From: Adam Twardoch (list.adam@twardoch.com)
Date: Wed Aug 24 2005 - 18:42:25 CDT
Christopher Fynn wrote:
> If one wants to Microsoft's shaping engine (Uniscribe) for a
> particular script then that script has to be already supported (or one
> has to wait for Microsoft to add support) - and, in the font, one has
> to use lookups only under the particular sub-set of OT features
> Uniscribe actually supports for that script.
>
> For unsupported scripts, applying OT shaping to PUA characters and so
> on in MS Windows there aren't many choices: 1) Try to find an
> application supporting a font and shaping system where you can put all
> the necessary logic into the font tables (GRAPHITE, AAT) and use
> that. 2) Find an application using an open source OpenType shaping
> engine (like Pango or ICU) and add your own code to enable shaping
> support for the script / characters you need. 3) Wait for Microsoft to
> add support for your script in Uniscribe.
>
The real problem is: even if the IndiX, Pango and ICU developers got
together and specified shaping rules for writing systems not supported
by Uniscribe, such an effort would be doomed because, should Microsoft
choose to add support for that script to Uniscribe in future, there is
no guarantee they would follow that implementation. (Actually, one could
even presume they would NOT follow it).
Currently, there is an international character encoding standard
(Unicode/ISO 10646) and there will soon be an international standard for
digital glyph storage in a font format (with OpenType being
standardized). However, the "glue" between these two is a proprietary
Microsoft technology, with no proper submission process and unsufficient
resources within the Microsoft Typography group.
Regards,
Adam
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