[Devel] Re: OT? CFF fonts with Type 1 charstrings? (fwd)

[Tom Kacvinsky]

I think answers our question as to whether FT2 should support Type 1
CharStrings in CFF fonts:  No.

Tom

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2001 16:40:21 -0800
From: Read Roberts <address@hidden>
Reply-To: address@hidden
To: address@hidden
Subject: Re: OT? CFF fonts with Type 1 charstrings?

It is a novel thought to me that the CFF data structure can, by the spec, 
contain Type1 charstrings. However, I do see that
this is correct. On p23 of the CFF spec, is the section:

      The format of the charstring data, and therefore the method of
      interpretation, is specified by the CharstringType operator in
      the Top DICT. The CharstringType operator has a default value
      of 2 indicating the Type 2 charstring format which was designed
      in conjunction with CFF. Type 1 charstrings are documented in
      the "Adobe Type 1 Font Format" published by Addison-Wesley.
      Type 2 charstrings are described in Adobe Technical Note #5177:
      "Type 2 Charstring Format." Other charstring types may also be
      supported by this method.


      The CFF format is designed to be used in conjunction with
      Type 2 charstrings for the character description procedures (see
      Adobe Technical Note #5177: "The Type 2 Charstring Format").


Asking around here, I discover some oral tradition that the only time this has 
been used at Adobe was early in the
development of the CFF specification and of the related tools, since full Type 
2 charstring support in our tools was not then
available. However, no-one at Adobe, or elsewhere that I know of, has ever made 
or tested OpenType fonts with Type 1
charstrings in a CFF table. You may draw your own conclusions about the level 
of application support. There also seems to be
little reason to do so, as the Type 2 charstring format is far more compact. 
See second paragraph above from the spec.




>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2001 10:00:44 -0500 (EST)
>From: Tom Kacvinsky <address@hidden>
>Reply-To: address@hidden
>To: address@hidden
>Subject: OT? CFF fonts with Type 1 charstrings?
>
>I hope this isn't too far off topic...
>
>The CFF spec allows for use of Type 1 charstrings. All of the CFF fonts I have
>seen use Type 2 charstrings. I suppose that use of Type 1 charstrings in a CFF
>font is not recommended. Is anyone using Type 1 charstrings in their CFF fonts?
>If so, where can I get them?
>
>The reason why I ask is that it came up on the FreeType development list about
>CFF fonts with Type 1 charstrings. I could add code to FreeType that would add
>Type 1 charstring parsing. It wouldn't be that hard -- Type 2 mostly subsumes
>Type 1, and the Type 2 parser is working fine. The questions are: should I? If
>I do, who has fonts I can test these changes with?
>
>Regards,
>
>Tom
>
>
>
>
>____________________________________________________________
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