[smufl-discuss] Re: Tuplets in SMuFL Text

[Knut Nergaard]

Thank you for the thorough response, Daniel.

Can you please remind me why SMuFL aims to generally stay away from zero width side bearings and negative spacing. I seem to remember there was a reliability reason for this.

Knut Nergaard

5. jun. 2015 kl. 01.07 skrev Daniel Spreadbury <[hidden email]>:

Thanks, Knut, for your thoughts on the guidelines for fonts for text-based
applications.

In general we are trying to avoid guidelines that rely on specific font
technologies or features, such as glyph positioning, ligatures, mark
positioning, and so on. The main job of the SMuFL specification is to
identify and include the fundamental characters (both visual and, to some
extent, control – the latter being a grey area because the nature of the
control characters required typically supposes something about the nature
of the glyph substitution or positioning feature for which they are
intended), and to provide useful guidelines.

It was not my goal when starting to provide guidelines for text-based
applications to make it possible to write arbitrary music in a text-based
application as a font like Cavatina does. Rather it was to solve such use
cases as including arbitrary musical symbols in line with text, and
allowing the creation of simple rhythmic and, to an extent, melodic
examples in such applications. This was initially motivated by the needs
of the musicologists within the TEI community, who have these kinds of
relatively modest needs.

I personally do not, and am unlikely to in the medium term, have time to
develop this aspect of the specification substantially further. If
somebody with specialist experience in advanced glyph positioning and
substitution techniques is out there and would like to collaborate with me
to expand the capabilities of Bravura Text with a view to perhaps likewise
developing the SMuFL guidelines for fonts intended for use in text-based
applications, I would welcome hearing from him or her.

In the meantime, naturally individual font developers are free to develop
the capabilities of fonts for text-based applications beyond the scope of
what is possible in Bravura Text. Font developers may make use of any font
technology and any feature within that technology that they please, and
there is plenty of scope within the SMuFL font-private use range for any
additional characters and control characters that a font designer deems
necessary.

Daniel

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