[texhax] Latin Modern with Computer Modern-compatible metrics

[William F Hammond]

Alex Scorpan <alexscorpan at aol.com> writes:

>> have you tried just using CM-Super? [...]
>> Lars Madsen
>
>> You might try to use the CMSuper fonts Simply add
>> \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} [...]
>> Herb Schulz
>
>
> Thank you.  It was worth looking into it, but — alas — it
> is even worse.  Eg, the string ``x'' is about 2.5pt wider
> in CM than in CM-super.  Indeed, for the quotation mark
> ``, . . .

So the concern shows up even without latin 1 characters.

If, as I think Lars said, cm-super is now the default, what
must one do in modern TeXLive environment to reproduce the
original computer modern appearance?

Is there a very short (at most two pages) document that
illustrates the issue well -- preferably one with non-ascii
characters outside of math zones?

Is the issue tangled with the micro level changes
introduced in pdftex back around 2001?

As for the larger context of appearance "reproducibility",
isn't lmodern (limited pretty much to Latin 1) just a
stepping stone?  Wouldn't a more useful extension of this be
to reproduce the appearance of original computer modern with
an open type font covering substantial segments of unicode?

                              -- Bill