[softwarelist] Re: Trinity font problem
- From: Peter Newble <peter@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: davidpilling@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:58:32 +0000 (GMT)
In article <9e4942b850.martin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Martin
Wuerthner <public@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> In message <WsJ$y0Foxd+KFwSq@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> David
> Pilling <flist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > The phrase "expert sets" springs to mind, there are other
> > special versions of fonts. Am I right in thinking that these
> > days the extra glyphs are available in Unicode fonts at
> > different code points.
> Yes, as far as ligatures are concerned, but that does not
> happen for small caps
It does, just not in a standard place (see below).
> otherwise you could not switch between normal characters and
> small caps easily - you would have to retype your text rather
> than just apply a different font.
(or use either a calculation or a lookup table to translate the
character codes, as must be done when swapping between upper and
lower case)
> After all, logically, a small caps "a" is still a lowercase
> "a", just rendered in a different design.
'Logically' only in the sense that small caps happen to take the
code positions of lower case in 8-bit symbol fonts ('expert
sets', and 'small caps' fonts consisting of caps and small caps
instead of caps and lower case) but that's only because the
PostScript 'nuclear family' of four fonts -- roman and italic,
bold and bold italic -- each with 223 usable codes and
containing two 26-letter alphabets and a limited range of
accented characters and symbols, doesn't allow space for them
anywhere else.
> Unicode does actually have a few "small caps" characters
> defined, but it is not even the full alphabet and they are
> for use in phonetics, not for typesetting.
My technical knowledge of Unicode, and Type 1 and Opentype fonts,
is shamefully sketchy, but I suppose this explains why small caps
are amongst those glyphs banished to the private use area of
fonts, and don't have standardised codes or Postscript names
(e.g. 'eacute.sc', 'eacute.small' or 'Eacute.small' for the same
character, depending on the type foundry). For languages using
the Latin alphabet, at least, a well designed font provides many
characters, not just small caps but a wide variety of ligatures,
figures, alternative versions of letters, etc., for which Unicode
does not allow. It fulfils its purpose of allowing all(?) world
languages to be written using a single coding system, but it
seems that problems remain for the subtleties of typesetting.
--
To unsubscribe or subscribe goto: //www.freelists.org/list/davidpilling
Other related posts:
