[HarfBuzz] Question about HarfBuzz-ng OpenType Implementation

[Khaled Hosny]

Still, I doubt the difference has anything to do with OpenType features,
technically speaking the main difference between TTF and CFF (.otf)
OpenType fonts, is how glyph data are represented, and all behaviour
differences are related to that fact and nothing with OpenType features.

The linked OOo page does not say anything to the contrary of this.

On Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 10:52:44PM +0100, vernon adams wrote:
> Words taken out of context a little :)
> Should be noted that we were actually discussing specific GPOS lookups,
> i.e. mark-to-base & mark-to-mark, not opentype as a whole. Certainly
> from my experience a ttf font seems to delivers these lookups more
> reliably in certain apps than a CFF font - see the openoffice wiki at
> http://tinyurl.com/ycj4z2a. And as discussed earlier, these opentype
> lookups work in Firefox 3.6 Linux, but not firefox 3.6 OSX or Windows.
> my booboo though on scribus, of course it isnt opentype savvy at all.
> 
> vernon
> 
> 
> On Tue, 2010-09-14 at 22:29 +0300, Khaled Hosny wrote:
> > On Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 02:32:39PM -0400, Ed wrote:
> > > >   <<< excerpt of email from Vernon Adams: >>>
> > > >
> > > > Your gpos lookups in OpenType fonts (.ot) do not work in all
> > > > applications. E.g. Scribus, OpenOffice dont work. I'm guessing this
> > > > maybe same with Inkscape. However a TrueType font with opentype lookups
> > > > does work, at least in Scribus, OpenOffice and Firefox (the 3 apps i
> > > > have tested).
> > > >
> > > > So basically, use opentype flavoured Truetypes instead of pure
> > > > OpenTypes.
> > 
> > This looks a dubious statement to me, Scribus does not support any
> > OpenType feature of any kind, OpenOffice prior to 3.2 does not load CFF
> > flavoured fonts, this has nothing to do with features in the font.
> > GTK+/Qt apps (AFAIK) treat both format flavours the same way, so does
> > Windows (you might get different rendering quality, but that is a
> > different issue).
> > 
> > However I do agree that a mechanism to enable non-default font features
> > is really needed, and harfbuzz-ng seems to have such support already (as
> > demonstrated by Firefox).
> > 
> > Regards,
> >  Khaled
> > 
> 

-- 
 Khaled Hosny
 Arabic localiser and member of Arabeyes.org team
 Free font developer