RE: that font-letter spacing problem - MS Word issue?

From: Philippe Verdy (verdy_p@wanadoo.fr)
Date: Wed Jul 11 2007 - 00:18:44 CDT

  • Next message: Peter Constable: "RE: that font-letter spacing problem - MS Word issue?"

    John H. Jenkins wrote:
    > On Jul 10, 2007, at 12:31 AM, Aiet Kolkhi wrote:
    > > I would advise installing the same typeface on OS X,
    > > though the upcoming version of OS X, Leopard,
    > > will ship with Georgian font.
    >
    > For the record, Apple has made no public statements
    > regarding Georgian support in Leopard.  Leopard may
    > or may not ship with a font supporting Georgian.
    > The presence (or lack thereof) of a Georgian font in
    > any pre-release version of Leopard is privileged
    > information for people under NDA with Apple only,
    > and should not, in any event, be taken as a
    > commitment on Apple's part to any course of action.

    It is no secret that the Basic Georgian script (in ISO 15924: [Geor]
    Mkhedruli, not: [Geok] Khutsuri = Asomtavruli + Nuskhuri) is part of the
    requirements for Microsoft products to support some European Union needs
    (even if Georgia is still not a member state, it is a member of the Council
    of Europe, and has lots of legal activities with the CoE and UE, including
    with legal documents written in Georgian).

    If Apple still wants not to support the Georgian script officially in its
    Mac OS X software (despite of the expressed needs, and the fact that
    Microsoft has chosen since quite long to support it as part of the normal
    distribution of Windows, and that most Linux distributions also contain
    packages with a Georgian font for X11), I think it would not be sustainable
    for long.

    So there's most probably no secret that Apple is working on delivering at
    least a minimum support for the Georgian script, even if the exact details
    for the level of support in the OS (number of font styles, kind of Georgian
    script variant, specific Georgian capitalization issues, & so on) are not
    revealed.

    The Georgian script is not a complex one (much less than the Latin or
    Cyrillic or Greek scripts), and the efforts needed to support it is just,
    for Apple, getting the appropriate distribution licences for the font
    designs (and the quality of this design, including with font kerning and
    correct hinting for display or printing at small sizes or low resolutions).



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