Thread: [Indic-computing-devel] Roadmap - suggestions
Status: Alpha
Brought to you by:
jkoshy
Menu
▾
▴
indic-computing-devel
|
From: Guntupalli K. <kar...@fr...> - 2001-12-19 07:58:05
|
Hi, few suggestion on the roadmap ( http://indic-computing.sourceforge.net/roadmap/index.html ) Right now only covered first two sections. More to follow later. First of all we need to use a common notation method & terminology. TODO --> So two more things to add (notation technique & glossary of terminology) Few sugg. - Use Unicode naming technique for script/language alphabets. - Suitable abbreviations for commonly used phrases. ******************************************************************** 1) Language Information KN-i Collect language information for Kannada TL-i Collect language information for Telugu HN-i Collect language information for Hindi MT-i Collect language information for Marathi GR-i Collect language information for Gurmukhi ... repeat for other languages as volunteers contribute ... ----------------------------------------------------- This should actually go by Script -> Languages using the script . Some languages written using diff scripts can be taken seperatly. Define What we mean by language information ? For a script : a. The basic character set - Consonants (C), vowels (V), vowel modifiers(M), diacritics (D), punctuation etc. b. Glyph set for this basic set. c. Rules for syllable formation - consonant-vowel - C V , C V M, C V D consonant-consonant - tuples - C C , triples - C C C , quads - C C C C etc. List all possible (which are actually used , now or were at some point of time) with suitable examples how modifiers , diacritics , punctuation are used? d. complete Glyph set for (c) e. Writing rules writing direction word breaking line breaking f. Collation rules Sort order g. TODO - add more For each language - Info for all (a) to (f). Language rules may override script rules, esp. (c), (e) & (f). *********************************************** 2) Fonts: Create a collection of indic fonts Fn.1 Sponsor creation of fonts (corporate sponsorship?) Fn.2 Collect free fonts on the Internet Fn.3 Document existing fonts: availability, characteristics, encodings etc. Fn.4 package fonts for use in popular open-source OSes (ie. install documentation, user documents etc) ---------------------------------------------------------------- We need free & open source fonts - Define open source font . - font licensed under an open source license - all font data available in portable format , this includes foll. - outline data - mapping tables - opentype tables - List out complete glyph set for each language, which can be used as base by font designers. A minimal Glyph set usable for 8 bit encoded fonts A maximal set having all possible glyphs, used by multibyte encoded fonts - unicode fonts, opentype fonts etc. - A howto/tutorial on creating an opentype font from an existing TTF one - supplemented by examples, with font data. - TODO - add more *********************************************** Karunakar |
|
From: <jk...@Fr...> - 2001-12-20 09:23:13
|
g.k> First of all we need to use a common notation method & terminology.
g.k> TODO --> So two more things to add (notation technique & glossary
g.k> of terminology)
Point taken. A common notation & terminology used across all
languages would make a big difference to the clarity of our
communication.
This notation should probably be documented in one of the introductory
chapters of the Handbook. Could you contribute a write up on a
suitable notation? Something aligned with popular existing practice
would be ideal.
g.k> Few sugg.
g.k> - Use Unicode naming technique for script/language alphabets.
g.k> - Suitable abbreviations for commonly used phrases.
Ok.
I've used "language information" loosely in the roadmap.
g.k> Define What we mean by language information ?
g.k> For a script :
g.k> a. The basic character set - Consonants (C), vowels (V),
vowel modifiers(M), diacritics (D), punctuation etc.
g.k> b. Glyph set for this basic set.
g.k> c. Rules for syllable formation -
g.k> consonant-vowel - C V , C V M, C V D
g.k> consonant-consonant - tuples - C C , triples - C C C ,
quads - C C C C etc.
g.k> List all possible (which are actually used , now or were at
some point of time) with suitable
g.k> examples
g.k> how modifiers , diacritics , punctuation are used?
g.k> d. complete Glyph set for (c)
g.k> e. Writing rules
g.k> writing direction
g.k> word breaking
g.k> line breaking
g.k> f. Collation rules
g.k> Sort order
g.k> g. TODO - add more
I'll add this list to "Language Information" chapter of the Handbook in
section "What kind of information are we looking for".
g.k> We need free & open source fonts
g.k> - Define open source font .
g.k> - font licensed under an open source license
g.k> - all font data available in portable format , this includes foll.
g.k> - outline data
g.k> - mapping tables
g.k> - opentype tables
Right. As of now, I'm only aware of METAFONT technology that allows
fonts to be described in "source" form. Is there any equivalent for
{True,Open}Type fonts?
g.k> - List out complete glyph set for each language, which can be used as base
by font designers.
g.k> A minimal Glyph set usable for 8 bit encoded fonts
g.k> A maximal set having all possible glyphs, used by multibyte encoded
fonts - unicode fonts, opentype fonts etc.
g.k> - A howto/tutorial on creating an opentype font from an existing TTF one -
supplemented by examples, with font data.
g.k> - TODO - add more
Will add.
