TrueType Fonts

[Bill Reese]

Val,
I did a search for TrueType font generation, just to see what it
entails.  On the way, I came across an article on Microsoft's site about
International Windows and how they developed the ability to show
different language fonts on the same machine using something they call
Uniscribe.  The article is very complex and the subject matter is new to
me, but it was interesting that it sounded very similar to some of the
papers I read from the Lisbon conference.  Here's the link:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/developers/uniscribe/default.htm

Also, in reading a bit further on the subject, I came across the need in
some fonts to have what they call "attachment points" for such things
like diacritical marks - which are usually either above or below the
rest of the characters in the fonts.  That got me to wondering if there
could be attachment points for SignWriting symbols.  If each symbol was
surrounded with 8 invisible attachment points, it could, theoretically,
snap to one of the attachment points of an adjacent symbol.

At the moment, the symbol placement within the character box is
restricted by the number of pixels that the box represents on the
screen.  This allows us to put symbols in a seemingly infinite number of
arrangements.  If we had attachment points instead, while the number of
arrangements wouldn't be infinite, it may be enough for the combinations
we need.  Perhaps 16 attachment points would be needed, but you see the
concept behind it is to provide a way to logically order the symbols in
their spatial relationship.   You might even be able to infer a
relationship based on attachment points - that if a symbol, say an
arrow, is attached to a hand symbol, then it means that the hand is
what's moving.

Just a couple thoughts,
Bill


Valerie Sutton wrote:

>
> When I was working with Unicode specialist Michael Everson, years ago,
> Michael told me that there would be no problem to place SignWriting
> into Unicode, but there were three issues...The first is funding to
> develop all the TrueType fonts for the huge symbolset...that is a big
> task and unfortunately the first obstacle. The second is the politics
> with the world standards...That has already been somewhat solved, since
> Michael has already gotten written acceptance for a SignWriting Unicode
> standard from the ISO (an international organization that sets world
> standards)...hopefully, even though it has been several years now,
> since we received that, the door will still be open when someone
> finally works officially on Unicode. Once the first and second phases
> are finished, there is a third phase...The programming of how the
> TrueType fonts would work, to make it possible to type SignWriting with
> them as efficiently as we do in SignWriter DOS...or maybe even better
> that SignWriter DOS. I know that most people do not realize that we can
> type directly in SignWriting, but we can if you know how to do it, and
> getting Unicode to function on that level will need some programming. I
> believe that Guylhem's paper is about an idea for Unicode
> implementation...and there are other ideas too...People seem genuinely
> interested in the programming aspects in step three...But it is
> completing step one that scares me ---There are a lot of symbols to put
> into TrueType!
>