[mpeg-OTspec] Registering new GPOS features?

[Ken Lunde]

Peter & Behdad,

While I am potentially okay with hanging the functionality that I described off of the 'dist' GPOS feature, especially if there is resistance to register a new feature, I need to point out that a separate feature is definitely needed for vertical. A sufficient number of the target characters have corresponding glyphs that can be used in both writing modes, sometimes as multiples of the same glyph (GID), which is what necessitates a separate vertical feature. Does that mean that the description of 'dist' needs to be modified, and a corresponding vertical feature, perhaps tagged 'vdis', be registered?

Also, 'kern' and 'vkrn' cannot be used for this purpose, because it is completely reasonable for a font to include both genuine kerning values (for more sophisticated environments) and the contextual spacing that I have described (for simpler environments).

Regards...

-- Ken

> On Apr 25, 2018, at 8:08 PM, Peter Constable <petercon at microsoft.com> wrote:
> 
> Agreed: distinct features are needed when a behaviour needs to be independently-controllable by users, or if (generally only in script-specific cases) a particular sequence of feature application is needed to get required GSUB derivations. Otherwise, a separate feature serves no purpose other than a bookkeeping mechanism for the font developer, or a way to declare a supported capability to customers.
>  
> From: mpeg-OTspec at yahoogroups.com <mpeg-OTspec at yahoogroups.com> On Behalf Of Behdad Esfahbod behdad at behdad.org [mpeg-OTspec]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2018 3:02 PM
> To: Ken Lunde <lunde at adobe.com>
> Cc: mpeg-OTspec at yahoogroups.com; opentype-list at indx.co.uk
> Subject: Re: [mpeg-OTspec] Registering new GPOS features?
>  
>   
> OpenType is designed such that fonts can improve these kinds of things without needing a change to be rolled out to every engine first. We just need one required feature and all kinds of GSUB/GPOS things can be hung onto it. The tags should be reserved for features that are either need to be controlled by shaper, or by user. Everything else should be just one required feature.
>  
> On Wed, Apr 25, 2018 at 1:48 AM, Ken Lunde lunde at adobe.com [mpeg-OTspec] <mpeg-OTspec-noreply at yahoogroups.com> wrote:
>   
> Behdad, 
> 
>  
> While I see some parallels, the Indic nature of 'dist', along with the fact that a corresponding vertical feature is necessary, makes me think that separate features is better.
>  
> Also, and this is for others, I just noticed that a fair number of OpenType feature tags in the spec are surrounded by smart double quotes, while most are surrounded by single straight quotes. I counted that 16 features have this issue. See the attached screenshot to see the first three.
>  
> Regards...
>  
> -- Ken
> 
> 
> On Apr 24, 2018, at 3:39 PM, Behdad Esfahbod <behdad at behdad.org> wrote:
> 
> 'dist' feature?
>  
> <image003.png>
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> behdad
> http://behdad.org/
>