[JS] Cap height and x height

[Guest]

Am I going crazy or is there no way to find the cap height and x height of text? Obviously you can specify these settings in the first baseline offset of a text frame and I would like to know what these values are going to be. Apologies if this is a dumb question.

[Jongware]

Scripting does not provide direct access to fonts. But you can find the values you need by taking a sample character and convert it to outlines. It has been mentioned before in this forum, perhaps a search will locate it.

[sstanleyau]

It's not a dumb question, but the answer is no, alas.<br /><br />-- <br />Shane Stanley <sstanley@myriad-com.com.au>

[Peter Kahrel]

As jongware mentioned, you don't have much access to fonts. His idea of converting to outlines and measuring the height of the resulting frame is one possibilty. I've been using a different approach (which might in fact be slower than jongware's). The idea is to add a temporary text frame, enter "x", set the first baseline offset to capheight and measure the baseline: that's the capheight. Remove the X, enter x (lower case), set the first baseline offset to xheight, mease the baseline again: now you have the xheight.

Peter

// "ip" is an insertion point

function x_cap (ip)

   {

   var tf = app.activeDocument.textFrames.add (

      {

      geometricBounds: [0,0,40,40],

      textFramePreferences : {firstBaselineOffset: FirstBaseline.capHeight},

      contents: 'X'}

      );

   tf.parentStory.appliedFont = ip.appliedFont;

   tf.parentStory.pointSize = ip.parentStory.characters[ip.index-1].pointSize;

   var cap_height = tf.characters[0].baseline;

   tf.textFramePreferences.firstBaselineOffset = FirstBaseline.xHeight;

   x_height = tf.characters[0].baseline;

   tf.remove();

   return [cap_height, x_height]

   }

[Harbs.]

> I've been using a different approach (which might in fact be slower than jongware's).
I don't think anything can be slower than converting to outlines. I
think it's the most processor intensive (and buggy) function in
InDesign. I've used this convert to outline trick for many things
including getting x/caps height, but I like your function way better.
Thanks!

--
Harbs
http://www.in-tools.com

[Martin Fischer]

Hi Peter,

> function x_cap (ip)

Fantastic!

Thank you very much for this nice function.
In the past I did this measurement with the outline method.
But now I prefer your function.

Thanks
Martin

[Peter Kahrel]

Thanks Martin. But I forgot to mention that this is in fact Teus de Jong's idea.

Peter

[Guest]

Peter,

Thank you for your post. I was already using that approach and wanted to find out if I was going crazy or if there really was no alternative.

In case this helps anybody, however, it is worth noting that you do not need to enter a different character to determine the x-height or the cap height (the function doesn't actually do that) or even the character 'x' at all. In fact, it doesn't matter what character you enter, even a space band, as any character in the same font and size will return the same results.

Most importantly, thank you for taking the time to respond.

[Peter Kahrel]

> you do not need to enter a different character to determine the x-height or the cap height ... even the character 'x' at all. In fact, it doesn't matter what character you enter

That's correct.

Peter