[mpeg-OTspec] Re: [OpenType] MS Proposal for a new Name Table ID

[Sairus Patel]

I agree with John J, John H, and others that the 'name' table doesn't seem
like an appropriate place for this kind of information.

(That said, there is a name ID for PostScript name, which doesn't need to
be -- indeed, mustn't be -- localized/translated, and which typically is
not seen by the end user. However, PostScript name is a kind of font
identifier name, and other font identifier names e.g Family name are
localized and intended to be seen by users.)

It's true that the 'OS/2' table has become OT's extensible grab bag of
miscellaneous information. (The 'head' table could have served this
function -- both tables share similar information about style bits, for
example -- but for some reason hasn't.)

What would be different about adding this "languages supported" string to
the 'OS/2' (or 'head' for that matter) is that it's a variable-length
string, and thus far, these tables are fixed-length for a particular
version. But that shouldn't be an issue.

*If* we wanted to add this to the OS/2, it might look like this:

OS/2 version = 5
Add following fields:
ULONG  languages supported string offset (from beginning of OS/2 table)
ULONG  languages supported string length

The string could be spec'd as UTF-8 (or UTF-16 BE), comma-separated, etc.

Sairus



On 1/4/13 1:05 PM, "John Hudson " <john at tiro.ca> wrote:

>Message from OpenType list:
>
>
>I agree that the 'name' table does not seem like the best place for this
>language information. Before considering the merits of a new, generic
>'META' table as John Jenkins has proposed, I'm wondering what pros and
>cons might exist to extending the 'OS/2' table to include this data,
>since its use by software parallels that of the codepage and Unicode
>range information in that table. Is this an option?
>
>
>JH
>
>
>-- 
>
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