RE: NOW: Unicode Font Testing WAS: ayar font and several burmese font issues.

From: Doug Ewell (doug@ewellic.org)
Date: Thu Mar 24 2011 - 15:15:39 CST

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    Philippe Verdy <verdy underscore p at wanadoo dot fr> wrote:

    > Then there should exist on the Unicode site, a HTML test page showing
    > correctly encoded Myanmar sample text, with a reference bitmap
    > rendering built with representative glyphs, and a way to change the
    > name of the selected font to see if it matches the specs regarding not
    > only the per character glyphs (those are already in the Unicode
    > charts), but also for the possible alternate glyphs (if they exist),
    > the expected reordering, the combinations in significant clusters, the
    > expected ligatures (when they are mandatory), a non-ligatured
    > rendering (if it's acceptble as a variant).
    >
    > Such test pages should be made for all complex scripts (notably all
    > Indic scripts). This should even be done independantly of OpenType
    > specifications (which are more technical and specific to some font
    > technologies), so that it will not just test the font, but also the
    > renderer and text layout engine, including in a web browser.

    The Unicode site already provides two repositories of HTML files showing
    text in various scripts: the "What is Unicode?" pages and the "UDHR in
    Unicode" pages. However, the former does not yet have an example in
    Myanmar and the latter does not use font overrides (leaving it up to the
    user's configuration), so the problem as stated is not yet fully
    resolved for Myanmar.

    I think creating "test pages... for all complex scripts" might be seen
    as beyond the scope of the Unicode Consortium, especially to the extent
    these pages are intended to test and compare browser and font
    capabilities, and not just demonstrate correctly formatted Myanmar (or
    whatever) text. Implementing Javascript and CSS so the user can change
    fonts and sizes dynamically sounds like a task better suited to the W3C
    or one of the many "how to build awesome internationalized Web apps"
    sites.

    I don't see how we go from my claim that the Ayar site is Unicode, but
    might not be well-ordered, to Philippe's suggestion that the Consortium
    should embark on this rather ambitious new project. Perhaps he is
    volunteering.

    --
    Doug Ewell | Thornton, Colorado, USA | http://www.ewellic.org
    RFC 5645, 4645, UTN #14 | ietf-languages @ is dot gd slash 2kf0s ­
    


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