Re: SVG Fonts [Re: Minutes, SVG WG Brussels f2f day 4 (Monday)]

On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 12:02 PM, Jeff Schiller <codedread@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>    4) Web typography on the iPhone and iPad
>
> My understanding is that currently the only way to do web typography on
> those devices is through SVG Fonts [1] [2].  This seems to have prompted a
> variety of services to recently start supporting SVG Fonts (Typekit,
> FontForge).  I have had no firsthand experience with this in any way.
>

This is a good point.

"There seems to be very little SVG Fonts content on the Web that's not
> testcases"
>
> Just a guess, but there will probably be a rise in SVG fonts as a result of
> the iPad, at least for content served to that device.  Do you consider "the
> web as experienced on iPad and iPhone" a walled garden?  I don't.  But it is
> a web with different capabilities.
>

It's not a walled garden. However, I find it hard to believe that those
products will lack support downloadable Opentype fonts for long. SVG fonts
are totally inadequate for many complex scripts, plus Opentype fonts will
look much better thanks to subpixel AA (unless Apple have implemented a
subpixel AA rasterizer for SVG fonts, which I have not heard...).

 I don't know if Fennec supports WOFF but would guess it does.
>

It does.

Supporting WOFF is really easy if your platform supports Opentype fonts. And
there is high-quality free software for shaping and rendering Opentype fonts
available under very liberal licenses.

Rob
-- 
"He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are
healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his
own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." [Isaiah
53:5-6]