Word Perfect solved this problem decades ago. WPD format allowed for the complete embedding of fonts within the document. Word Perfect used its own font rendering engine so as long as it had the complete font embedded in the document life was good, be it on Windows or OS/2 or OpenVMS. Yes, WordPerfect even had a version for OpenVMS.
On Sat, 2011-05-28 at 19:23 -0700, Dennis E. Hamilton wrote: > Although the symptoms of font problems show up in the context of Word <-> > LibreOffice Writer, the situation is trickier than that. It is exacerbated > by failure to use standard Unicode code points, eliminating the possibility > of successful font substitutions, especially for symbols that don't vary that > much from one font to another and there is little danger of confusion. > > 1. AVAILABLE FONTS > > Most office-productivity software products rely on the fonts installed on the > operating system, sharing those fonts with all software on the platform. It > is also the case that the installation of software products will install > fonts, optionally or automatically, for users on that computer. (Some fonts > are only licensed to be used with the product or platform on which the > product is installed.) > > Users can also install an enormous variety of fonts of their own choosing, > whether licensed from a font foundry or obtained from one of the sources of > unrestricted fonts. > > Example: Beside the fonts that are available on the platform directly, my > main Windows 7 desktop system has fonts installed by Microsoft Office 2010, > Visual Studio 2010, Photoshop Elements, Word Perfect X5 Standard, and > LibreOffice 3.3.2, among others. All of these fonts are available to > LibreOffice 3.3.2 Writer. > > 2. INTERCHANGING DOCUMENTS WITH FONT DEPENDENCIES > > When fonts use essentially the same code points for the same characters, but > with differences in font-face design, there are techniques to substitute a > close kindred font when the specific font is not available to the consumer of > a document. This might create problems with metrics, but there are many > fonts that substitute well enough. Systems may provide automatic > substitutions for fonts that are not installed. Products also have ways to > let users direct the substitutions. > > Example: In LibreOffice, the Tools | Options | LibreOffice | Fonts dialog > provides for substitutions. The Help topic indicates the range of > capabilties. > > Font substitutions don't work so well for decorative fonts and it is > generally not possible for symbol fonts that use special code pages (older > systems) or non-standard Unicode code points for their characters. > > Some fonts don't provide substitutions very well at all. In particular, > there is no assured substitution for Unicode-based fonts that rely on code > points in the Unicode Private Use Area, U+E000 to U+F8FF. > > Example: The Microsoft Symbol, Webdings, Wingdings, Wingdings2, and Wingdings > 3 each use private-use code points in the same range: U+F020 to F0FF. U+F020 > is always a space character, but the other code points are not substitutable > characters among those fonts. Likewise, OpenSymbol uses some standard > Unicode code points but it also includes an extensive number of code points > in the private-use range U+E001 to U+E6A3. These do not correspond to the > use of private-use code points by Linux Libertine G (a Serif Unicode-based > font) and Linux Biolinum G (a Sans Serif Unicode-based font). None of these > characters that have private-use code points are substitutable among > different symbol-only or Unicode-based fonts. > > A significant number of the characters defined in the Private Use Area also > have standard Unicode code points. The standard Unicode code points should > always be used instead if fonts that include them are available, such as > Lucida Sans Unicode and Cambria Math. Linux Biolinium G can also be used > this way so long as its Private Use Area characters are avoided. > > Generally, the greatest fidelity is obtained if it can be arranged to have > the same font and font metrics installed on the computer system of the > document consumers as were used by the document producer and on which the > document depends. > > For documents that use characters from the private use area of fonts > available to the document producer, the only prospect for successful > interchange is if the document consumer has a font that defines those very > same characters at the same code points of the private use area. This has to > be accomplished by private convention. > > 3. PROVIDING THE FONTS THAT A DOCUMENT DEPENDS ON > > If the same software is used by the producer and consumer, there is no > difficulty when fonts consistently-supplied with the software, are used even > if the platforms are different. > > If the font has a different source, or different software is being used, > there needs to be another way to provide the necessary font for use by the > consumer. > > There are two ways to do this: > > - Using a document format that embeds the fonts > > - Transferring font files to the other computer system > > 4. USING EMBEDDED FONTS IN AN INTERCHANGE DOCUMENT > > A common method for ensuring that the consumer will view the document with > fidelity to the document that was produced is to export Adobe PDF documents. > These documents can carry embedded fonts and it is possible to arrange > production of bitmap versions of characters when the font is not embeddable. > > Microsoft Word documents can also carry embedded fonts. This allows for > correct viewing by a recipient as well. > > In general, having an embedded font in a document is not the same as having > it available for