[mpeg-OTspec] RE: AHG kick-off - Composite Font Representation work

[John Hudson]

Peter Constable wrote:

> I identified some possible reasons for having data describing 
> combinations of font resources, but also indicated that I wasn’t aware 
> of any problems regarding interoperable interchange of such data needing 
> to be solved...

I think the current set of problems needing to be solved are indeed 
negligible, but that is surely in part because composite fonts are not 
widely used and neither users nor software developers -- including font 
developers -- have started exploring all the ways in which composite 
fonts might be used.

I see having a standard composite font representation opening up a 
number of interesting avenues for font use that address existing 
problems arising from incompatible metrics in different scripts, size 
specific font selection, etc.. I also anticipate markets for custom 
composite fonts as a delivery format from font vendors, including things 
like customised corporate font packages for localisation. A standard 
data description for combinations of font resources makes this sort of 
thing possible.

JH


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Tiro Typeworks        www.tiro.com
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