>The problem (if there is one!) is only for font technology. > >> Ethiopian writing: [...] "The capability to the same electronically >> would be well received. /Daniel." > >Same for this one: Unicode's task was to provide a code point for the >Ethiopic full stop, and they did. Whether the corresponding glyph is colored >or not is problem for fonts and word processors.
Well, may I please suggest that the issue is one for Unicode as well as for font technology? Firstly, for the avoidance of doubt in the matter, whereas I am an advocate for adding codes into Unicode for effects for organizing and controlling data in ways which some people consider should be done only by markup methods, I am hoping that, without that aspect of my research prejudicing the matter, readers might consider the possibility of adding into regular Unicode some operators for use in ZWJ sequences for requesting that a chromatically decorated glyph of the 'operated upon' regular Unicode character be produced if the font can provide it, yet otherwise that a monochrome ordinary glyph be provided. May I please refer to the following document. http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/courtfor.htm In that document I wrote as follows. quote Here are some codes for use in ZWJ sequences of the form U+HHHH ZWJ U+F3DC and U+HHHH ZWJ U+F3DD so as to provide facilities to indicate to a chromatic font that a colour decorated version of U+HHHH is requested, where U+HHHH represents any Unicode character where such usage would be meaningful. This facility is provided in anticipation of the possibility of chromatic fonts being introduced at some time in the future. U+F3DC ZERO WIDTH DECORATION OPERATOR OF THE FIRST KIND U+F3DD ZERO WIDTH DECORATION OPERATOR OF THE SECOND KIND end quote May I please refer to the following document. http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/courtcol.htm In that document I wrote as follows. quote U+F3E0 BLACK U+F3E1 BROWN U+F3E2 RED U+F3E3 ORANGE U+F3E4 YELLOW end quote So, it would be the case that in order to set some text in black one would use U+F3E0 then the text and in order to set some text in red one would use U+F3E2 then the text. In order to set some text in black including a character U+1362 in black with red flourishes one would use U+F3E0 then the text which precedes the U+1362 character and then U+1362 ZWJ U+F3DC which should do the job perfectly well as the chromatic font would be set up so that the decoration of the first kind operator worked in black and red. More generally, for other chromatic characters from other applications where the colours are not specific, then the chromatic colours can be changed before using the ZWJ sequence. Quoting from the same document. quote Colour changing is by a specially devised method which will hopefully be efficient in practice. Upon receiving one of the 18 codes to change colour, the system presumes on a temporary basis that the new colour is to become the foreground colour, which is what it will usually be. However, the previous foreground colour is stored. If a command to set one of the other four colours is received, then the foreground colour is used for that purpose, with the foreground colour being replaced by the previous foreground colour. This means that only one code point is needed to change the foreground colour and two code points are needed to change the contents of any of the other colour registers. The decoration colours are intended to be ready for the possible introduction of chromatic fonts at some future date. U+F3AC SET NEW BACKGROUND COLOUR U+F3AD SET NEW FIRST DECORATION COLOUR U+F3AE SET NEW SECOND DECORATION COLOUR U+F3AF SET NEW THIRD DECORATION COLOUR end quote In using chromatic font technology I suggest that the specific colours could either be built into the glyph or could just be foreground colour, background colour, first decoration colour, second decoration colour, third decoration colour, in abstract terms with the specific colours being supplied by the rendering software. This would enable some glyphs, such as those for the Ethiopic manuscripts, to be specified as black and red within the font, and for some glyphs, such as those for an ornament, to be specified by the rendering software. As regards the possibility of including such code points as I have mentioned above in regular Unicode, well, there are various levels. There is the issue of whether codes such as U+F3E2 RED above should be promoted as some people feel that they are markup and should not be included in regular Unicode. Well, that is an issue and I quite accept that I am currently in the minority over that issue, though I would ask that readers might look into the matter of the use of such codes in DVB-MHP (Digital Video Broadcasting - Multimedia Home Platform) broadcasting of multimedia where text in Unicode files will be processed by Java programs which have been broadcast to television sets, before taking a definitive view on the matter, and indeed at the possibility of their use in general desktop publishing packages. However, I wonder if, even if they are against characters such as U+F3E2 being promoted to regular Unicode, readers might have a look at whether characters such as U+F3DC and U+F3DD should be promoted to regular Unicode as they would be used, as operators, in a ZWJ sequence for the character which is to be decorated. An index to the documents, and some other documents and to background notes is at the following address. http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/court000.htm The main index page of the webspace is as follows. There are various items in that webspace which will hopefully be of interest. For example, some documents about the DVB-MHP broadcasting system, including some links, some artistic fonts produced using The Alphabet Synthesis Machine and some articles about using the Microsoft Paint program for such purposes as drawing B�zier Curves, for precisely locating text in diagrams and for using Paint in conjunction with WordPad to produce graphics of large letters, filled with gold texture, together with some support files of graphics for use in Paint, such as some stars and some polygons: and then there is 1456 object code as well. http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo William Overington 6 July 2002
