Re: How the regional Online- News papers are able to display all the characters

From: John Hudson (tiro@tiro.com)
Date: Tue Jun 18 2002 - 13:55:44 EDT


At 09:40 6/18/2002, Sreedhar.M wrote:

> I would like to know how the regional news paper websites are
> able to display all the characters through webbrowser without asking the
> user to download any new fonts.When I viewed the source , there was a
> link to a file with " .pfr " extension.can anybody tell me how to open
> these files and what is it meant for?
>More over it the site is not using any unicode fonts.How they are able to
>render the text in regional languages so clearly.
>You can just visit the following site and send me Your comments regarding
>my questions.
><http://www.eenadu.net>http://www.eenadu.net

A .pfr file is a Bitstream TrueDoc webfont resource. This technology only
works in Netscape Navigator, and not in other browsers such as Internet
Explorer or Opera.

In Opera, the text on the website you cited looks like garbage.

For Internet Explorer, the makers of this website have provided an .eot
file (Embedded OpenType). This is a competing and, in my opinion, superior
webfont technology. By providing both .pfr and .eot resources, the Eenadu
site is able to render correctly in both Netscape and IE.

However, this site does not appear to be using Unicode encoded text, which
means they are using an 8-bit font hack with a custom character set. This
means that the text on the site can only be viewed using the .pfr and .eot
resources provided. It cannot be copied or pasted into another application
or viewed with a Unicode Sinhalese font.

John Hudson

Tiro Typeworks www.tiro.com
Vancouver, BC tiro@tiro.com

One thing you quickly learn about them is that they really
don't like being called extremists. In fact they often tell me
that we are the real extremists. They say that the Western
liberal cosmopolitan establishment is itself a fanatical,
depraved belief system. I like it when they say this because
it makes me feel as if I have a belief system.
                                                 Jon Ronson, THEM



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