Re: Russian Dual Nationality Fonts

From: Kamal Mansour (kamal@netcom.com)
Date: Mon Jun 19 1995 - 23:00:39 EDT


Dan Warner writes:
>
> Mail*Link(r) SMTP Russian Dual Nationality Fonts.
>
> Hi.
> I have recently been trying to create a dual nationality (Russian/English)
> Type 1 font using Fontographer 4.0.4 on the Macintosh, with the aim of
> using this font to transfer files between the MacOS and Windows 3.1.
> Having experimented with Fontographer I have found that 95% of my new font
> will transfer cross-platform, but certain characters give erratic results,
> often being substitued for invisible characters or characters from
> elsewhere in the font.
> I have browsed through your Web site and I have a copy of your Unicode
> Mapping List, which I am trying to get to grips with, but I would first
> like to confirm with you that what I am attempting is possible with the
> help of a proper understanding of unicode.
> I am wondering if limitiations in Windows are affecting the output of my
> font, or whether I have just not conformed to the unicode standard
> properly.
>
> Any comments, help or advice would be much appreciated at this stage as I
> am starting to run out of 'inspirations' and the demand for a dual
> nationality font is growing in my Mac/PC colleagues!
>
> P.S. I should add that I have a copy of Acrobat Pro 2.0 for both Mac and PC
> and have experimented with various types of encoding, but I still get odd
> results. Could Acrobat help me in this font dilemma?
>
> Thanking you in a advance for your help,
>
> Dan Warner, Wimbledon, London, UK.
> Dan@Zawinul.Demon.Co.UK
>
>
... [omissis]
>
>

Since Windows 3.1 and the Mac are both insensitive to Unicode, I fail to see
how this is a Unicode problem. However, I would like to comment on what
I think could be the problem. From the description, I surmise that the font
originates on the Mac, and is being ported to Windows. On the Windows side
the order of the characters does not appear as intended by the author.
Most likely, the Windows screen font (PFM file) indicates that the font follows
standard encoding (i.e. ANSI), whereupon Windows rearranges the font as it
sees fit. If Mr Warner thinks this diagnosis is correct, I suggest he
contact me directly by email for further discussion.

Regards,

Kamal Mansour E-mail: kamal@netcom.com

Kappa Type Inc.
P.O.Box 1652
Palo Alto
California 94302
Tel +1 415 322 0135
Fax +1 415 326 8844
Orders & Inquiries 800-480-0135 (USA & Canada)



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