Handling of linebreaking & hyphenation in Mellel
Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2006 8:35 pm
Dear all,
Still haven't been able to use Mellel since I (happily) discovered it a few days ago, but will hopefully find a Mac-enabled friend soon rather than later whose computer I can use...
Anyway, I thought I'd add my opinions about linebreaking & hyphenation algorithms.
What linebreaking algorithm does Mellel currently use?
One of the very best linebreaking algorithms out there - perhaps the best - is the so-called Knuth-Plass algorithm, which is used in TeX and friends. This algorithm takes into account the whole paragraph before breaking the lines, as opposed algorithms that break a paragraph line by line. Adobe InDesign uses a variant of the Knuth-Plass algorithm, which is the reason they have been able to patent it (No. 6,510,441).
Also, regarding hyphenation there are extremely high-quality algorithms out there. I suggest taking a look at the Dieckmann algorithm, which is used in some of the most advanced typesetting systems today.
http://www.ub-dieck.com/diallge.htm
After having read Mellel's user's guide, I also think that the very high ambitions of the development team is at a level that might make them interesting in this thesis about character protrusion and font expansion, which is lightyears ahead of InDesign's crude haphazardous implementation:
http://www.pragma-ade.com/pdftex/thesis.pdf
Best wishes,
Mats Broberg
Still haven't been able to use Mellel since I (happily) discovered it a few days ago, but will hopefully find a Mac-enabled friend soon rather than later whose computer I can use...
Anyway, I thought I'd add my opinions about linebreaking & hyphenation algorithms.
What linebreaking algorithm does Mellel currently use?
One of the very best linebreaking algorithms out there - perhaps the best - is the so-called Knuth-Plass algorithm, which is used in TeX and friends. This algorithm takes into account the whole paragraph before breaking the lines, as opposed algorithms that break a paragraph line by line. Adobe InDesign uses a variant of the Knuth-Plass algorithm, which is the reason they have been able to patent it (No. 6,510,441).
Also, regarding hyphenation there are extremely high-quality algorithms out there. I suggest taking a look at the Dieckmann algorithm, which is used in some of the most advanced typesetting systems today.
http://www.ub-dieck.com/diallge.htm
After having read Mellel's user's guide, I also think that the very high ambitions of the development team is at a level that might make them interesting in this thesis about character protrusion and font expansion, which is lightyears ahead of InDesign's crude haphazardous implementation:
http://www.pragma-ade.com/pdftex/thesis.pdf
Best wishes,
Mats Broberg