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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">I think that in order to gain some real-life additional perspective on how things came to be in the world of font format standardization, we need to travel down
the memory lane to the early days of OFF development, and account for its relationship to other industry standards.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Before 2004, OpenType was a font format specification that was publicly available, and it also was a proprietary technology developed by Microsoft and Adobe.
While OT had enjoyed wide support on two major computing platforms (Windows and Mac), and was truly a de facto standard for font developers, it had no foothold in any of the consumer electronic devices. This has changed drastically with the development and
introduction of the OFF (ISO/IEC 14496-22) that was in its entirety based on OpenType 1.4 that MS and Adobe contributed to ISO.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">In order to understand why OT adoption lagged in CE devices, one has to consider the following two major factors:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><![if !supportLists]><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">1)<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Proprietary nature of OT developed by a company that dominated the industry and its unknown IP portfolio / licensing considerations, which stopped many
consumer electronics device manufacturers from ever considering it for implementation;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><![if !supportLists]><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">2)<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Lack of real-world system implementations where fonts had to be exchanged between applications, or downloaded to CE devices. In a world where resident
fonts is all you ever rely on – a font format standard makes no practical difference.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">However, since early 2000s there had been many developments that changed the world of multimedia presentations. Among those collaborative developments [conducted
by the organizations that had strong ties with ISO], there were:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2"><![if !supportLists]><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">-<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">MPEG-4, a new multimedia standard where media components [including video, audio, graphics, and text] would be delivered to an MPEG-4 receiver as resources,
and composed and rendered by a terminal according to the MPEG-4 scene description;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2"><![if !supportLists]><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">-<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) - a major development conducted [at approx. same time frame as MPEG-4] by the DVB Project with cooperation with other
TV industry organizations (including OCAP, ATSC and Blu-Ray Disk Forum) – one that changed the way how DTV applications are developed and deployed in OTT and cable broadcast, and in packaged media (Blu-Ray);<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2"><![if !supportLists]><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">-<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Dynamic & Interactive Multimedia Scenes (developed by 3GPP) and Rich Media Environment (developed by Open Mobile Alliance) creating new environments
for multimedia applications on mobile devices, and<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2"><![if !supportLists]><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">-<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Java ME upgrades that introduced middleware support for downloadable fonts (JSR-271 and JSR-287).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">So, while OpenType [due to its strong brand name and industry foothold] had remained the de facto font format standard among font vendors and text shaping / font
rendering implementers, the introduction and publication of the ISO/IEC 14496-22 “OFF” had removed the cloud of uncertainty for the TV and CE industries that were reliant on ISO standards, establishing OpenType as a true open standard.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">By 2009, the OFF was mandated by all industry specifications mentioned above, paving the way for OpenType adoption in virtually all CE devices –digital TVs, cable
/ terrestrial / IPTV set-top boxes, smartphones, Blu-Ray applications and disk players, game consoles … culminating in the W3C development of WOFF1 and WOFF2 and fueling the unprecedented growth of web fonts adoption (<a href="https://www.w3.org/blog/2020/07/happy-birthday-web-fonts/">https://www.w3.org/blog/2020/07/happy-birthday-web-fonts/</a>).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">There can be (and have been) plenty of cases when we find it frustrating to deal with ISO; however, we need to remember that:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2"><![if !supportLists]><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">-<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">It was the explosive adoption of _<i>ISO</i>_ OFF standard in CE and mobile devices and applications that opened new domains [and offered untapped potentials]
for new technical implementations. In a world where Windows and Mac had been the only platforms supporting OpenType / AAT fonts – there would be no need for FreeType and HarfBuzz.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2"><![if !supportLists]><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">-<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><![endif]><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">It was the ubiquitous OFF support in _<i>all</i>_ devices that built the foundation for unprecedented web fonts adoption, which created new, huge marketplace
for font developers and font vendors.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">ISO (with all of its outdated processes and archaic tools) has played a significant role in all of this – think about how much we, as a community, have gained
from OFF development, and think about how much font vendors and font community at large has benefited from its adoption in CE devices and on the web!
