text symbol

[alanje@cogs.susx.ac.uk (Alan Jeffrey)]

This is a repost of a message I sent out to the math-font-discuss
group.

Alan 

--- cut here for chat about text symbol encodings ---

Okay folks, what do you want out of a text symbol encoding?
 
Reasons for introducing TS:
 
 * There are currently some text glyphs (such as <yen> or <circledR>) 
   sitting in the math fonts.  Some of these (for example <yen>) are 
   sufficiently rare in mathematics as to warrant removing from the math 
   fonts and placing in a text symbol encoding.  They will still be 
   accessable in math mode, either by loading a TS-encoded font as a math 
   family, or by clever tricks with \mathchoice.
   
 * There are a number of symbols in the Adobe standard and Expert 
   encoding (such as <florin> or <paragraph>) that aren't in the Cork 
   encoding.  These can be placed in the TS encoding.
   
 * There are three glyphs in the Cork encoding (<perthousandzero>, 
   <sterling> and <section>) that do not have to be present for kerning 
   or ligaturing reasons, and which might be better off in the TS 
   encoding.  (This point is currently being discussed on the DC fonts 
   list, so *please* take any discussions about the Cork encoding there :-)
 
The plan is to introduce a new text symbol encoding, which will 
(hopefully) be available for every font that is available for use with 
TeX.  With appropriate macros, these glyphs will then change shape with 
the main text font, for example `\section{On the \yen--\pounds\ exchange 
rate}' will produce a <yen> and <pounds> in a style matching the 
surrounding text.
 
The glyphs we've looked at already are:
 
 * The text symbols from the Adobe Standard and Expert encodings, 
   including inferior glyphs, superior glyphs, oblique fractions, 
   copyright, trademark, punctuation and currency glyphs.
 
 * Oldstyle and lining digits.
 
 * The open triangle, open square, open circle, open diamond, filled 
   triangle, filled square, filled circle, filled diamond, star and 
   asterisk bullets. 
   
 * The tie accent, musical notation, daggers, and playing cards from CM.
 
 * The check mark, yen and Maltese cross from MS.
 
 * A cross mark and box to go with the check mark.
 
 * The Catalan lower and upper case centered dot.
 
 * The La and TeX glyphs for building the TeX and LaTeX logos (this is my 
   entry for the `A in LaTeX' TTN competition).
   
 * a/c and c/o (are there similar non-English glyphs?)
 
 * The planets.
 
 * The `prescription' glyph (R with a oblique dash through the tail).
 
 * <perthousand> and <perthousandzero>
 
Not all of these will be included in the final encoding!
 
The glyphs we're not interested in are:
 
 * alphabetics, which should be in the main text encoding.
 
 * mathematical symbols, which should be in a math font.
 
 * dingbats, which should be in a dingbat font, unless they're *very* 
   common (such as the bullets).
   
 * non-Latin glyphs, which should have their own encoding.
 
I'll send out some more detailed documents later.  At the moment, we need 
input on:
 
 * Glyphs.
 
 * Glyphs.
 
 * More glyphs.  I'd especially like input from people in the publishing 
   industry and from non-English speaking countries.
 
 * Any other features a text symbol font could possibly have.
 
All input is welcome!
 
Alan.