Smart font for ISWA 2010

[Eduardo Trápani]

> I am sooo thrilled with your work Eduardo…I tried to follow the
> instructions to use Graphite on my computer, and I stopped the process
> when I got a warning on my computer saying that I better be careful
> because this could possibly damage files or be a problem ….so I wasn't
> sure if I wanted to do this change-over or not? So I didn't do it…

Yes, go ahead!! And then only make that single change and close the
tab/window.

> Also I have a second question…
> 
> If we provide fonts with smaller symbol-sets, just for ASL or just for
> one other sign language, such as LIBRAS, doesn't that create a problem
> for us if we wanted later, to copy and paste documents between
> Wikipedias for different sign languages, etc?

Yes, at the very least you would endup with squares instead of the
actual characters.

> That is why I was hopeful that Jonathan's  compressed font development
> might work better instead providing us with one two-colored font for the
> entire ISWA, rather than separate fonts for each sign language? Or have
> I completely misunderstood what is happening?

The compressed font would not work with Graphite.  It's hard enough to
map all fill/rotations, if we had to somehow include the building
information ... no, I don't think that would work (I'd be really glad to
be proven wrong).

So, the idea of the reduced fonts is to work around the current glyph
limit (whether in Firefox or in Graphite I still don't know).  It is
just temporary, to move on with the Wikipedia.

Eduardo.