[MPEG-OTSPEC] [EXTERNAL] Relaxation of CFF2 hint requirements (?) in variable fonts

[Thomas Phinney]

IIRC, we had a (very lengthy!) discussion of this same issue internally at
FontLab back when I was CEO.

We never came up with an alternate word that seemed workable for the font
data concept. “Main” really does seem *singular* in a way that “master” is
not necessarily.

If somebody proposes a good alternative word, I expect people would be
happy to entertain a change request—I just couldn’t think of something.




On Mon, Feb 5, 2024 at 12:53 PM Hin-Tak Leung via mpeg-otspec <
mpeg-otspec at lists.aau.at> wrote:

> That reminds me - the git/git[hub,lab,...] people have been moving away
> from "master" as the name of the default branch, to "main", because of the
> word's colonial connotations.
>
> Maybe the opentype spec should avoid the word "master" for that reason too.
>
> On Monday, 5 February 2024 at 20:44:15 GMT, Peter Constable via
> mpeg-otspec <mpeg-otspec at lists.aau.at> wrote:
>
>
> Hi, Skef
>
> The term "master" should not be used in the way you have in this doc. The
> variations overview section uses the term, defining it as "a set of source
> font data... used in a font-development workflow". It could be used
> elsewhere in the spec with that meaning, but the wording should make clear
> that it refers to source data.
>
> In your doc, it's not clear whether you mean "instance" or a default value
> combined with a (not attenuated) delta. The latter concept necessarily has
> to refer to some specific value in the font, which could be an outline
> coordinate, a metric value, or any other single, variable value. But when
> it comes to data in the font file there is nothing that corresponds to a
> source master.
>
>
> A question about this: I gather that this would require changes in CFF2
> rasterizers?
>
>
> Peter
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: mpeg-otspec <mpeg-otspec-bounces at lists.aau.at> On Behalf Of Skef
> Iterum via mpeg-otspec
> Sent: Monday, February 5, 2024 3:23 AM
> To: mpeg-otspec at lists.aau.at
> Subject: [EXTERNAL] [MPEG-OTSPEC] Relaxation of CFF2 hint requirements (?)
> in variable fonts
>
> A short proposal to relax the requirements on stem hints in a CFF2
> variable font should be attached. These changes (or clarifications -- see
> below) are comparable to allowing overlap in CFF2; what could easily be
> normalized away in a static context winds up being needed in a variable
> context.
>
> Note that these changes do not affect the storage format, and one could
> argue that one or even both is compatible with the current standard (given
> that nothing much is said on the subject). Still, they may raise issues
> about versioning. My sense is that if a font built according to the
> clarifications is rasterized on a system assuming total ordering of stems
> and/or no duplicate stems, the result will be as if some stems are missing
> rather than overt distortion of a glyph. And the need for such stems is
> relative rare, so only a few glyphs in a typical font are likely to be
> affected.
>
> We can talk about versioning questions as part of the discussion.
>
> Skef
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