Regards,
Koshy
<jk...@fr...>
|
|
From: Guntupalli K. <kar...@fr...> - 2001-12-24 14:16:32
|
On Thu, 20 Dec 2001 01:23:11 -0800 (PST)
jk...@Fr... (Joseph Koshy) wrote:
>
> g.k> We need free & open source fonts
> g.k> - Define open source font .
> g.k> - font licensed under an open source license
> g.k> - all font data available in portable format , this includes foll.
> g.k> - outline data
> g.k> - mapping tables
> g.k> - opentype tables
>
> Right. As of now, I'm only aware of METAFONT technology that allows
> fonts to be described in "source" form. Is there any equivalent for
> {True,Open}Type fonts?
Truetype/Opentype font data is in binary format. tools can be written to extract outline info from them.
In this context I would like to point to Pfaedit (http://pfaedit.sourceforge.net) . Currently it is the only complete (reasonably stable, but still under development) opensource tool to design Type1/Truetype fonts.
Pfaedit stores all the font data as a spline font database (.sfd) (it uses cubic splines) , which is plain text. A sample for a glyph definition is given below
------------------
StartChar: exclam
Encoding: 3073 3073
Width: 387
Flags: W
VStem: 221 37<108 140>
Fore
388 -16 m 1
387.333 -18.6667 379 -20 363 -20 c 0
333.667 -20 305.333 -10.3333 278 9 c 0
240.667 35.6667 221.667 73.6667 221 123 c 0
219.667 176.333 239.667 216.667 281 244 c 0
309.667 263.333 340.333 273 373 273 c 0
380.333 273 385.333 272.667 388 272 c 1
379.333 270 367 267 351 263 c 0
288.333 244.333 257.333 199 258 127 c 0
258 68.3333 278 26.6667 318 2 c 0
332.667 -6.66667 356 -12.6667 388 -16 c 1
EndSplineSet
MinimumDistance: x8,-1
Ref: 255 N 1 0 0 1 0 0
Ref: 255 N 1 0 0 1 0 0
EndChar
-----------------
When we are done with design , we use the Generate Font option to generate the final font in Type1, Postscript, Truetype, bitmap or bdf formats.
So this .sfd can be cosidered as font source and can be released . If there are any reservations about the tool, I would say at present this is the only free good enough tool to do scalable font design in *nix platform.
Regards,
Karunakar
|
|
From: <jk...@Fr...> - 2001-12-25 04:28:35
|
>>>>> "gk" == "G Karunakar" writes: gk> Pfaedit stores all the font data as a spline font database (.sfd) (it uses cubic splines) , which is plain text. A sample for a glyph definition is given below > ------------------ > StartChar: exclam > Encoding: 3073 3073 > Width: 387 > Flags: W > VStem: 221 37<108 140> > Fore > 388 -16 m 1 > 387.333 -18.6667 379 -20 363 -20 c 0 > 333.667 -20 305.333 -10.3333 278 9 c 0 > 240.667 35.6667 221.667 73.6667 221 123 c 0 gk> So this .sfd can be cosidered as font source and can be released . If there are any reservations about the tool, I would say at present this is the only free good enough tool to do scalable font design in *nix platform. PfaEdit is an interesting tool. I'm concerned that relying on its internal storage format as a primary font specification method may be risky. Internal formats change. Also, the internal format seems rather low-level; a human would probably find it difficult to read and change it directly. Consequently, people will not be able to take and improve these fonts to the extent that we wished they could. Regards, Koshy <jk...@fr...> |
|
From: Arun S. <ar...@sh...> - 2001-12-25 04:41:15
|
On Mon, Dec 24, 2001 at 08:28:31PM -0800, Joseph Koshy wrote: > PfaEdit is an interesting tool. The Kannada font sahyadri I (pre) announced yesterday was created using pfaedit. > > I'm concerned that relying on its internal storage format as a primary > font specification method may be risky. Internal formats change. > Also, the internal format seems rather low-level; a human would > probably find it difficult to read and change it directly. > Consequently, people will not be able to take and improve these fonts > to the extent that we wished they could. Is there an alternative we're considering ? Since open type and true type fonts are documented open standards [1], most font editing tools should be able to import glyphs and reedit. For eg, sahyadri is based on another kannada font called baraha (http://www.baraha.com/). I imported baraha.ttf glyphs into pfaedit and reencoded them with unicode, apart from changing the glyphs. Also interesting is a tool called VOLT from Microsoft. It's a free download from MS (no source) and helps create substitution tables in an open type font file (for eg: replace "glyph123 glyph456", with glyph 789). -Arun [1] The specifications are freely available but don't know about patents. |
|
From: <jk...@Fr...> - 2001-12-25 05:37:27
|
>>>>> "as" === "Arun Sharma" writes:
[On how to ensure we have some open-source fonts]
as> Is there an alternative we're considering ? Since open type and true
as> type fonts are documented open standards [1], most font editing
as> tools should be able to import glyphs and reedit.
