Format 14 cmap subtable

MainType - Font Manager Implemented Feature Requests
1

FontCreator version 6 supports the new “Unicode Variation Sequences” encoding (Platform 0 Encoding 5) in as much as you can add the encoding to a font, and it will recognise if a font has this encoding (as two Windows 7 fonts do). However, FontCreator does not appear to support the new Format 14 cmap subtable (Unicode Variation Sequences) which is the only subtable that can be used with Platform 0 Encoding 5.

Windows 7 expects Unicode variation sequences to be encoded in a Format 14 subtable, and so in order to update my Phags-pa font to work under Windows 7 I need to add a Format 14 subtable for Phags-pa variation sequences. Therefore, would it be possible for you to add support for the Format 14 subtable as a matter of urgency.

2

Firstly, I am not in any way a representative of High-Logic, I am just an interested participant in this forum.

Could you possibly provide an example, as a sequence of Unicode characters, of what you are trying to achieve please?

William Overington

28 November 2009

3

We have no short term plans to add support for this subtable, but if we receive more similar requests we might change our plans.

4

Thanks for the reply. It is basically what I expected you would say. I think that the only solution will be for me to write a little utility to add in a format 14 subtable to a font.

5

I have been thinking about this and wonder if I may comment please.

Firstly some facts.

Erwin is running a business. I am not running a business. I think that I would not be able to run a business.

I do like progress. I like the idea that the person who started this thread is, if I may put it this way, reaching for the stars and making progress and I like to encourage people reaching for the stars and trying to make progress.

I wonder as to how many more similar requests would need to be received and I wonder whether if the task were done then some more people might start to use FontCreator as a result of the new capability becoming available.

Yet I do appreciate that I am not running a business.

So I have tried to think of a solution and wonder if there is some way that FontCreator could have a system of plug-ins, like Adobe Photoshop has plug-ins. I sometimes use Photoshop plug-ins even though I do not have Photoshop, because there are also budget programs, such as Serif PhotoPlus, that can use some Photoshop plug-ins.

In that way, a thread such as this one could, instead of simply ending, become a discussion amongst interested participants in this forum and maybe, just maybe, the code for the plug-in could be produced as a discussion group effort.

To me, and I do emphasise that I am not running a business and thus not needing to have the same priorities as someone who is running a business, it is not important how many people want the Unicode Variation Sequences facility, to me what matters is that an attempt is being made to produce progress and I like progress to happen.

So, having written the above, I hope that something can come of it.

William Overington

30 November 2009

6

Please would you reconsider. I think that Font Creator is an excellent font editor, but the lack of support for Format 14 cmap subtable is really holding me back. This table is required for fonts that want to support Unicode variation sequences, currently used for Han ideographs, Phags-pa script and some maths characters. Microsoft has two fonts shipped with Windows 7 that support this subtable (Cambria Math and Microsoft PhagsPa), and independant font developers are now also beginning to produce fonts with this subtable (e.g. HanaMin, a Japanese font which has support for thousands of ideographic variation sequences using the Format 14 cmap subtable). I want to add some ideographic variation sequences to a CJK font that I am developing, and cannot do this with Font Creator unless you add support for the Format 14 cmap subtable.

7

We will most likely add support for this subtable as soon as we start adding support for OpenType layout features, but we are currently focused on a major update of MainType.

8

Thanks, I’m eagerly looking forward to this.

9

So what Cmap subtable formats does FCP support?

PS, if anyone needs to add a format 14 subtable to one of their fonts, send me a private message - I think I’ve found a tool that can do it.

10

It supports all formats (format 0, 2, 4, 6, and 12) that are used by Windows for the purpose of the mapping of character codes to the glyph index values used in a font.

Format 14 is a special format as it specifies the Unicode Variation Sequences (UVSes) supported by a font.

11

I was wondering specifically about format 13 range mapping, as I have been thinking about working on a last resort font, but am a bit surprised to see support for format 6, but not 10 - for those without the technical background, format 10 is the four-byte analogue to the two-byte trimmed table mappings of the format 6 subtable.

12

Format 10 is not supported by Microsoft.

13

Does Apple support the format 10 subtable?

14

Hi Erwin,

Just checking back (after six years!) to see if you have any plans to support Format 14 cmap subtable any time soon. As you know, I use FontCreator a lot, and think it is the best, but the lack of support for Format 14 cmap subtable is something that really holds me back as several of my fonts need to support Unicode standardized variation sequences or ideographic variation sequences, and the only way these work under Windows is if the font has a Format 14 cmap subtable for them.

At present I have to export my fonts to text using the TTX font tool, then manually add in the Format 14 cmap subtable entries, and then export back to TTF, which is extremely tiresome and time-consuming. Please would you consider adding support for Format 14 cmap subtable as soon as possible, thanks!

Andrew

15

I’m not really familiar with this, so I wonder if you could suggest how the user interface should look?

16

Why would I even need a Format 14 cmap subtable?

What could I do with it which I can’t do now?

17

I’m afraid that I don’t have any suggestions as to how you would implement it – perhaps you could check and see how it is implemented in other font editors.

I just know that this is an essential feature for me and anyone working on fonts for scripts or symbol sets that use variation sequences. Maths, Myanmar, Phags-pa, Manichaean, Mongolian, Emoji and CJK fonts may all require support for variation sequences (http://unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/StandardizedVariants.txt), and for Windows 7 and later variation sequences are only supported as a cmap Format 14 subtable (see bottom of https://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/cmap.htm for details of the subtable format).

I just upgraded to FontCreator 10, and am disappointed that not only is the Format 14 subtable not supported, but it is silently deleted from the font if it does already exist. At present I have three different fonts that use variation sequences, and every time I make a change to the fonts in FontCreator I have to reinsert the Format 14 subtable using the TTX font tool, which is extremely tiresome.

18

A Format 14 cmap subtable is the recommended way of implementing variation sequences, and is the only way of supporting variation sequences in a font under Windows 7 and later (see https://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/cmap.htm for details of this table). If you want to create Maths, Myanmar, Phags-pa, Manichaean, Mongolian, Emoji or CJK fonts that support Unicode variation sequences (http://unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/StandardizedVariants.txt) then you need to use a Format 14 cmap subtable. Without this table you cannot support variation sequences on Windows.

19

I understand your needs for this, and we really intend to add support for Unicode Variation Sequences. However currently other features have priority, so even though this is on the to-do list, it will take some time.

If more people want this functionality, or can provide more information about how this should be included in our font editor, do let us know!

20

I think that it would not be too difficult to add support for the Format 14 cmap subtable. I think it could be done in a similar way to which OpenType features are supported in FontCreator. I envisage that there would be a new Format 14 subtable item under the Font menu, which when selected would open an editing window similar to (but much simpler than) the OpenType features editing window. This would allow the user to define variation sequences (sequences of one base character and one Unicode variation selector character), and map them to glyphs in the font. There would be preview facility (as for OpenType features), and a button that opens up a text editor that enables the user to manually edit the variation sequences (this is essential as many thousands of variation sequences may be defined for CJK fonts). When the font is generated by FontCreator then if the number of defined variation sequences is greater than zero an addition Format 14 cmap table is added.

Do you think that you could implement this for the next major release? I have been waiting for 7 years, and I am getting desperate. I love FontCreator, but without support for Format 14 cmap subtable and vhea/vmtx tables I will have look for other solutions.

Andrew