The actual shape (typeface) attribute (the Z axis) is for differences of type design (the actual shape used in imaging) of each variant form.Let's take the concrete example of U+5516 and U+555E, with kZVariant entries pointing at each other in Unihan.txt.
Does Z variant mean that all the glyphs which are acceptable to represent U+5516 are also acceptable to represent U+555E, and conversely? Of course, some shapes may be more appropriate in some circumstances, much like a Fraktur shape may be more appropriate than a Roman shape in some circumstances.
Does it go as far as making folding from one character into the other a useful operation, assuming one is not interested in perfect round-tripping with other character standards?
If a document that contains U+5516 is rendered, and one does a copy/paste from a rendering of that document, is it acceptable to paste U+555E?
Are the answers to those questions different for other pairs of characters that are z variant one of the other?
Thanks,
Eric.
