fonts introduced by custom keyboard shortcuts

grammatim wrote:

> On Jul 2, 12:10 pm, Character <C....TakeThisOut@cters.bold.italic> wrote:
>
>>grammatim wrote:
>>
>>>BTW I looked in at comp.fonts, and it doesn't appear to deal with any
>>>questions beyond identifying fonts from samples of a few letters, and
>>>how to get fonts.
>>
>>Not so. True, there's a lot of that, but there are also long technical
>>discussions, at various levels. The most recent I see was in early
>>June regarding historical Irish typography; a Greek encoding
>>discussion, about a year ago, etc. Comp.fonts was orignally THE font
>>developer's discussion group, before usenet opened itself to the
>>world. Many developers still look in and respond there. Other forums
>>include Typophile, Adobe Forums, the Type Design forum, and the Typo-L
>>Discussion lists.
>>
>>I mentioned comp.fonts first because it's accessible via what you're
>>already using, Google Groups. The others are web-based and require
>>registration (free).
>
>
> They all sound like they deal with design rather than with my current
> problems of _using_ virtually every script in the world.

The way fonts are created - their encoding, use of unicode, opentype
features, supported codepages, and all such arcana - is absolutely
critical to how you can use them. Unfortunately, there has been little
consistency between vendors and foundries. Not to mention Mac/PC
differences such as the drastically different use of the "Style"
attribute - and the differences between how Microsoft and Adobe
applications interpret them under Windows. These 'design' topics are
definitely discussed in just about any of the abovmentioned fora.
Besides, what have you got to lose?

- Character

On Jul 2, 2:49 pm, DOsser <Dos... DeleteThis @nodoze.tonight> wrote:
> grammatim wrote:
> > On Jul 2, 12:10 pm, Character <C... DeleteThis @cters.bold.italic> wrote:
>
> >>grammatim wrote:
>
> >>>BTW I looked in at comp.fonts, and it doesn't appear to deal with any
> >>>questions beyond identifying fonts from samples of a few letters, and
> >>>how to get fonts.
>
> >>Not so. True, there's a lot of that, but there are also long technical
> >>discussions, at various levels. The most recent I see was in early
> >>June regarding historical Irish typography; a Greek encoding
> >>discussion, about a year ago, etc. Comp.fonts was orignally THE font
> >>developer's discussion group, before usenet opened itself to the
> >>world. Many developers still look in and respond there. Other forums
> >>include Typophile, Adobe Forums, the Type Design forum, and the Typo-L
> >>Discussion lists.
>
> >>I mentioned comp.fonts first because it's accessible via what you're
> >>already using, Google Groups. The others are web-based and require
> >>registration (free).
>
> > They all sound like they deal with design rather than with my current
> > problems of _using_ virtually every script in the world.
>
> The way fonts are created - their encoding, use of unicode, opentype
> features, supported codepages, and all such arcana - is absolutely
> critical to how you can use them. Unfortunately, there has been little
> consistency between vendors and foundries. Not to mention Mac/PC
> differences such as the drastically different use of the "Style"
> attribute - and the differences between how Microsoft and Adobe
> applications interpret them under Windows.  These 'design' topics are
> definitely discussed in just about any of the abovmentioned fora.
> Besides, what have you got to lose?

Maybe you don't know perfectly well that that's not what is usually
meant by "type design."

"Type design" refers to the appearance of the letterforms.

While I am very much interested in type design in that sense (and not
in the least interested in the "arcana" involved in getting the type
into my computer), at this point I am primarily interested in getting
the exotic fonts _out_ of my computer onto paper and pdfs. Once I've
typed my Malayalam or Armenian text, then I can try substututing the
variety of available Armenian or Malayalam fonts and seeing which one
I like best.

Armenian is straightforward -- it's just an alphabet, one keyboard key
per letter. Malayalam and the other scripts of India are not so
straightforward. Consonants and vowels, and consonants and consonants,
combine in special ways, and those ways are built into the fonts and
the supporting "arcana," and they are accessed by keyboards. But
unless I can find the instructions for using those keyboards, I can't
get at the glyphs that are produced by the "arcana" and not directly
by typing!