FMi on text symbol encodings

Ulrik Vieth vieth@thphy.uni-duesseldorf.de
Wed, 3 Mar 1999 10:44:30 -0500


Hilmar Schlegel wrote:

> Back from theory to the topic: some kind of definition *what* is in TS1
> would be helpful as a first step for an emulation. Some list with
> "names" (descriptive, private or whatever), character names (to be used
> in a Type1 font), and implemented shape would be in place. In the
> present state even the context of some characters is unclear and it is
> quite difficult to setup encodings even if the fonts have the necessary
> stuff available.

In some case you probably have to ask Joerg about the intended meaning
of TS1 symbol.  For instance, the distinction between the various TS1
`ascii<accent>' and `tildelow' vs. the usual `accent' and `asciicircum'
seems rather dubious.

> There should be two variants for faking:
> - a maximally similar encoding vector for fonts with standard 
>   character names
> - a fontinst etx + mtx (more friendly ;-)

This does exist already for TS1, see ts1.etx and textcomp.mtx.
Or were you refering to TSA/TSX?

> Of course TS1 will stay as it is - for practical purposes it is less
> usable then than it could be, however. My view is that instead of
> utilizing a few fonts to switch around, it would be better to have
> more flexible encodings (e.g. T1 is completely filled but switching
> encodings midst text is a problem). Actually encodings should be
> font-specific to be exact...

If you want to avoid any kind of questionable fakery, you could always
resort to using raw 8r or 8y (LY1) encoded base fonts, which however
doesn't allow to take advantage of expert fonts.  If you want to have
expertized fonts, you have to come up with some kind of encodings for
virtual fonts based on 8r + 8x or 8y + 8x, whether this is T1 + TS1
or anything else.

Cheers, Ulrik.