DISQUS

fortes.com: OpenType Fractions

  • ruben · 4 years ago
    Unfortunately, most fonts not commissioned by Microsoft are PostScript based (including most OpenType fonts). And the current docs say you're not supporting these. So eventhough this is a really cool feature, I don't think this is going be very useful unless you're actually going to implement OpenType fully (that is, including CFF/PostScript support). Linotype Zapfino Extra would be an excellent showcase for OpenType features.
  • ruben · 4 years ago
    Unfortunately, most fonts not commissioned by Microsoft are PostScript based (including most OpenType fonts). And the current docs say you're not supporting these. So eventhough this is a really cool feature, I don't think this is going be very useful unless you're actually going to implement OpenType fully (that is, including CFF/PostScript support). Linotype Zapfino Extra would be an excellent showcase for OpenType features.
  • John Hudson · 4 years ago
    Although most fonts only contain pre-built fraction glyphs for ¼½ and ¾, newer OpenType fonts can build arbitrary fractions using contextual substitution and sets of numerator and denominator numerals. It works like this:

    Enter an arbitrary fraction, e.g. 7253735/89362529 and apply the Typography.Fractions property. If a font supports arbitrary fractions, the lookups will
    a) change all numerals in the string to numerator glyphs,
    b) change the slash glyph to a fraction bar,
    c) contextually change the numerator glyph that follows the fraction bar into a denominator glyph,
    d) contextually change any numerator glyph preceded by a denominator glyph to a denominator glyph.

    Et voila: one arbitrary fraction. Filipe, you can try this with any of the new ClearType collection fonts (Calibri, Cambria, Candara, Constantia, Corbel -- I'm can't remember if the monospaced Consolas font supports this layout feature or not).


    In reference to the preceding comment, I heard a rumour that MS and Adobe had come to an agreement re. CFF PostScript support in Avalon. Perhaps this is something that can now be officially confirmed or denied?
  • John Hudson · 4 years ago
    Although most fonts only contain pre-built fraction glyphs for ¼½ and ¾, newer OpenType fonts can build arbitrary fractions using contextual substitution and sets of numerator and denominator numerals. It works like this:

    Enter an arbitrary fraction, e.g. 7253735/89362529 and apply the Typography.Fractions property. If a font supports arbitrary fractions, the lookups will
    a) change all numerals in the string to numerator glyphs,
    b) change the slash glyph to a fraction bar,
    c) contextually change the numerator glyph that follows the fraction bar into a denominator glyph,
    d) contextually change any numerator glyph preceded by a denominator glyph to a denominator glyph.

    Et voila: one arbitrary fraction. Filipe, you can try this with any of the new ClearType collection fonts (Calibri, Cambria, Candara, Constantia, Corbel -- I'm can't remember if the monospaced Consolas font supports this layout feature or not).


    In reference to the preceding comment, I heard a rumour that MS and Adobe had come to an agreement re. CFF PostScript support in Avalon. Perhaps this is something that can now be officially confirmed or denied?
  • Fortes · 4 years ago
    John: You're correct that the new fonts (except Consolas) do in fact support arbitrary fractions. The font I used in my example (Segoe Script), does not though.
  • Fortes · 4 years ago
    John: You're correct that the new fonts (except Consolas) do in fact support arbitrary fractions. The font I used in my example (Segoe Script), does not though.