Unicode PUA or new characters with OpenType

From: saqqara (saqqara@csi.com)
Date: Tue May 02 2006 - 10:03:46 CST

  • Next message: John Hudson: "Re: Unicode PUA or new characters with OpenType"

    A problem doubtless familiar to all working with new revisions of the Unicode standard and as yet unencoded characters but possibly a good time to raise the issue once more.

    OpenType/TrueType is the normal font technology for most computer users. OpenType allows for a variety of features, a simple example being ligatures. Considering Windows XP/SP2 specifically, some software (for instance Adobe CS2: InDesign, Photoshop...) appears to handle simple two character ligatures as expected, even when the characters belong to a new or upcoming version of Unicode or belong to the PUA. However most popular applications do not, for instance Microsoft Office 2003, OpenOffice 2.0, IE 6 and Firefox 1.5 all ignore the 'liga' instructions for (one must assume) characters not in their current active repertoire.

    After some years patiently awaiting improvements, I'd like to hear of any specifications about what is expected of software in working with newly encoded or PUA characters. Is there is any prospect of improvements in new releases? Or must I reach for my compiler?!

    Thanks
    Bob Richmond
    Saqqara Technology



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Tue May 02 2006 - 09:59:51 CST