How to create thicker / fatter fonts - LOCKED

No problem. I had a long day, too, and had just gotten home from trying to teach my father how to use FireFox -- a losing battle on the best of days.

I usually get accused of giving too much information. :)

Thank you Peter, that's more helpful. Had a crappy day at work so I was in a bad mood. I apologize.

In addition, your client will complain if s/he gets PDF proofs.
The thicker characters will stand out as dead flies in otherwise immaculately rendered text.

Even suggesting to zoom in and/or make a print didn't convince
i my
client, the last time I resorted to this trick. So I found myself another font.

There are three major problems with stroking a font in order to increase the weight (aside form making it larger, which you yourself said was not desired).

1) you fill the counters in open letters and destroy the subtlety of hairlines and serifs.

2) you change the x-height and baseline relative to unstroked text.

3) the additional stroke weight reduces the letter spacing, crowding the text.

Aside from making your work look bad, there's no particular reason not to stroke fonts, but considering how many options there are, it's pretty hard to imagine you can't find a similar font that actually has the weight you need. Stroking fonts should be an absolute last resort.

Was that more helpful?

Peter

We have a standard font that I have to use, I just would like to make it a bit thicker to make it stand out more.

Pick a different font.

You can add a very thin stroke around the font (a way to fake bold if the font doesn't have it). Someone suggested 1/100th of the font weight as a starting point. I'm sure the original font designer would hate you for it... ;-) (Use this idea sparingly.)

Hope that helps,
Phyllis