use in other documents. There are also barriers to using > the font in further collaborative editing of the same document. There are > manual workarounds that experts might employ, but those are probably too > tedious for anything but rare occasions. > > Also, if the collaborative interchange is between different products, > embedded fonts won't be enough. The odds of passing embedded fonts through a > converter are rather low at this point. The possibility of round-trip > preservation of embedded fonts by conversion in both directions is even more > remote. > > Example: ODF lacks an agreed means for embedding of fonts. Word saving of > documents with embedded fonts as ODF text documents loses the embedded fonts. > (If the receiving ODF consumer has the fonts, it will still work though.) > LibreOffice could provide font embedding as part of Save As Word format, but > the current converters do not provide that capability. Also, even with an > embedded font, it may be cumbersome to use that font in further editing of > the received document unless the embedded font can be installed on the > receiving system by some means. > > 5. TRANSFERRING FONTS TO ANOTHER COMPUTER SYSTEM > > One way to transfer fonts is to install a software application that provides > them. > > This is not so far-fetched. LibreOffice can be installed for free, with > minimum configuration, simply to obtain its unique fonts. It is not > necessary to run it. We just want to have a common set of fonts. > > Another way is to package and transfer fonts for mutual installation and > agreed use. Fonts are not difficult to install. It is likely that the > LibreOffice fonts are more amenable to unrestricted transfer onto other > computers. This may be the only way of adding fonts into some controlled > computer configurations. > > Round trip collaboration also requires agreement to use only fonts that are > arranged to be available on any of the computers and software products used > among the collaborators. Users will need to understand how to limit > themselves to use of mutually-available fonts and to avoid pitfalls such as > relying on characters in the Private Use Area instead of their standard > Unicode code-point positions when those are mutually supported. > > The limitation to mutual agreed use is the tricky part, since it requires > users to be aware of and careful of the conditions that assure mutual success. > > 6. FOR LIBREOFFICE DEVELOPERS > > It is unfortunate that there are so many uses of the Private Use Area at > large in the world. It would be valuable to avoid distributing more files > that rely on them. (The existing conflict between Open Symbol and Linux > Biolinum/Libertine G is amusing enough.) > > a. It would be useful to update OpenSymbol to use the now-standard code > Unicode code points for those characters that were previously unavailable as > standard characters. > > b. It would also be useful to document the usage of the Private Use Area by > fonts distributed with LibreOffice. A PDF that shows the code points and > character appearance would be an excellent way to make these known, so people > would be informed on the impact their usage has for interchange with other > systems and conversion to other formats. > > c. It would be especially valuable to adjust the LibreOffice repertoire of > bullet symbols, especially those used by default, to avoid using code points > in the Private Use Area for those characters. > > - Dennis > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Dennis E. Hamilton [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Friday, May 27, 2011 13:53 > To: 'Deve'; '[email protected]' > Cc: 'LOffice Users List' > Subject: RE: [Libreoffice] Word doesn't see symbols - NEW PROBLEM > > There's a new problem. I checked around for middle dots, centered dots, etc. > > The SAFE one is U+22C5, the Middle Dot in the extensive Unicode block on > Mathematical Operators, from U+2200 to U+22FF. > > The dots that I saw in OpenSymbol are these: U+E146, U+E468, U+E466, U+E58D, > and U+E584. My copy of the Unicode Standard 4.0 says that these are all > PRIVATE USE SYMBOLS. This Private Use Area has existed since at least > Unicode 3.2 and is unchanged in Unicode 6.0. See > <http://www.unicode.org/charts/>. > > "These areas will never be defined by the Unicode Standard. These code > points can be freely used for characters of any purpose, but successful > interchange requires an agreement between sender and receiver on their > interpretation." > > Furthermore, the codes extending upward from U+E000 are intended for END-USER > assignment and the codes extending downward from U+F8FF are intended for > CORPORATE USE (including vendors, platform providers, etc.), the idea that > the chance of collision is reduced thereby. This is only a suggested > convention, however. > > These depend on private agreements for having matching fonts or even being > used for visible characters. Something tells me you'll be hard-pressed to > find these in fonts on Windows unless you can send the OpenSymbol font to the > recipient. > > [ ... ] > > My recommendation is to use a defined Unicode character (and a font that > supports it) in preference to the same OpenSymbol character whenever possible. > > - Dennis > > [ ... ] > > -- Roland Hughes, President Logikal Solutions (630)-205-1593 http://www.theminimumyouneedtoknow.com http://www.infiniteexposure.net No U.S. troops have ever lost their lives defending our ethanol reserves. -- Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to [email protected] Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/www/users/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
