[mpeg-OTspec] RE: Final (was Tentative) schedule for the AHG meeting

[William_J_G Overington]

Thank you for replying.

>> I suggest that CPAL codes F000 through to FFFE are reserved for special meaning and not regarded as being colours in the same way as are CPAL codes 0000 through to EFFF. CPAL code FFFF already has a special meaning.

Once it is realized that a CPAL code could sometimes refer to something other than a colour, either as "totally transparent and (something else)" or as a stand alone code, various advanced facilities become theoretically possible.

As various ideas may develop over time, it seems a good idea to plan for a future situation where backward compatibility with what is being standardized in 2014 may well be needed.

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For example, preset colours such as various colours of metallic ink.

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For example, "totally transparent and sounds a beep".

So, for example, that a particular colour glyph could have two layers, a symbol in red in one layer and a glyph in "totally transparent and sounds a beep" in a layer on top of it.

I am thinking that such a possibility might become useful in telemedicine applications where the red glyph could provide a visible and audible warning if a monitored value went out of range.

This is just a thought experiment at the moment, but some readers might like to look at the following posts so as to provide a visual idea of what I mean.

http://forum.high-logic.com/viewtopic.php?p=19953#p19953

http://forum.high-logic.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4570

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For example, animation.

Suppose please that there were CPAL codes one each for the following.

static alternative
animation start
animation frame separator
wait 0.1 seconds
wait 1 second
wait 10 seconds
loop

Suppose that, for a particular example font, there are three glyphs.

filled square at the left
filled square at the right
filled square in the centre

Suppose that in the example font there is one palette and the CPAL codes include the following.

2 red
7 magenta
10 cyan

One could have a sequence of glyphs in the COLR table as follows, from the back to the front, all together making one animated colour glyph.

static alternative
filled square at the left, red
filled square at the right, magenta
filled square in the centre, cyan
animation start
filled square at the left, red
wait 1 second
animation frame separator
filled square in the centre, cyan
wait 1 second
animation frame separator
filled square at the right, magenta
wait 1 second
animation frame separator
filled square in the centre, cyan
wait 1 second
loop

That is seventeen glyphs in this example.

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For example, one theoretical example of gradient fill.

gradient fill the next but one glyph from upper to lower with the specified colours of the next two glyphs
filled square in the centre, orange
filled square in the centre, blue

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As standards are what are used and standards take a long time to produce and a longer time to update, I ask that such features are considered for inclusion now please so that they can come into use far sooner than would otherwise be the situation.

I am not able to produce fontmaking software or application programs to support these ideas myself.

William Overington

9 January 2014