[mpeg-OTspec] RE: font media types

[Thomas Phinney]

That's a couple of times you've mentioned a font having both kinds of
outlines. I don't think that's a possibility that should be encouraged, and
I for one would prefer NOT to explicitly designate how to handle it. It is
specifically recommended against in the OT spec: "Both Microsoft and Adobe
recommend against mixing outline formats within a single font. Choose the
format that meets your feature requirements." (
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/recom.htm)

Cheers,

T


On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 12:26 PM, Levantovsky, Vladimir <
vladimir.levantovsky at monotypeimaging.com> wrote:

>
>
> Thank you John,
>
> I believe making a distinction based on the types of glyph outline data has
> always been the primary goal, and what you proposed seem to make perfect
> sense. However, I'd like to keep an "umbrella" media type to separate
> OpenType/OFF-based SFNT objects vs. arbitrary SFNT-based format.
>
> Strictly speaking, defining a media type for an arbitrary SFNT-based format
> would go beyond the scope of ISO OFF specification, but I think it would be
> acceptable to attempt to define this media type as part of the ISO document
> anyway, to offer a way to distinguish SFNT font structures that are not
> compliant with the ISO standard (and we know there are many of them out
> there). With this in mind, would the following be acceptable to everyone:
>
> - application/font-ttf - for traditional TrueType fonts and OpenType/OFF
> fonts with TrueType outlines;
> - application/font-cff - for OpenType/OFF fonts with CFF outlines;
> - application/font-off - for OpenType/OFF fonts with both TrueType and CFF
> outlines, or as a generic type for a font that is compliant to ISO OFF spec,
> and
> - application/font-sfnt - for generic SFNT-based font formats.
>
> Please voice your objections / concerns / comments / agreement - I need to
> finalize the text of the annex and submit it to ISO SC29 by the end of the
> week.
>
>
> Thank you,
> Vlad
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: John Hudson [mailto:john at tiro.ca]
> > Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2011 2:08 PM
> > To: Levantovsky, Vladimir
> > Cc: David Lemon; OTspec; Chris Lilley; Tab Atkins; Karsten Luecke
> > Subject: Re: [mpeg-OTspec] RE: font media types
> >
> > Vladimir wrote:
> >
> > > We can also consider changing the proposed
> > > media types, e.g. to be more specific and use font-ttf, font-cff and
> > > font-otf for the purposes outlined above.
> >
> > If the distinction is to be based on outline type, then I think
> > 'font-ttf' and 'font-cff' is much preferable to using 'font-otf' for
> > the
> > latter. The only reason .otf is not typically used as a file extension
> > for TrueType fonts is so that the latter are backwards compatible with
> > older Windows systems that do not recognise .otf; this is obviously
> > less
> > of a practical concern than it was in 1998, and now persists mostly as
> > convention. I have, however, seen some TrueType fonts with an .otf
> > extension.
> >
> > OTF stands for OpenType Font, not PostScript OpenType Font, and the
> > first item in the OpenType catechism is that an OpenType font may
> > contain either TrueType or PostScript outlines. Hence, I think it is
> > misleading or at least confusing to identify 'font-otf' with PostScript
> > outlines.
> >
> > I also wonder about using either 'font-off' or 'font-otf' to indicate
> > an
> > unknown outline type: the former because OFF is not a widely used or
> > recognised abbreviation -- the Open Font Format being reasonably seen
> > as
> > a particular publication of the OpenType Font specification --, and the
> > latter because of potential confusion in the minds of those who, due to
> > convention, associate .otf with PostScript outlines.
> >
> > I wonder if there might be grounds for a generic 'font-sfnt' MIME type,
> > which would not only express the desired agnosticism regarding outline
> > type, but would also be useful for fonts containing non-OTL layout
> > tables.
> >
> > So we might have:
> >
> > application/font-ttf
> > application/font-cff
> > application/font-sfnt
> >
> >
> > JH
> >
> > --
> >
> > Tiro Typeworks www.tiro.com
> > Gulf Islands, BC tiro at tiro.com
> >
> > A pilgrimage is a journey undertaken in the
> > light of a story. -- Paul Elie
>
>  
>



-- 
“Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone,
 somewhere, may be happy.”
 —H.L. Mencken
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