6 comments

• 

  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.