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Vlad<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">P.S. John Hudson wrote:
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I dearly wish that the format had been openly standardised through W3C or Unicode — or pretty much any organisation other than ISO.<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Standardizing a technology isn’t easy, getting it to the point of ubiquitous adoption where it offers real-world benefits is a task that is likely in the order
of magnitude more complex than technical standardization itself – think about it when considering a next venue for the next standardization activity! The standards world has plenty examples of developing dead standards – thankfully, the ISO/IEC 14496-22 “OFF”
isn’t one of them!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<div style="border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> mpeg-otspec <mpeg-otspec-bounces@lists.aau.at>
<b>On Behalf Of </b>John Hudson<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Sunday, September 27, 2020 2:15 PM<br>
<b>Cc:</b> mpeg-otspec <mpeg-otspec@lists.aau.at><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [MPEG-OTSPEC] To add some more perspective<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">On 26092020 4:48 pm, Dave Crossland wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<blockquote style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt">
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">So I think it's more accurate to say, today: <o:p></o:p></p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Microsoft's OT ___implementation___ ***was*** the de facto standard. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Past tense because there's an implementation called the Persian words Open and Type transliterated in Latin script, Harf Buzz, which I argue is now established as the new de facto standard implementation.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>HarfBuzz is definitely a very, very important implemetation of OpenType <i>Layout</i> and of text shaping (which isn't formally part of the OpenType or OFF specifications). But there is a lot more to OpenType than OTL.<o:p></o:p></p>
<blockquote style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt">
<div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">That's what changed since 2015: hb is now at the core of Adobe and Microsoft flagship products, joining Google and Facebook and Amazon. I suspect only Apple's product line is harfbuzzless.
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p>I think you are overstating the case. HarfBuzz is at the core of Microsoft's new browser — which has a
<i>tiny</i> market share—, but Microsoft's flagship products remain Windows and Office, and the DWrite implementation of OpenType Layout remains critical to those, and continues to be the de facto reference implementation for a lot of people (not forgetting
that HarfBuzz necessarily used Microsoft's OTL implementation as a reference, since it needed to provide compatible behaviour).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>Adobe are using a somewhat hampered HarfBuzz as an option in Illustrater and Photoshop alongside their other shaping engines, and are still in alpha stage of integrating it in InDesign. I am all for Adobe ditching their own shaping engines and embracing
HarfBuzz fully, but I suspect we're going to see multiple shaping engines in use for some time yet.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>So I don't think we're quite at a place where there is a single de facto reference implementation for OpenType
<i>Layout</i>, let alone all the other aspects of OT for which HarfBuzz is not directly responsible — e.g. rendering, variations. And a reference implementation for OpenType
<i>Layout </i>will provide the reference for an OTL <i>implementation</i> specification, which remains to be written and is not what either the OT or OFF specifications are.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>In any case, this doesn't change my initial observation that ‘Microsoft's OT spec is the
<i>de facto</i> standard’ for the font format and <i>not</i> OFF. HarfBuzz is an implementation of OpenType: it says so explicitly in the first paragraph at
<a href="https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/PwLQCmZn6YI5pXvRSGT_Nc/">https://harfbuzz.github.io/</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black"> HarfBuzz is an </span><a href="https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/_Y_eCn5oXgsGXwn6fJqyUG/" target="_top"><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#3465A4;background:white;text-decoration:none">OpenType</span></a><span style="font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black;background:white"> text
shaping engine. Using the HarfBuzz library allows <br>
programs to convert a sequence of Unicode input into properly formatted and <br>
positioned glyph output—for any writing system and language.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p>and links to the MS OT spec page, not to OFF.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p>I'm with you that a more open collaborative future probably does mean feeding into OFF rather than MSOT.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>And I think we will find that frustrating in its own ways, and I dearly wish that the format had been openly standardised through W3C or Unicode — or pretty much any organisation other than ISO.*<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>JH<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p>*Back in the early 2000s Microsoft and Adobe's collaboration on OpenType was already unraveling, and a developer from Adobe — frustrated by what they thought was an unequal partnership in which Adobe hampered — approached me about the possibility of ATypI
taking ownership of the font format. More recently, people have asked me what I thought about the idea of Unicode taking ownership of OpenType. I don't think I've ever encountered anyone who is actually enthusiastic about OFF, and people are still talking
about trying to find a better home for OT.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><o:p> </o:p></p>
<pre>-- <o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre><o:p> </o:p></pre>
<pre>John Hudson<o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre>Tiro Typeworks Ltd <a href="https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/L4_3CpYqKkUz9k5xhGwBIq">www.tiro.com</a><o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre>Salish Sea, BC <a href="mailto:tiro@tiro.com">tiro@tiro.com</a><o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre><o:p> </o:p></pre>
<pre>NOTE: In the interests of productivity, I am currently <o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre>dealing with email on only two days per week, usually <o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre>Monday and Thursday unless this schedule is disrupted <o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre>by travel. If you need to contact me urgently, please <o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre>use some other method of communication. Thank you.<o:p></o:p></pre>
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