RE: Web Fonts

> No more than for the <img> element. Probably significantly fewer
concerns, 
> if we ignore the name altogether... (it's hard to say that you're 
> confusing the meaning of a trademark if you don't use it at all!)

I suppose if one uses AddFontMemResourceEx() on the Windows platform the
handle to the font can be cached. 

Of course all other GDI functions to CreateFont, etc. will take a
logfont structure that needs the facename to access the right font.

I believe that some more recent OSes like from Apple allow the font to
be installed from anywhere. However, one cannot assume that an OS will
not need the name of the font to use it. Maybe David can share what
Apple does.

Paul


-----Original Message-----
From: www-style-request@w3.org [mailto:www-style-request@w3.org] On
Behalf Of Ian Hickson
Sent: Friday, August 25, 2006 5:22 AM
To: Paul Nelson (ATC)
Cc: www-style@w3.org
Subject: RE: Web Fonts


On Thu, 24 Aug 2006, Paul Nelson (ATC) wrote:
>
> If one does not use the name in the font, how does one know that the 
> font is already installed on the machine?

It doesn't matter if the font is already installed.


> If the same version of the font is already installed why does one need

> to install it again?

If the exact same font is installed, then you can determine that (just
by comparing the fonts, e.g. by comparing the fingerprints of the
relevant files -- this can be done quite quickly and can be heavily
cached). The name doesn't particularily help this.


> How does the OS address using the font if you don't use the name of 
> the font and call it something else?

That's an API issue / implementation issue, independent of the spec. If
the UA really needs a name, it can make one up for internal purposes.


> If the font name is trade marked and a person is changing the name are

> there legal concerns?

No more than for the <img> element. Probably significantly fewer
concerns, 
if we ignore the name altogether... (it's hard to say that you're 
confusing the meaning of a trademark if you don't use it at all!)

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Received on Thursday, 24 August 2006 23:29:29 UTC