Quite right. The point was that the internal storage format of
PfaEdit, though human readable, does not get us much more than using
TT/OpenType directly.
As for alternatives: METAFONT sources exist for a number of indian
scripts today. However, getting these to work outside of the TeX
environment is something I have not been successful at. There seem to
be utilities available to convert TTF fonts to METAFONT sources but
not vice-versa.
http://jeff.cs.mcgill.ca/~luc/fonts.html
Regards,
Koshy
<jk...@fr...>
|
|
From: Guntupalli K. <kar...@fr...> - 2001-12-25 07:44:12
|
On Mon, 24 Dec 2001 21:37:25 -0800 (PST) jk...@Fr... (Joseph Koshy) wrote: > > > >>>>> "as" === "Arun Sharma" writes: > > [On how to ensure we have some open-source fonts] > > as> Is there an alternative we're considering ? Since open type and true > as> type fonts are documented open standards [1], most font editing > as> tools should be able to import glyphs and reedit. > > Quite right. The point was that the internal storage format of > PfaEdit, though human readable, does not get us much more than using > TT/OpenType directly. > To be truely open source, apart from the TTF/OTF , the font tables (cmap, base, gsub, gpos etc) should be provided. In opentype context this becomes important as some tools (some??, VOLT is the only tool) dont allow modification of existing tables, they discard existing opentype tables to create new ones. So to add few more rules to an existing opentype font would not be possible in VOLT, if only the final font is avialable. > As for alternatives: METAFONT sources exist for a number of indian > scripts today. However, getting these to work outside of the TeX > environment is something I have not been successful at. There seem to > be utilities available to convert TTF fonts to METAFONT sources but > not vice-versa. > There is a MF to postscript tool at ftp://ftp.radio-msu.net/pub/tex/tex-archive/fonts/utilities/mf2ps/ This means convert mf to ps (type1) , then type1 to truetype. ftp://ftp.radio-msu.net/pub/tex/tex-archive/fonts/utilities has the full set of convertors. One useful thing that can be done is to convert MF to type1 or TT . Since MF were created from a doc writing purpose, they would be usesful in their TTF versions also. Regards, Karunakar |
|
From: Guntupalli K. <kar...@fr...> - 2001-12-25 07:25:38
|
On Mon, 24 Dec 2001 20:28:31 -0800 (PST) jk...@Fr... (Joseph Koshy) wrote: > > PfaEdit is an interesting tool. > Its the only one good enough to do interesting stuff. Others like Spif (http://www.gh.cs.su.oz.au/~matty/Spif/ , still very primitive to do useful stuff), GOTE (Gnome opentype editor, gote.sf.net, dev is stalled) are nowhere near to pfaedit. And there are umpteen BDF editors. In windoz world also most tools are commercial, only good enough shareware one is Font Creator (www.high-logic.com), its a 30 day shareware, but no feature limitations (even after 30 days). Fontographer costs about $350 . So for free font desigining there is very little choice of tools. > I'm concerned that relying on its internal storage format as a primary > font specification method may be risky. Internal formats change. > Also, the internal format seems rather low-level; a human would > probably find it difficult to read and change it directly. > Consequently, people will not be able to take and improve these fonts > to the extent that we wished they could. > In that case Type1/TTF format is open enough, for anyone to write tools (or use available ones) to edit them. So fonts can be given as TTFs itself. Regards, Karunakar |
×
Want the latest updates on software, tech news, and AI?
Get latest updates about software, tech news, and AI from SourceForge directly in your inbox once a month.
Thanks for helping keep SourceForge clean.
X