[XeTeX] Font protrusion --- new or old ?

[Adam Twardoch]

Jonathan Kew wrote:
> (Adam T, are you listening? Do you know of any "pro" fonts that  
> actually support opbd, or has this not actually be implemented  
> anywhere?)

My experience so far is that the implementation practice with stylistic
(non-linguistic) OpenType Layout features is the following:

* Adobe implements some features in their fonts
* Adobe implements support for some features in their applications
* other font vendors look at Adobe's fonts, Adobe applications and font
creation tools, and implement features that were implemented in Adobe's
fonts and are supported in Adobe applications
* other software vendors look at Adobe applications and the OpenType
spec, and implement a variety of features
* font vendors take a look at non-Adobe software implementations and
adjust their preferences

For example the "size" feature has been implemented in a number of Adobe
fonts but practically none non-Adobe fonts because Adobe has not
implemented "size" in any applications. So there is currently no
feasible way to test the features. The "rand" feature has not been
implemented in any Adobe fonts nor apps, so it is quite unlikely that
any other font vendors implemented them.

With "opbd", it is a similar case. Adobe has not implemented support for
"opbd" in InDesign and the Adobe fonts do not include this information.
However, the additional problem is also with font creation software
here: so far, FontLab Studio did not include any GUI for "opbd". I hope
that this will change in future, though.

So in short: I'm not aware of any fonts nor apps that would implement
the optical bounds feature. But I believe I could convince some type
designers to put that feature in experimentally.

-- 

Adam Twardoch
| Language Typography Unicode Fonts OpenType
| twardoch.com | silesian.com | fontlab.net

I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or
insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me.
(Hunter S. Thompson)