[mpeg-OTspec] Proposal to modify wording for name table ID 6

[Ken Lunde]

Thomas and others,

I looked into this a week or two ago. Page 14 of Adobe Tech Note #5176 ("The Compact Font Format Specification") states the following:

> For compatibility with client software, such as PostScript interpreters and Acrobat®, font names should be no longer than 127 characters and should not contain any of the following ASCII characters: [, ], (, ), {, }, <, >, /, %, null (NUL), space, tab, carriage return, line feed, form feed. It is recommended that font names be restricted to the printable ASCII subset, codes 33 through 126. Adobe Type Manager® (ATM®) software imposes a further restriction on the font name length of 63 characters.
> 
> Note 3: For compatibility with earlier PostScript interpreters, see Technical Note #5088, "Font Naming Issues."

The following is from page 8 of Adobe Tech Note #5088 ("Font Naming Issues"):

> The FontName generally consists of a family name (specifically, the one used for FamilyName), followed by a hyphen and style attributes in the same order as in the FullName. For compatibility with the earliest versions of PostScript interpreters and with the file systems in some operating systems, Adobe limits the number of characters in the FontName to 29 characters.

In other words, there appears to be three length limits for the FontName string: 29, 63, and 127.

The quoted Adobe Tech Notes can be obtained here:

  http://www.adobe.com/devnet/font.html

Cheers!

-- Ken

On Jun 10, 2014, at 4:40 PM, Thomas Phinney tphinney at cal.berkeley.edu [mpeg-OTspec] <mpeg-OTspec at yahoogroups.com> wrote:

> 
> Yes, the 31 vs 63 thing caught me off guard as well. When did it change?
> 
> 
> On Tue, Jun 10, 2014 at 2:53 PM, James Cloos cloos+mpeg-otspec at jhcloos.com [mpeg-OTspec] <mpeg-OTspec at yahoogroups.com> wrote:
>  
> The simplification is good, but:
> 
> 
> 
> > translated to ASCII, the name string must be no longer than 63 characters
> 
> How long have PostScript interpreters supported names longer than 31?
> 
> Should it note that ps name used to be limited to 31?
> 
> -JimC
> --
> James Cloos <cloos at jhcloos.com> OpenPGP: 0x997A9F17ED7DAEA6
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> On paper books and ebooks: “Paper books are the packaging that books come in.”
> —Cory Doctorow
> 
>