Slashdot Mirror


Open Fonts For The Web -- Harder Than It Sounds

simpl3x writes "of the nytimes articles posted today, this one about new, open fonts designed for the web was by far the most interesting. Here is a link to the project site, and here is a reason why it is necessary. For all the talk of the world wide part, the basics are still very local, aren't they? It will be interesting to see how one chooses a character on a keyboard!"

11 of 179 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Font specifications by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    He might be spinning in his grave -- if he were dead.

  2. Re:Font specifications by pergamon · · Score: 5, Funny

    I also doubt that Tim Berners-Lee would like being called Tim Bernard Lee .

  3. Re:Font specifications by JimR · · Score: 5, Funny
    I also doubt that Tim Berners-Lee would like being called Tim Bernard Lee.

    I should think TBL would be more concerned about the implication that he is dead.

    --
    #exclude <ms/windows.h>
  4. Re:It's time to adapt to a new reality by be-fan · · Score: 5, Funny

    First ASCII, now this...

    America invented the internet.
    >>>>>>>>>
    China invented fireworks. No fireworks for you! Bye bye fourth of July. Phoenicians invented the "English" alphabet, so you best stop writing! Arabs invented Algebra and the "English" system of numerals is Indian in origin. There goes math! In fact, 0 is a concept that originated in India, so you'll have to find another value to denote your IQ.

    America uses the internet the most. During the late 90s, Internet traffic in North America more than doubled every six months.
    >>>>
    Europeans use cell phones the most, so I guess we should all adopt GSM. The Chinese eat rice the most (I'm from India, another rice-eating nation, so this isn't a racist comment :) so if you want to eat rice, you have to do it chopsticks!

    Don't even get me started on the last one. World history is my little hobby, I'd have to intellectually beat the crap out of you...

    --
    A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
  5. UHF! by IIRCAFAIKIANAL · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is an embarrassment. A disgrace. What do you think Tim Bernard Lee would be saying if he were alive today?

    "Help me out of this box, I can't breathe in here! Help, let me out!"

    --
    Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
  6. I don't quite get it by Mr.+Sketch · · Score: 3, Funny

    The link to why it's necessary doesn't have an explination. All it seems to have is a page of a billion and one math fonts. ..oh wait... nevermind...

  7. Re:Unknown languages that no one speaks. by Rick+the+Red · · Score: 4, Funny
    The civilized world has standardized on English for good reason:
    The USA won WWII.

    That's it. That's the only reason. Otherwise, we might all be speaking German. Or, if the USA's War of the Rebellion had ended differently, perhaps Spanish. Or, if the USSR had won the cold war, Russian.

    If things continue at their current rate, we may all be speaking Chinese in 100 years.

    --
    If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
  8. Open fonts by Mika_Lindman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yes, we definitely need open fonts. I think that closed fonts such as 'O', 'Q', 'D' are bad for the internet. Also partially closed fonts such as 'A', 'P', 'R' and the rest harm the way net works. We should convert all fonts to open ones, 'I', 'L', 'J' etc.

  9. Re:Font specifications by ndogg · · Score: 3, Funny

    I heard that he already dug out his future grave, and likes sleeping in it every night. Anyone who invents something like the WWW is bound to be weird like that.

    --
    // file: mice.h
    #include "frickin_lasers.h"
  10. Re:Different char encodings need different fonts by tempfile · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is a moot point, as the plethora of character encodings will eventually disappear in favor of Unicode. Language tags inside the text will then give the renderer hints which it can use to select a font according to its Unicode coverage tables. Fontconfig for Unix, e.g., can already provide Unicode coverage information and if I'm not completely mistaken, language tag development is happening in Pango, the text renderer.

    The mapping of key codes to characters is done by the input driver with a keymap. Modern systems all map their keys to unambiguous Unicode values.

    The problem of character encodings is dying a slow and painful death.

    The best software example I can give that "makes things right" is Gtk 2. With the right fonts installed, every script supported by Unicode "just works" out of the box and in every aspect of the system.

  11. Re:Unknown languages that no one speaks. by Rick+the+Red · · Score: 3, Funny
    OH MY GOD -- I comitted a typo on Slashdot! I'm not PERFECT! Thank you for pointing this out; I'll go shoot myself now.

    (pours a shot)

    --
    If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.