Core Text, Chapter 1. The Oracle Method for Text
A line of text as an answer key, and the last digit that two ways of adding disagreed about.
Core Text
Core Text, Chapter 2. Strings, Code Points and Clusters
How long is a string, and what is it that a caret sees?
Core Text, Chapter 3. Fonts: Tables, Units and Metrics
You will be able to say what a font file is: a short directory followed by tables, each found by a four letter tag, an offset and a length.
Core Text, Chapter 4. Characters to Glyphs
A glyph is a number that only one font understands, and the map from characters to those numbers has a few surprises.
Core Text, Chapter 5. Advances, Kerning and Tracking
How wide a glyph is, how a pair of glyphs pulls together, and how space is added on top.
Core Text, Chapter 6. Shaping: Ligatures and Features
You will be able to say what shaping is: a list of glyph numbers goes in, a rule book written inside the font is applied, and a list of glyph numbers comes out.
Core Text, Chapter 7. Bidirectional Text
Where each character stands when one line holds text that reads in both directions, and how to prove it.
Core Text, Chapter 8. Line Breaking
Where a line of text may end, where it does end, and whether that is the best place to end it.
Core Text, Chapter 9. Lines and Frames
How a framesetter stacks lines of text, where each baseline falls, and why the numbers a font reports are only the start.
Core Text, Chapter 10. Alignment, Justification and Tabs
Where the leftover room on a line goes, and how to prove it.
Core Text, Chapter 11. Drawing Glyphs
What happens between a glyph number and a pixel: the outline in the font, the curves cut into straight pieces, the fill, and the switches that move the result.
Core Text, Chapter 12. Fallback, Variations and Attributes
Who draws a character the font does not have, what a weight slider does to the width of a letter, and what a line does when its text carries more than one font.
Core Text, Chapter 13. Putting It Together
One line of mixed text through every stage, a playbook of symptoms, and the honest edge of what this book measured.
