This paper reports on initial design work to integrate the SVG 1.0 font features with the declarative capabilities of Graphite. It is a design proposal for a future SVG 2.0.

SVG 1.0 is an XML language for vector graphics. It includes a font format which can describe glyphs, kerning, arbitrary ligatures, language dependent glyphs, basic arabic form support, horizontal and vertical metrics, plus cool features like multicolor and animated glyphs.

SVG allows easy font creation, because it is xml; there is some font support for internationalization but nothing complex. Developers are already concerned about the amount of special-case code they need to add to their implementation for obscure (to them) scripts. Content developers are keen to have internationalized content. SVG 1.0 already has SMIL, a rules-based declarative way of programming animations without scripting.

Graphite includes rules based declarative programming, is user extensible, but requires TTF font creation and special tables to be added to a binary font, and needs a compiler for the rules. http://graphite.sil.org/

An SVG 2.0 that combined these approaches might on the one hand allay developer concerns by giving content developers the possibility of describing the writing system they need, in svg font, easy to author and modify, using graphite extensions without needing to author binary font files. On the other hand, it would also give implementors a fixed target (an engine to understand description) instead of open-ended, near omniscient knowledge of all the worlds current and historical writing systems.

This paper reports on an investigation of how such integration might happen, examines strengths and weaknesses of the approach, and suggests topics for further discussion and development. A basic knowledge of Unicode, the character/glyph model, and XML is assumed.