Actually, in Windows 2000 and even moreso in Windows XP, Uniscribe achieves
this, by properly doing both font substitution and handling of mixed script
usage (XP is a bit better than Win2000 as they added additional Indic
scripts and also because they to a beit better of a job in sizing mixed
script cases so you do not have the "normal sized Latin next to ultra-tiny
Thai" problems that Win2000 could occasionally hit.
This is not done by means of a font grouping, but more by having a specific
preferred font for every supported script any time the chosen font does not
support the script in question.
MichKa
Michael Kaplan
Trigeminal Software, Inc.
http://www.trigeminal.com/
----- Original Message -----
From: "Christopher J Fynn" <cfynn@druknet.net.bt>
To: "Mark Davis" <mark@macchiato.com>; <unicode@unicode.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2001 8:58 PM
Subject: RE: Windows/Office XP question
>
>
> Mark Davis wrote:
>
> > One feature that
> > some systems have is composite fonts, where the "font" is actually a
table
> > of subfonts in some order (perhaps with specific ranges assigned to
each).
> > That way, someone can have the advantage of specifying a single font
name,
> > and get a full repertoire, without requiring a monster font. Of course,
> > there may be little uniformity of style across scripts, or in mixtures
of
> > symbols, but at least you can get legible characters instead of boxes.
> >
> > Are there any plans to do something like that in Windows?
> >
> > Mark
> > —————
>
> On some level at least this already seems to be implemented in Windows
with system / GUI fonts. e.g. in Win 2K Unicode file-names etc are displayed
in the proper script in Windows Explorer if the system font for that script
is installed. There are seperate system / GUI fonts for each script, rather
than one huge font.
>
> A problem with implementing something which allows you to specify a single
font name and getttng a full repertoire is: Which font in script x matches
font nnnn in script y? If I specify "Baskerville" for Latin text and that
text contains a run of Arabic characters how does the system know which
Arabic script text best matches Baskerville? Sure you could have a lookup
table - but imagine getting users to maintain such a table with all the
fonts some people accumulate these days. Font matching systems like Panose
which might be used to automate this kind of thing seem to deal only with
the characteristics of Latin and closely related scripts.
>
> - Chris Fynn
>
> --
> Christopher J Fynn
> DDC Dzongkha Computing Project
> PO Box 122, Thimphu, Bhutan
>
> <cfynn@druknet.net.bt>
> <cfynn@gmx.net>
>
>
>
>
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