Re: Conlang Unicode Font (was Re: Kamakawi Unicode Font Question)

Tristan:
<<
Yes, you need to add a ligature, but I can't tell you how to do that
because I've never used TypeTool 3. Perhaps it help will describe it?
 >>

I have my answer: TypeTool 3 can't do this.  If you're thinking
of purchasing TypeTool, and you want to add ligatures, don't
(unless you want to combine it with another program).  I would
love to try to use FontForge, but you have to run it through
X11, and my X11 won't run because it's the version that shipped
with OS 10.2, and it didn't update it, and it won't run with OS
10.4, but you can't download the one that will, because the
installer program thinks the damn file is up to date--even if you
delete it!

And, of course, I can't use Microsoft VOLT, or any other Windows
program.  This is aggravating.

Tristan:
<<
Anyway, if you're really stuck, once you've drawn all the glyphs I
could go back and add the ligatures in using FontForge as long as you
give it to me in OpenType format. I don't have the time or expertise to
actually do the drawing itself.
 >>

Oh, I'm not drawing the glyphs: I'm just copying and pasting (and
renaming).

However, this font is pretty much for Web presentation.  Even
when it's done, I'm not using this font for personal use (e.g.,
with my word processing documents)--no way!  I hate Unicode
when it comes to word processing!  If I want characters to be
handy to type, I just create a new font and put the characters
where I like (for example, I did that when I was studying Turkish:
just copied-and-pasted myself a font with dotless i where W is,
where capital "i" was capital dotted i, etc.).  As such, will ligatures
work with webpages?

Let's continue with Herman's example.  Let's say he wants a page
to present his Olaetian script.  He shows us all the characters, and
then says that when "n" and "g" occur together, they form a
ligature.  Now he wants to show us the ligature.  What does he
type?  The unicode PUA points for "n" and then "g", and then
will the webpage produce the ligature?  And what if it doesn't?

Herman:
<<
It looks like the specific charater U+F072 is used by Microsoft for its
own internal purposes. I tried typing "F 0 7 2 Alt+X" in WordPad, and
I end up with this checkbox in the Wingdings font.

I did a version of my home page in Visible Speech once, which is in the
Private Use area. You'll need a Visible Speech font like my Teamouse VS
(ftp://ftp.io.com/pub/usr/hmiller/fonts/tmousevs.ttf) to see it.
 >>

Well then you must be doing something right, and I must be
doing something wrong.  Here's what I think:

(1) With your homepage, you added an HTML "font" tag,
specifying what the font should be.  I was hoping to avoid that--
to just put in the unicode character, and to fill it in with the font
that had something for that point.  I've become convinced that
is not a reality for PUA characters.  Oh well.  :(

(2) With Thunderbird, we can test if it's your Olaetian font and
not my font by using one of my characters--for example:

&#xF000; &#xF060;

If those come through, then my font is working.  If not, then
your Olaetian font is working, *and* mine isn't, which means
that there's something about the way your font was designed
that makes it work--and something about mine that makes it
fail!

Eventually I'll figure this stuff out, but it is kind of frustrating.
I share this sentiment:

Herman:
<<
It's hard to believe that in 2008, we still have to put up with lack
of support for font rendering features.
 >>

-David
*******************************************************************
"A male love inevivi i'ala'i oku i ue pokulu'ume o heki a."
"No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."

-Jim Morrison

http://dedalvs.free.fr/

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