single-question poll - font vendors and browser devs

It seems to me that there's a chance for real progress here, though  
it's a difficult process at times. If you all will indulge me, I'd  
like to ask the font vendors represented here to answer, to the best  
of their current knowledge, one straightforward question. Similarly, I  
have one question for the browser implementers.

These are intended to be simple yes/no questions; please refrain from  
complex answers hedged with "if's" and "but's". Let's save the finer  
details for separate discussion, once it's clear whether we have some  
common ground to stand on while we discuss them!

- - - - -

(A) FONT VENDORS:

If there is a W3C recommendation for web fonts that specifies

* internal compression of the font data (presumably based on MTX or  
ZOT ideas, but details TBD), and

* same-origin checking, with CORS to allow controlled relaxation of  
restrictions, similar to how Firefox 3.5 deals with TTF/OTF fonts,

would you be willing to license your fonts for use in accordance with  
such a standard?

- - - - -

(B) BROWSER DEVELOPERS:

If there is a W3C recommendation for web fonts that specifies

* internal compression of the font data (presumably based on MTX or  
ZOT ideas, but details TBD), and

* same-origin checking, with CORS to allow controlled relaxation of  
restrictions, similar to how Firefox 3.5 deals with TTF/OTF fonts,

and if

* several major font vendors will commit to license their fonts for  
use under these conditions, and

* neither patent/licensing issues nor sheer complexity of  
implementation present serious obstacles,

would you be willing to support such a standard in your browser?

- - - - -

I realize there are other stakeholders besides these two groups, such  
as the authors who are potential users of any such standard. By  
addressing these two specific groups, I am not intending to imply that  
others are unimportant, it's just that these are the questions I'm  
particularly interested to hear direct answers to at this point.

If people prefer to respond to me privately rather than on-list, to  
reduce the risk of spawning yet another thread that ends up repeating  
much of the same rhetoric, that would be fine; I would then summarize  
responses once it seems that everyone who intends to reply has done  
so. Or if you want to reply publicly, that's fine too of course. And  
if you don't speak for your company in any formal sense, that's OK,  
I'd still appreciate hearing where you think your company might stand.

Of course, some people have already made statements on the list that  
make it pretty clear what their answers will be, but I'd like to hear  
from as wide a range as possible.

Jonathan

Received on Thursday, 2 July 2009 19:25:07 UTC