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    <p>Had a shower thought this evening: What about "design instance"?
      And then calling what is the list in fvar, when there is a need to
      differentiate, a "user instance"? This would be, in effect,
      extending the distinction between design coordinates and user
      coordinates to instances.</p>
    <p>One thing I like about this is that it doesn't carry the heavy
      weight connotation that "master" seems to, in that it seems
      natural to talk about the "design instance" of a whole font or of
      a single glyph, while using "master" for the latter doesn't seem
      quite right. <br>
    </p>
    <p>(A single word would be easier but those tend to be taken one or
      twice over at this late date.)<br>
    </p>
    <p>Skef  <br>
    </p>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2/5/24 13:32, Hin-Tak Leung wrote:<br>
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        <div>For some of its current usage, the word "master" can be
          replaced with "primary". The other usage, and in plurals,
          "masters" (as in variable fonts) are really corner states /
          extremas . There is probably a better word to mean a "pure
          instance" of some sort?</div>
        <div><br>
        </div>
        <div>"primary/primaries" probably can work? "primary source
          data"? "Source primary"?</div>
        <div><br>
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            <div> On Monday, 5 February 2024 at 21:04:50 GMT, Thomas
              Phinney <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:tphinney@cal.berkeley.edu"><tphinney@cal.berkeley.edu></a> wrote: </div>
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                    <div
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                      class="ydp344c07a4yiv6692309986gmail_default">IIRC,
                      we had a (very lengthy!) discussion of this same
                      issue internally at FontLab back when I was CEO.</div>
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                      class="ydp344c07a4yiv6692309986gmail_default">We
                      never came up with an alternate word that seemed
                      workable for the font data concept. “Main” really
                      does seem <i>singular</i> in a way that “master”
                      is not necessarily.</div>
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                      class="ydp344c07a4yiv6692309986gmail_default">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.</div>
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                      <div dir="ltr"
                        class="ydp344c07a4yiv6692309986gmail_attr">On
                        Mon, Feb 5, 2024 at 12:53 PM Hin-Tak Leung via
                        mpeg-otspec <<a shape="rect"
                          href="mailto:mpeg-otspec@lists.aau.at"
                          rel="nofollow" target="_blank"
                          moz-do-not-send="true"
                          class="moz-txt-link-freetext">mpeg-otspec@lists.aau.at</a>>
                        wrote:<br clear="none">
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                          <div
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                            <div>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.</div>
                            <div><br clear="none">
                            </div>
                            <div>Maybe the opentype spec should avoid
                              the word "master" for that reason too.</div>
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                                <div> On Monday, 5 February 2024 at
                                  20:44:15 GMT, Peter Constable via
                                  mpeg-otspec <<a shape="rect"
href="mailto:mpeg-otspec@lists.aau.at" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"
                                    moz-do-not-send="true"
                                    class="moz-txt-link-freetext">mpeg-otspec@lists.aau.at</a>>
                                  wrote: </div>
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                                <div>
                                  <div dir="ltr">Hi, Skef<br
                                      clear="none">
                                    <br clear="none">
                                    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. <br clear="none">
                                    <br clear="none">
                                    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.<br
                                      clear="none">
                                    <br clear="none">
                                    <br clear="none">
                                    A question about this: I gather that
                                    this would require changes in CFF2
                                    rasterizers?<br clear="none">
                                    <br clear="none">
                                    <br clear="none">
                                    Peter<br clear="none">
                                    <div
id="ydp344c07a4yiv6692309986m_-641728661922181094ydp987cb2bcyqtfd48815"><br
                                        clear="none">
                                      -----Original Message-----<br
                                        clear="none">
                                      From: mpeg-otspec <<a
                                        shape="rect"
href="mailto:mpeg-otspec-bounces@lists.aau.at" rel="nofollow"
                                        target="_blank"
                                        moz-do-not-send="true"
                                        class="moz-txt-link-freetext">mpeg-otspec-bounces@lists.aau.at</a>>
                                      On Behalf Of Skef Iterum via
                                      mpeg-otspec<br clear="none">
                                      Sent: Monday, February 5, 2024
                                      3:23 AM<br clear="none">
                                      To: <a shape="rect"
href="mailto:mpeg-otspec@lists.aau.at" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"
                                        moz-do-not-send="true"
                                        class="moz-txt-link-freetext">mpeg-otspec@lists.aau.at</a><br
                                        clear="none">
                                      Subject: [EXTERNAL] [MPEG-OTSPEC]
                                      Relaxation of CFF2 hint
                                      requirements (?) in variable fonts<br
                                        clear="none">
                                      <br clear="none">
                                      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.<br clear="none">
                                      <br clear="none">
                                      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.<br
                                        clear="none">
                                      <br clear="none">
                                      We can talk about versioning
                                      questions as part of the
                                      discussion.<br clear="none">
                                      <br clear="none">
                                      Skef<br clear="none">
_______________________________________________<br clear="none">
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                        _______________________________________________<br
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