[mpeg-OTspec] Draft amendment of ISO/IEC 14496-22 OFF (3rd edition)

[John Hudson]

+ Rob McKaughan, Eric Muller


Vlad wrote:

> When I mentioned 'name' table as a unique identifier I didn't specifically consider "font name" to be the one, but rather a collection of Name IDs. Your comment about optical size reference being the only differentiator in a font collection is valid and relevant and it actually brings back the question that was once posed on this list a couple of months ago when Karsten Luecke (https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/mpeg-OTspec/conversations/messages/1281) proposed to introduce new Name IDs for size-aware font definitions. That discussion didn’t yield an agreement, but since this same question was raised more than once by now I am wondering if we can actually get to a consensus decision on this in time for this amendment to be started.

It's possible, if all one wants is a quick solution to a particular 
identifier issue. This was also discussed during the ad hoc layout 
engine meeting in Seattle last April. But I'm not happy with the 
practice by which the name table is increasingly bloated by adding new 
IDs every time someone wants to address font data in some new way. The 
existing name IDs are already confusing to both the font makers who have 
to set them and the software makers to have to figure out which ID to 
use for a given purpose. As a result there are lots of fonts out there 
with dodgy name table entries, and examples of software makers relying 
on inappropriate name IDs for particular purposes.

Rob and I independently came up with models for font attribute data, 
which would not only be a means to provide software makers with 
unambiguous means to address fonts in a variety of ways (with side 
benefits such as enabling users to customise naming and sorting options 
in font menus), but also to automatically generate clean legacy naming 
for existing name table IDs.

So while it might be possible to squeeze name table Size ID strings into 
this OFF spec amendment, I'd rather take the time to think about 
something better and future-oriented.


JH



-- 

John Hudson
Tiro Typeworks Ltd    www.tiro.com
Salish Sea, BC        tiro at tiro.com

Getting Spiekermann to not like Helvetica is like training
a cat to stay out of water. But I'm impressed that people
know who to ask when they want to ask someone to not like
Helvetica. That's progress. -- David Berlow