Daniel wrote:
This recommendation is indeed given in the guidelines. I don't think it's
harmful, given that it is the general approach taken to these kinds of
brackets in regular text fonts, and particularly if we also specify that
characters typically set in text runs should also use side-bearings
typical for regular text fonts.
You may be right. On the other hand, this approach in text fonts is mostly due to relatively wide spacing of glyphs. It also depends on the design, i.e., the curve of the parenthesis. The parenthesis for noteheads in SMuFL for example, would need quite a large amount of curve if they are to be spaced with negative width, due to the fact that noteheads have no sidebearing at all.
Personally, I think it would make more sense to stipulate discretionary sidebearings – positive or negative – on parenthesis (and other brackets). Otherwise, the standard may provide conditions that that are unnecessarily limiting to font designers in this regard.
Knut Nergaard
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