Character spacing in word equations wrong when printed

4

In MS Word 2013 (Office 365 version) I wrote a document that contains some equations (using the Microsoft Equation Editor, not the Equation Tools).

After printing it, I noticed bad character spacing in some cases. On screen it is OK. I also saved the file to PDF format and opened it with Sumatra PDF v2.5.2 and there it is wrong too.

See the character spacing in the subscripts. The m is touching a and i and there is too much space between i and n (in the PDF version, it is the same on paper when printing the DOC version).

Screenshots: PDF screenshot, same as on paper enter image description here

Any idea what is wrong? Where to look? (fun fact: the About dialog of the MS Equation Editor says year 2000)

PS: The font used is apparently "Times New Roman". If I change it to Arial, then the spacing is OK, but it looks worse otherwise (not a good font for equations).

PPS: I changed the font to "Georgia" and the PDF is a bit better. The same problem is still there, but in milder form (the letters are not touching each other, but still the wrong spacing is obvious):

enter image description here

David Balažic

Posted 2016-02-24T23:33:42.697

Reputation: 1 242

Before the edit, it looked like the PDF was substituting a ligature for the two characters. However, the min in the Georgia font is still messed up and it doesn't look like a ligature. And if you first noticed it in the printout, that also wouldn't be a ligature. A few experiments that might shed light: 1) try some other fonts. 2) Try another office suite if you can (e.g., older version of Word or free alternative like LibreOffice Writer). 3) Instead of saving as a PDF, print to one of the free PDF printer utilities. It kind of looks like the equation editor isn't ready for prime time. – fixer1234 – 2016-02-25T00:01:02.080

Microsoft Equation is an outdated shareware of MathType that was licensed to Microsoft since the days of Word 6.0 or may be before and is packed for compatibility reasons. But does the problem occur if you use INSERT \ Equation? – Sanny – 2016-02-25T05:14:40.463

Have you tried using the "Cambria Math" font that was specifically designed for use in equations? – Moshe Katz – 2016-02-29T17:40:11.910

Answers

3

Ironically, it may be that what is being printed is actually correct, while what Word is showing you is optimized for readability (and, as such, incorrect in a sense).

Try enable the Optimize character positioning for layout rather than readability setting.

Then you can play around in Equation Editor with different fonts and spacing settings to get your desired result.

Word 2003 Advanced Display Settings

misha256

Posted 2016-02-24T23:33:42.697

Reputation: 10 292

Enabling that option does not make any difference in display. – David Balažic – 2016-02-29T01:10:34.067

@DavidBalažic That's too bad, I was hopeful. I have finally managed to install Word 2013 on a VM, to have a go myself. I can replicate your issue. I can find NO solution to the problem. In the worst case it may be this ancient equation editor just isn't up to the task any more. Fundamentally, as you observe, it (and I bet its entire code-base) dates back to around 2000. – misha256 – 2016-02-29T20:23:47.590

Asked: 2016-02-24T23:33:42.697

Viewed: 1 051 times

Active: 2016-02-25T03:50:29.337