 100% may solve
the problem.

--
LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

http://www.woodbutcher.net

Proud participant of rec.woodworking since February, 1997

Mike,

I played with it a little bit in Word 2000, I went to Format|Paragraph. Make
sure "Spacing" before and after is 0 and set "Line Spacing" to "Exactly
900pt". This should get you pretty close. I just spent a minute or two on
it. You made need to play with it a bit to get what you want.

Preston
"mike" wrote in message
ups.com...
A friend asked me to scroll wooden house numbers for him using the
numerals 2 and 7. I said would size them so that each number would be
the largest that would fit on an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper. I then went
to MS word, set all the margins to .5", the font size to 900 and typed
the numeral 2.

What I got was a numeral 2 that was truncated at the bottom with about
3" of space above it. I think the numeral would fit on the page if I
could remove the 3 " of space above it. Anyone have any ideas?

TIA and Happy New Year to all.

Wed, Jan 4, 2006, 6:18pm (EST-3) From: (mike) wildly
asks: snip Anyone have any ideas? snip

When I needed to scrollsaw house numbers I googled until I found a
style I liked, printed what I needed, and photocopied them to the right
size. Came out nice.



JOAT
You'll never get anywhere if you believe what you "hear".
What do you "know"?
- Granny Weatherwax

Word - Fomat - Paragraph - Line Spacing
choose Multiple at 0.75
Happy routing
Max

On 4 Jan 2006 18:18:59 -0800, with neither quill nor qualm, "mike"
quickly quoth:

A friend asked me to scroll wooden house numbers for him using the
numerals 2 and 7. I said would size them so that each number would be
the largest that would fit on an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper. I then went
to MS word, set all the margins to .5", the font size to 900 and typed
the numeral 2.

What I got was a numeral 2 that was truncated at the bottom with about
3" of space above it. I think the numeral would fit on the page if I
could remove the 3 " of space above it. Anyone have any ideas?

Try a different font which uses the upper reach of the character field
it's drawn on.

You also might try offsetting the character on the page and ignoring
the warnings from Word about it not being printable. Just a guess.
(Some progs allow that, some don't, and I seldom use Word.)


------------------------------------------------------------
California's 4 Seasons: Fire, Flood, Drought, & Earthquake
--------------------------------------
http://www.diversify.com NoteSHADES(tm) privacy/glare guards

Go to Tool, Options and set the text to be centered on the page
instead of top aligned.

"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
...
: On 4 Jan 2006 18:18:59 -0800, with neither quill nor qualm,
"mike"
: quickly quoth:
:
: A friend asked me to scroll wooden house numbers for him
using the
: numerals 2 and 7. I said would size them so that each number
would be
: the largest that would fit on an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper. I
then went
: to MS word, set all the margins to .5", the font size to 900
and typed
: the numeral 2.
:
: What I got was a numeral 2 that was truncated at the bottom
with about
: 3" of space above it. I think the numeral would fit on the
page if I
: could remove the 3 " of space above it. Anyone have any ideas?
:
: Try a different font which uses the upper reach of the
character field
: it's drawn on.
:
: You also might try offsetting the character on the page and
ignoring
: the warnings from Word about it not being printable. Just a
guess.
: (Some progs allow that, some don't, and I seldom use Word.)
:
:
: ------------------------------------------------------------
: California's 4 Seasons: Fire, Flood, Drought, & Earthquake
: --------------------------------------
: http://www.diversify.com NoteSHADES(tm) privacy/glare guards

Go to Format | Paragraph | Line Spacing

and change the settings to

Exactly 900 pt (or less)

On 4 Jan 2006 18:18:59 -0800, "mike" wrote:

A friend asked me to scroll wooden house numbers for him using the
numerals 2 and 7. I said would size them so that each number would be
the largest that would fit on an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper. I then went
to MS word, set all the margins to .5", the font size to 900 and typed
the numeral 2.

What I got was a numeral 2 that was truncated at the bottom with about
3" of space above it. I think the numeral would fit on the page if I
could remove the 3 " of space above it. Anyone have any ideas?

TIA and Happy New Year to all.

Robatoy wrote:
In article .com,
wrote:

It
doesn't look right, and the eye picks up on it immediately.

That's correct. Most word processors do not bother making the letter 'o'
larger than the letters beside it, which proper type-setting programs
will do.

Or you could use a proper vector/Postscript based program, such as Adobe
Illustrator. Set Page set-up to 'landscape' and type in 27. Highlight
and choose your font. Then use the scaling tool to enlarge the type till
it fits the page. Then select 'create outlines' under the text menu and
print. You can even adjust the 'stroke' of the outline to the thickness
of the blade you are using.

Robatoy:

Well -- two right answers ain't bad.

I have been argued to death on this issue by people who have never
published documents. ... And that's because it takes a while to
understand the issues. This is a case where giving the right answer may
not help anybody much -- they are highly unlikely to do as you and the
previous fellow suggested since it is not at all obvious why your
answer is correct. However I cast a third vote for choosing the proper
_typeface_ -- and then choosing a reasonably sized _font_ (within the
typeface family) for the task at hand.

Indeed some _typefaces_ look good at certain sizes and "weights" -- but
not at others -- If you want large letters and numbers choose a
"Headline" or "Large Size (large Font) style of "typeface". (Somebody
who undertood type face design principles did it this way for a
reason.) If you want an obvious answer -- think about why Arial looks
good in small sizes (more clear). The Times Roman family of fonts is
not that great for presenting spreadsheets -- too many curly-cues
(serifs). Arial is a non-serif font and hence will remain clear and
non-confusing as to content in very small point sizes. With large
Typefaces you can add decoration without losing or obfuscating the
information content.

Most Type Managers group the fonts this way. If you have ever installed
Corel Draw it suggests families of typefaces to achieve certain results
-- book publishing, newspaper writing, Invitations, posters etc.

Vector programs allow you to draw a font more clearly -- expanding a
_raster (dot based) image simply gives you a clear but jagged
picture... Choosing the right Typeface and Font to present clearly is
an entirely different issue... (to me anyway).

Picking the _right_ typeface and font for the _best_ presentation of
information is a combination of art and science.

I leave it to you Robatoy to explain mono-spaced typefaces and fonts
versus.... Well like Courier vs Arial vs Say Times Roman you know... Oh
-- and say a bit about kerning and justification...

evil chuckle

Hope that helps a bit more.


willr
http://woodwork.pmccl.com