Which Non-Latin Scripts Do Free Software Fonts Not Cover?

Hi All,

I've just started the Masters degree in Typeface Design at
the
University of Reading (for which Gentium was a submitted
project) and
we're expected to do a non-latin script complement to our
font, and
I'd thought I'd ask around if anyone here has any opinions
about the
following:

Are there non-latin scripts that free software fonts do not
cover at
all at the moment?

Which non-latin script communities are adopting free
software and
would benefit from more fonts?

Would you recommend for or against any scripts in
particular?

Are some scripts supported by Pango better than others?

Are there any scripts which Pango does not support well or
at all?



--
Regards,
Dave
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Hi,

On Wed, 17 Oct 2007 00:02:18 +0100
"Dave Crossland" <davelab6.com> wrote:
>Are there non-latin scripts that free software fonts do
not cover at
>all at the moment?

Excuse me, you are asking about "there are proprietary
fonts
for the script, but no free fonts for the script"? Or,
you are asking about "a script without any existing
fonts"?
If former, please clarify the license you recognize as
free.
For example, "Open Font License" is free in your
context?

>Are some scripts supported by Pango better than others?

It's difficult question, I think. There are 2 kinds of
mechanisms to support a script by Pango: one is based
on OpenType technology, and another is based on legacy
encoding (I mean, non-Unicode) in the fonts designed
before OpenType (you can find some bits in Thai modules
of Pango).

The code for 2nd mechanism is not growing anymore.
In fact, some of these are already removed (e.g. there
had ever been Indic support by legacy encoding).

Growing is the 1st mechanism. But, the 1st mechanism
is based on OpenType technology which the specification
of script support is defined by Microsoft. Please check:
	http://www.microsoft.com/typography/Specification
sOverview.mspx
You can find a list of scripts which Microsoft supports
officially, in Script-specific Development. If a script
is not listed here but requires special complex text
layout,
the script is not supported by "official" OpenType
specification.

A typical example might be N'Ko script. Pango already
includes a module to layout N'Ko script by OpenType font.
But Microsoft does not provide any specification for
OpenType
table design to support N'Ko script. So, there is a
possibility that Microsoft can define incompatible
"official"
N'Ko support in future and "official" N'Ko fonts
doesn't
work well with current Pango implementation (and current
N'Ko OpenType fonts doesn't work well in future Microsoft
products). ICU does not support N'Ko script yet by such
reason, please check:
	http://b
ugs.icu-project.org/trac/ticket/5865
How do you think of?

>Are there any scripts which Pango does not support well
or at all?

Some slightly-minor scripts that requires complex
text layout features are not supported yet, I guess.
For example, Limbu is an Indic script but current
Indic module does not support Limbu (basic module
is assigned to the script). There is a free-charged
font including Limbu is existing (damase_v.2.ttf),
but there's no OpenType support to tune the position
of multiple vowel signs, so it does not display the
ligature shown in the end of Table 10-5 in Unicode
5.0 p. 362, I guess.

But, I'm afraid, if you choose such script as your target,
your precious time will be spent for contacting native
users or linguistic experts, than for typographic works.
Do you want to concentrate yourself to typography?

# In Japan, there were several academic projects to develop
# fonts and text rendering system for various Asian scripts
# (arabic & indic variants) before Unicode
popularization,
# but the speed of projects had a bottle neck in the
# difficulty of communication between Japanese students in
# font production and native users of the scripts, I heard.

Regards,
mpsuzuki
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On Wed, 2007-10-17 at 18:44 +0900, mpsuzukihiroshima-u.ac.jp wrote:
> 
> A typical example might be N'Ko script. Pango already
> includes a module to layout N'Ko script by OpenType
font.
> But Microsoft does not provide any specification for
OpenType
> table design to support N'Ko script. So, there is a
> possibility that Microsoft can define incompatible
"official"
> N'Ko support in future and "official" N'Ko
fonts doesn't
> work well with current Pango implementation (and
current
> N'Ko OpenType fonts doesn't work well in future
Microsoft
> products). ICU does not support N'Ko script yet by
such
> reason, please check:
>         http://b
ugs.icu-project.org/trac/ticket/5865
> How do you think of? 

IMO it's very obvious that if/when Microsoft supports N'Ko
at some
point, it will be using the Arabic model, and that's what
Pango does.
In fact, N'Ko was added to Pango simply by extending the
Arabic joining
tables to include N'Ko characters and no change to the
shaper code at
all.


-- 
behdad
http://behdad.org/

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase
a little
 Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor
Safety."
        -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759



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