Investigate variable (size-scaled) tracking ('trak' table)

[Paul Sladen]

The Ubuntu Font Family so far has been designed for book/copy sizes and the default tracking (spacing) selection optimised for these sizes (10-20pt).

When the Ubuntu Font Family is used for titling (such as in the 'ubuntu' or 'CANONICAL' logotypes) the tracking generally needs to be reduced to proportionally close up the characters a bit. Apple originally provided the 'trak' table for doing size-specific variations to the tracking automatically at larger sizes:

  http://developer.apple.com/fonts/ttrefman/RM06/Chap6trak.html

It would be useful to investigate whether the 'trak' table is {widely,at all} supported, or if there are equivalent/newer/OpenType ways of managing the same tracking adjustments automatically. This would be for the aim of font-wide adjustment (rather than kerning pairs) of the entire core advance metrics (tracking) use for layout and not just its presentation (hinting) at certain sizes.

This is low priority, but would be useful to investigate for the longer-term. The use-case given may also be covered non-automatically (to a certain degree) by the subsequent Ubuntu Condensed variant.

[Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl)]

This is something that can be investigated post-Maverick, but it needs
to be settled pre-1.0 as it would affect metrics for documents using the
font at larger sizes.

With regard to the Condensed variant of the font, I think that's a
separate case, and tracking of the Regular (and other non-Condensed)
faces at higher point sizes needs to be sweet in and of itself.

Mark

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

Won't fix in the fonts. Will "fix" by documenting tighter tracking at larger physical sizes in the style guidelines in the future.