Re: Combining ZOT with .webfont metadata

On Mon, Jul 27, 2009 at 8:03 AM, Levantovsky,
Vladimir<Vladimir.Levantovsky@monotypeimaging.com> wrote:
> On Sunday, July 26, 2009 6:16 PM John Hudson wrote:
>>
>> >> So, I suggest that one (a) separates the semantics from the syntax in
>> >> .webfont, and (b) come up with a proposal on how the semantics can be
>> >> encoded within TT/OT. The resulting files can easily be encoded in
>> >> ZOT. As such, this combines the best of both proposals.
>>
>> > This is an interesting idea. We're going to give it some serious
>> > consideration.
>>
...
> Other caveats to consider is that the semantics of what needs to be encoded in a font in some cases may need to be different from .webfont metadata:
>
> 3) a font can be licensed for multiple different uses that are not all web related, and the license information encoded in TT/OT font itself may not always be relevant for webfont use, and

The font may contain all sorts of metadata that isn't relevant for
webfont use. Is there any inherent reason that such metadata would
*conflict* with having the relevant metadata needed for webfont use?

> 4) font foundry that developed a font may not be the same font vendor from whom a font was licensed. It could be another foundry that acquired the rights to that font, or an independent font distributor that sells fonts from multiple font foundries.

I'm thinking that the problem of needing to revise the font exists
anyway. Both of these scenarios mean that even the pre-existing
metadata in a TT/OT font may very well be incorrect and need
replacing, no?

In the case of the independent font distributor, either they sell
fonts under the foundries' original license terms (no need to crack
open the font either in general or for webfonts), or they are selling
them under the distributor's own license terms, in which case even
data in the original font (license, license URL) may need updating.

Regards,

T

Received on Monday, 27 July 2009 15:50:21 UTC