Re: SVG Fonts [...]

On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 4:35 PM, Charles Pritchard <chuck@jumis.com> wrote:

> There's a reasonable chance of success, of processing an SVG file using
> ECMAScript
> and existing browsers. Rendering an SVG file with some fidelity to the
> embedded
> profile, whether falling back on VML, the HTML Canvas Tag, or other
> technology,
> is doable with SVG Fonts, and far more difficult with only a WOFF binary.
>

None of the SVG-to-VML or SVG-to-canvas solutions are actually very good, so
I don't think they're all that important. Anyway, you could easily convert
WOFF to TTF or EOT and load those fonts directly in any browser.

SVG Fonts can make for a single, compact file.
> The <use> tag hasn't been a winner in that scenario.
> Though lacking typical typography features (hinting, etc) it's easier
> on implementers than open type.
>

But almost all implementers already implement Opentype, and there's free
software that the rest can use.

By committing solely to WOFF, SVG - ECMAScript font generation would be
> hackish at best,
> as would embedded font resources. WOFF could work with with data:-url, but
> that's stretching things.
>

Why? Typekit serves fonts as data: URLs.

In most cases, an SVG file will not include the full font, but only a subset
> of glyphs, possibly
> to be viewed independently of a web browser.
>

You can subset Opentype fonts.

Even if there are real use-cases for SVG Fonts not handled by Opentype, we
still run into the i18n issues, that SVG Fonts will only work for simple
scripts and Arabic. It's not satisfactory to say that those use-cases only
work for those scripts, and as I said in a previous email, I don't think
adding complex script shaping to SVG Fonts is feasible. I think we'd be
better off extending Opentype, or adding SVG features that work in
conjunction with Opentype.

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]