RE: Announcing new font compression project

Considering that at least for the time being the latter part of the discussion is settled awaiting its "beer opportunity", I do want to say something about the proposal itself. What I specifically like about it is that

1)      The new proposal is built on the rock-solid (and already proven in practice) WOFF foundation that was originally proposed by Tal and Erik, reusing the existing structure that combines font data section with metadata and private data block. (I like continuity and not ashamed to admit it);

2)      Its logic follows the same pattern established when Jonathan Kew proposed his ZOT compression idea to be combined with the original ".webfont" proposal reusing its structure and adding font data compression for efficiency. The new proposal takes the WOFF further by reusing its structure and offering new, much more efficient data compression option.

3)      I'd like to commend Raph for his efforts in dissecting the MTX and creating a new, much more efficient compression engine and its reference implementation that allows to precisely quantify the individual contribution of each processing/optimization step to overall compression efficiency. By doing this he enables us to have an informed and intelligent discussion where each piece of the compression puzzle can be evaluated based on its complexity and resulting data reduction percentage, and where the final decision on the new compression algorithm and stream format can be made based on real-life experimental results and not just paper specs. Great job, Raph!

Thank you,
Vlad


From: Richard Fink [mailto:rfink@readableweb.com]
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2012 2:53 PM
To: 'Sylvain Galineau'; www-font@w3.org
Subject: RE: Announcing new font compression project

>The latter just seems the kind of discussion that is best had over beers.
>We might even get Vlad to buy the first round...

A fine notion.

rich

From: Sylvain Galineau [mailto:sylvaing@microsoft.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2012 7:20 PM
To: www-font@w3.org<mailto:www-font@w3.org>
Subject: RE: Announcing new font compression project

Re-enacting old battles never goes out of style but if there is such interest in it I suggest starting a separate thread (tentative subject line: 'The MTX conspiracy!'). I'd rather read concrete feedback on Raph's intruiguing proposal rather than the perceived intents of 2012 Monotype vs. 2009 Monotype. We might even get Vlad to buy the first round...