Re: WOFF and extended metadata

On 24 May 2010, at 14:34, Levantovsky, Vladimir wrote:
> 
> The important point here (and I just want to emphasize it once again) is that neither David nor I (nor anyone else at this point) is asking to reject the font if something is wrong with the metadata.
> 
> The key requirement, and is the only one we are asking for, is for a browser to be able to parse the extended metadata *at user's request*!

I completely agree that it's desireable for browsers to be able to parse (and display) metadata.

However, I don't think it is appropriate for the WOFF spec to try and mandate this. There will be some situations (e.g., mobile phones) where it may not be reasonable to provide "Page Info" or similar UI options where displaying font metadata makes sense, but my feeling is that trying to define exactly which UAs are required to have such a feature is a mistake. We could argue almost endlessly over how to specify this for today's range of products, let alone dealing with tomorrow's UAs that may not fit neatly into whatever categories we can currently imagine and define.

The WOFF spec should ensure that there's a well-understood, interoperable format for the kinds of metadata that font vendors want to provide, and that users may want to see. How (and even whether) that data is exposed by a given UA should be determined by the UA developers in the light of their particular product's design and environment, user requirements, etc.

If we want to REQUIRE that browsers provide a user interface to display font metadata, this should:
(a) not be limited to WOFF metadata but also apply to whatever metadata is available in other font formats; and
(b) not be part of the WOFF specification (clearly, because of (a)) but be part of a specification for "user interface feature requirements for Web browsers".

JK

Received on Monday, 24 May 2010 14:03:58 UTC