Re: Tibetan fonts and groff/troff

[Oliver Corff]

Hi Tomek,

the Tibetan font isssue is a difficult nut to crack, for two main reasons:

- the groff font tables do not contain information provided by the
ligature mechanism of Truetype or Opentype fonts

- groff itself is only set up ("hard wired") for a small number of
conventional ligatures used in quality typography

- the said ligature mechanism is, in its current state, not expandable
to cover more characters.

- I thought of building macro strings which you feed with Tibetan
syllables and ways of addressing combined characters in (some) Tibetan
fonts, but I did not explore this idea in depth. The interface is clumsy
and could, in theory be used for writing individual words, but not for
full Tibetan texts.

- Last but not least, I had negotiated several months of unforeseen
obligations, and a few more months ahead --- which makes it difficult to
enjoy the privilege of a wandering mind, sometimes so dearly need for
problem-solving.

As far as I understand, Heirloom troff "understands" OpenType fonts "out
of the box".

Perhaps I can better help you if you describe, in very short times, your
use case and scenario.

Sorry for not coming up with better news!

Best regards,

Oliver.


On 24/07/2024 12:20, Tomek wrote:
> Hi Oliver
>
> Few months ago you where busy, so I didn't want to disturb you.
>
> Would you share any news about progress in Tibetan fonts rendering in
> groff or troff? What are your thoughts, is it doable in present groff
> to stack letters? If not, where is the real problem?
>
>
> Best regards,
> Tomek
--

Dr. Oliver Corff
Mail:oliver.corff@email.de