Unicode Font Technology - The Only Way Forward
The Evolution of
Font Technology
In
general, fonts are of three types: PostScript Type 1 (Type1) or TrueType (TT),
which came along about six years later, and then a blending of the two previous
fonts called OpenType (OT) or Unicode.
Type1 Fonts
PostScript font formats Adobe Type 1 fonts are stored in
two common formats:.pfa (PostScript
Font ASCII) and.pfb (PostScript
Font Binary). These contain descriptions of the character shapes, with each
character being generated by a small program that calls on other small programs
to compute common parts of the characters in the font. In both cases, the
character descriptions are encrypted. Before such a font can be used, it must
be rendered into dots in a bitmap, either by the PostScript interpreter, or by
a specialized rendering engine, such as Adobe Type Manager, which is used to
generate low-resolution screen fonts on Apple Macintosh and on Microsoft
Windows systems.
The Type 1 binary files (.pfa and.pfb) contain character information, while
the metric files (.afm (Adobe Font
Metric) and.pfm (Printer Font
Metric)) contain the metric information to form the character. These metrics
files are ASCII files with a well-defined easy-to-parse structure.
TrueType Fonts
The personal computer brought about a need for scalable font technology, thought to be an important part of any future operating system. TrueType is this scalable font technology that enables you to view the same output without the jagged aliasing caused by scaling that is apparent when bitmapped fonts are used.
This technology involves two parts:
- The Rasterizer
- TrueType fonts
The Rasterizer is an application that is included in both
Windows and Macintosh operating systems. It acts as an interpreter and
translates the font information into a form that the video display can render.
The TrueType fonts themselves contain information that
describes the outline of each character in the typeface. Higher quality fonts
also contain hinting codes. Hinting is a process that makes a font that has
been scaled down to a small size look its best. Instead of simply relying on the
vector outline, the hinting codes ensure that the characters line up well with
the pixels so that the font looks as smooth and legible as possible.
Adobe wanted both Apple and Microsoft to license its
PostScript code, which was capable of handling this role, but both companies
were concerned about having a third party control key parts of their operating
systems. Apple and Microsoft agreed to a cross-licensing and product
development deal, with Microsoft creating a PostScript-style graphics engine
and Apple creating a font system. Apple developed what was to become TrueType,
which proved superior to other competing technologies on performance and
rendering quality. Apple and Microsoft announced their strategic alliance
against Adobe, where Apple would do the font system, Microsoft the printing
engine. Apple released TrueType in March 1991 and the first TrueType fonts:
- Times Roman
- Helvetica
- Courier
Microsoft introduced TrueType into Windows with version
3.1 in early 1992. They created a core set of fonts:
- Times New Roman
- Arial
- Courier
Both Apple's and Microsoft's TrueType fonts showed that
scalable fonts could generate bitmaps virtually as though each size had been
designed by hand.
Unicode Fonts
Unicode is a global character set that allows multilingual text to be displayed in a single application. This enables multinational corporations to develop a single multilingual application and deploy it worldwide.
Global markets require a character set that:
- Allows a
single implementation of a product for all languages, yet is simple enough
to be implemented everywhere.
- Contains
all major living scripts.
- Supports
multilingual users and organizations.
- Enables
worldwide interchange of data through the Internet.
OpenType is a font format developed jointly by Microsoft
and Adobe as an extension of Apple’s TrueType font format. The OpenType 1.0
font specification was released in 1997. Since that time Adobe and Microsoft have
continued to work together updating and refining the specification. Several
other companies, including Apple and Monotype, have also contributed to the
specification over the years. Currently, every major font foundry and most
minor ones are developing fonts in OpenType format.
OpenType provides several advantages over older font
technologies:
· Larger glyph limit (64k)
· Cross-platform support
(Win and Mac)
· Support for both
PostScript Type 1 or TrueType outlines
· Support for advanced
typographic features
OpenType, like TrueType, is based on Unicode, the system
for encoding all of the world’s writing systems. OpenType fonts can potentially
contain many thousands of characters. This means that an OpenType font may contain
multiple alphabets (such as Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic; or Kanji, Kana, and
Romaji for Japanese use). OpenType fonts can also include typographic
refinements such as true small caps, different styles of figures, and extensive
sets of ligatures and alternates, as well as complete sets of accented
characters and diacritical marks. Different applications have differing levels
of support for all the OpenType features.
OpenType version 1.4 was contributed to ISO and became
the foundation for the development of ISO/IEC 14496-22 “Open Font Format”
standard. The standard was published in 2007, and is now freely available for
download from ITTF website. OpenType version 1.6 is
identical to the “Final Draft International Standard” version of ISO/IEC
14496-22 FDIS “Open Font Format” (second edition).
The latest version for the Unicode Standard, Version 14.0.
0, supersedes all previous versions of
the Unicode Standard. The Unicode Character Database, Code
Charts, and Annexes for Version 14.0 will be released in September,
2021. The standard, which is maintained by the
Unicode Consortium, defines an astounding 143,859 characters covering
154 modern and historic scripts, as well as symbols, emoji, and non-visual
control and formatting codes.
The Way Forward for Multilingual Computing
Since Indian languages consist of lots of conjuncts
unlike English, only Unicode fonts can accommodate all the permutations & combinations.
Unicode fonts are also bilingual, so that users can also type in English using
the same font. Also, new conjuncts can be added as per user requirements.
Unfortunately, many users still use Non-Unicode fonts for
their multilingual Print/Publishing applications, forcing them to compromise on
the number of conjuncts, special characters, numerics, etc. This is because of
their adherence to outdated versions of applications which support Non-Unicode
fonts only. For sharing matter on the Internet, they use Converters which can
convert files from Non-Uncode to Unicode either supplied by their Vendor or
freely downloadable from the Internet, which are in turn not error-free. Even
for Web-based & On-Air Channels, usuage of Unicode fonts are a must in order
to avoid such complicated scenarios. In fact many applications used currently
support Unicode fonts only.
After the start of the pandemic last year, E-Publishing
has seen a boom as never before. For employees working from home & students
attending online classes, the only way they can exchange multilingual files
which are readable & editable at both ends is with the usuage of Unicode
fonts.
If
you wish to know more about Multilingual Unicode fonts & how they can help
you in your work, contact:
Chandan
Datta, Compu Care Infotech
Address: B'C'#3, Block-II, 2nd Floor, 'Calcutta Greens Commercial Complex', 1050/2, Survey Park, Kolkata-700 075
(Mob.:+9198300 40811; E-Mail:dattachandan1960@gmail.com; Website: http:\\compucare4u.business.site)
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