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Sony Text and typographic quotation marks
I have noticed that the standard Sony Text media generator doesn’t handle typographic quotation marks correctly. They are rendered properly in the plug-in window, but they are not rendered properly in the event itself. I’ve submitted a report request, but I was just wondering if anyone else has noticed this, as it would be a problem any time quotation marks are being used in titles.
For anyone who wonders what I mean, normal quotation marks look like this: ” and ‘ whereas typographic quotation marks look like “ ” and ‘ ’ (so-called curly quotes). The use of typographic quotation marks is one of these things that separates amateur from pro, at least in printed material, so a bug that renders them improperly is quite constraining.
I know there are other plug-ins for text (I looked at Graffiti), but they are an expensive alternative to the plain Sony Text plug-in, especially if the only problem is the lack of proper quotation marks. Plus, there’s no guarantee that they handle typographic quotes properly, either.
Oddly enough, the two legacy text generators included with the product have the opposite problem: they don’t render the typographic quotation marks correctly in the plug-in window, but they do render them correctly on the screen. But unfortunately they are primitive compared to the Sony Text generator, so that’s not a solution either.
Anyway, I’ve submitted the support request. Has anyone else seen or been bothered by this problem? This is in Sony Vegas Ultimate, by the way, not Sony Pro, but I assume they are using the same code base (and maybe the same standard plug-ins?).
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8 Replies
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[Anthony Atkielski] “I know there are other plug-ins for text (I looked at Graffiti), but they are an expensive alternative to the plain Sony Text plug-in, especially if the only problem is the lack of proper quotation marks. Plus, there’s no guarantee that they handle typographic quotes properly, either.”
No need to buy anything. Just use the built-in ProType Titler in Vegas Pro and it will render your quotation marks correctly. I assume this will be Sony’s response as well.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
I’ve never noticed that before, but I just tested it and see the same effect. (Note that serifed fonts – the ones with the pointy things – are pretty bad for video.)
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
Well, hopefully Sony isn’t going to tell me to spend another $600 on Vegas Pro just to fix a bug.
It’s not a huge, huge deal, but since I have some experience with typography and electronic publishing, it just peeves me whenever I see non-typographic quotation marks. Fortunately, I don’t think there are too many cases where you absolutely have to have quotation marks in titles. I was thinking in particular of music credits, where typically you’d put the song title in quotes, but there are alternatives, such as typeface or font changes.
I hope that Sony will treat it as a bug and fix it sometime in the future (but maybe by then I’ll have saved up enough for Vegas Pro).
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Sony Support has reproduced this problem and has told me that it will be forwarded to the development team, so perhaps it will eventually be fixed (although no commitment was made by Sony).
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FYI, Sony support told me yesterday that this problem has been forwarded to the development team. The implication is that it will be fixed in a future release, but I asked that it be fixed in a future update, as it is an easy fix (I recognize an easy fix when I see one).
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An update on this: The problem is still not fixed in version 11 of Sony Vegas Platinum HD, and the first build of version 11 also had the problem in the new Sony titler that came with that version. Build 256 seems to have fixed the problem in the new titler, but the problem persists in the legacy titler. Something tells me that Sony will never bother to fix the legacy titler, especially since the new one now works correctly and does roughly the same thing.
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[Anthony Atkielski] “Something tells me that Sony will never bother to fix the legacy titler, especially since the new one now works correctly and does roughly the same thing.”
Yea, I wouldn’t expect Sony to go back and fix the legacy titler either. I’m glad to see they got it fixed in the new titler. It’s nice to be able to position the text right on the Vegas preview.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Unfortunately I’ve discovered a new bug in the new titler: it doesn’t recognize Adobe Type 1 fonts installed on the PC. The old titler did. Windows XP (and subsequent versions of Windows) allow you to install both TrueType and Type 1 fonts, the latter being more common for high-level typographic work. The new titler doesn’t see the Type 1 fonts. So if you want a Type 1 font, you have to use the legacy titler—but then you can’t use typographic apostrophes or quotation marks.
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