[Solved] Document spacing varies between PC

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LME7132
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Joined: Sat Apr 06, 2019 5:56 am

[Solved] Document spacing varies between PC

Post by LME7132 »

Hello,

I have an odd document spacing issue. I have a document that when I open on my windows XP machine is 476 pages and when I open the same document (via mounted network drive) on my windows 7 pro machine it is 524 (both running Openoffice 4.1.1). While it claims to be single spaced on both machines there is clearly a line spacing issue (I have confirmed the lines all end on the same word so it has to be an interline thing, I seem to be losing ~3 line a page in a 6x9 format 11 point font). All the setting claim to be the same (page size, spacing, margins, spacing above and below the paragraph etc.) and I am opening the same .odt file. Does anyone have any idea how to fix this? Could it be an OS thing or a 32 verse 64 bit PC thing or is the document potentially going to be different on every machine?

Thanks,

Luke
Last edited by Hagar Delest on Sat Apr 06, 2019 9:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: tagged solved
OpenOffice 4.1.1 on Windows XP
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keme
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Re: Document spacing varies between PC

Post by keme »

LME7132 wrote:I have an odd document spacing issue. I have a document that when I open on my windows XP machine is 476 pages and when I open the same document (via mounted network drive) on my windows 7 pro machine it is 524 (both running Openoffice 4.1.1). While it claims to be single spaced on both machines there is clearly a line spacing issue (I have confirmed the lines all end on the same word so it has to be an interline thing, I seem to be losing ~3 line a page in a 6x9 format 11 point font). All the setting claim to be the same (page size, spacing, margins, spacing above and below the paragraph etc.) and I am opening the same .odt file. Does anyone have any idea how to fix this? Could it be an OS thing or a 32 verse 64 bit PC thing or is the document potentially going to be different on every machine?
The cause is most likely that different fonts are used on the two computers.
  • The document will have a font assigned to all textual content. This is the font which the document requests to be used for that particular text. If the computer does not have that font installed, the software will try to find a "best match" among available fonts. When a replacement ocurs, the font selector will still display the desired (requested) font name, not the name of the replacement.
  • Point size is not an exact measure for computer fonts. Lead types for traditional typesetting required different spacing to look their best, depending on which font you used. This spacing was added by inserting strips of lead - hence "leading". Our digital "types" also have different "recommended leading" depending on font, which makes line spacing differ even when you use the same point size.
If your document is formatted to use, say the "Sabon" font (quite common in book printing), and the computer you are using does not have it installed (because you haven't bought it), it may be replaced with a similar font. There are different strategies for picking a replacement font. Sabon may (quite conceivably) be replaced by e.g. Calibri, Times New Roman or Bookman Old Style fonts. I made a sample document with those three fonts, one page for each, where you see clearly that there is a slight variation in line spacing (see where line 25 falls). this 5-6% difference may perfectly well account for a ~10% difference in page count such as you experience (even more with larger point size and/or smaller pages).

If font substitution is indeed the cause, there are two obvious ways to fix it:
  • Change the fonts used in the document. Use fonts which are available on both computers.
  • Make sure all required fonts are installed on both computers. Install fonts which are missing.
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LME7132
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Re: Document spacing varies between PC

Post by LME7132 »

So there is no indication (other than appearance) that the font has been changed? I thought I was using one of the default fonts of OpenOffice, I don't recall installing any. Thanks for the information, I will look into that.
OpenOffice 4.1.1 on Windows XP
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RoryOF
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Re: Document spacing varies between PC

Post by RoryOF »

The TestFonts extension (at the OO Extensions repository) will quickly tell what fonts are requested/substituted/available.
Apache OpenOffice 4.1.15 on Xubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
LME7132
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Re: Document spacing varies between PC

Post by LME7132 »

Thanks, that was my issue. "Book antiqua" was an included font in Xp and was replaced in windows 7 with something that looks nearly identical. Installing the font fixed my problem.
OpenOffice 4.1.1 on Windows XP
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