[MPEG-OTSPEC] To add some more perspective

[John Hudson]

This goes back to my point some weeks ago that Microsoft's OT spec is 
the /de facto/ standard. No font foundry makes fonts available in 'Open 
Font Format'. No type tester website shows off 'Open Font Format Layout' 
features. When we meet to talk about layout or variations, we don't do 
so in reference to OFF.

So I have a slightly different take on the opentype-layout and otfontvar 
lists, which is that they were explicitly engaged with Microsoft's OT 
format and really nothing to do with OFF at all, except insofar as 
implied by the tacit agreement that the two specs should remain in sync.

And, yes, that meant they were exercises in collaboration that were 
constrained by what Microsoft was willing to engage with and implement, 
which was sometimes a lot — as with the initial work on variations — and 
sometimes not much at all, which left a lot of things undone even when 
individuals at Microsoft were in favour of them or had drafted them as 
with, e.g. Rob's contributions to resolving axis mapping.

J.


On 26092020 12:26 am, Behdad Esfahbod wrote:
> and respond to some of the recent commentary on the list:
>
> Since 2014 the opentype-layout at unicode.org 
> <mailto:opentype-layout at unicode.org> mailing list has been the /de 
> facto/ embodiment of the MPEG Open Font Format Ad-Hoc Group.
>
> Since 2016 the otfontvar at unicode.org <mailto:otfontvar at unicode.org> 
> mailing list has been the embodiment of the MPEG Open Font Format 
> Ad-Hoc Group in matters of Variable Fonts.
>
> So whenever "drafts" came down /here/, on this list, for "review", 
> they *never* had any /real/ chance to be *meaningfully* altered 
> through feedback on this list. What is offered by the chair on this 
> list for review is to double-check his copy/paste and search/replace 
> work as well as spot typos and grammatical mistakes and suggest 
> improved wording. Otherwise the /actual/ work has already happened in 
> meetings, most of them I / Google(+Facebook) hosted (opentype-layout + 
> half of otfontvar), the rest Peter / Microsoft hosted.
>
> I put together the agenda and chaired the opentype-layout ones. Peter 
> managed the otfontvar ones. In all cases only Peter had the pen, and 
> access to make changes appear in OpenType, and by the time they 
> arrived at this list for "review" they were well underway to ship in 
> Windows, making the /technical essence/ unchangeable unless to address 
> major deficiencies (eg. STAT).
>
> behdad
> http://behdad.org/
>
> _______________________________________________
> mpeg-otspec mailing list
> mpeg-otspec at lists.aau.at
> https://lists.aau.at/mailman/listinfo/mpeg-otspec


-- 

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

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