Re: [css3-fonts] font-variant-numeric

Robert O'Callahan wrote:

> On Wed, Mar 24, 2010 at 10:35 PM, John Daggett <jdaggett@mozilla.com 
> <mailto:jdaggett@mozilla.com>> wrote:
> 
>     What I've called "font rendering properties" are properties not used
>     for selecting a face within a family but instead properties applied
>     when picking glyphs to display.  "Font feature properties" is probably
>     what I should use instead.
> 
>     In places where rendering is discussed, maybe "text rendering" rather
>     than "font rendering" would be sufficiently distinct not to cause
>     confusion?

> In our code we use "text shaping" to describe the process of converting 
> a string of characters into a list of positioned glyphs, how about that?

Text shaping is a good term. It's a handy catch-all covering script 
shaping, language shaping and typographic shaping. Most of what the CSS3 
spec deals with is typographic shaping.

> Failing that, how about "glyph conversion"?

'Glyph processing' has been used for a long time (usefully contrasted 
with character processing), and is better than 'conversion' because it 
applies equally to positioning as well as substitution.


Further to why 'rendering' is inappropriate:

The draft spec discusses the font-kerning property in these terms:

 Controls whether kerning is applied to inter-glyph
 spacing when rendering text.

But for a font maker the question is not simply whether kerning is 
applied in text shaping, but whether spacing and kerning is rendered at 
full-pixel or sub-pixel boundaries.

[By the way, kerning should be on by default in any case -- even if you 
provide a mechanism for users to turn it off --, as it is properly 
considered part of script and language shaping. There are some writing 
systems for which it is absolutely essential, and without it the text 
may become unreadadble due to collisions or gaps caused by poor spatial 
interaction.]

John Hudson

Received on Wednesday, 24 March 2010 17:38:33 UTC