基于OpenType的复杂文本语言处理的研究与实现

某些书写系统的文字(如蒙古文、维文、藏文等)具有比拉丁文字复杂的特性,当计算机在处理这类文字时,运用传统的字体技术(如TrueType)几乎不可能在显现出规范的书写形式的同时,实现对Unicode标准编码的支持.就这个问题介绍一种基于OpenType字体的处理模型.事实证明,这是一种可行的方案.

在ICU中实现少数民族文字的处理

基于ISO/ IEC 10646和UNICODE国际标准,用传统的字体技术(如TrueType)来实现少数民族文字处理所面临的一个"瓶颈"问题是:"变形显现字符"不存在确定的码位.这也是多年来民文系统重复开发、互不兼容的根本原因.本文基于ICU的文字处理体系结构,阐述了完全支持Unicode标准的少数民族文字(本文主要指蒙古文字、维文、藏文等)的实现方法.文中首先介绍了少数民族文字的特点,分析其与拉丁文字、汉字在计算机输入、输出过程中的不同之处,并指出少数民族文字处理的难点.其次介绍了一种能满足少数民族文字处理需求的字体技术--OpenType.最后,阐述了文字处理引擎的工作原理,以及ICU中如何实现对少数民族文字的支持.

在Qt上实现蒙文显示的设计与实现

随着软件产业国际化进程的发展,在操作系统中实现对我国少数民族文字的显示是一项具有挑战性和刻不容缓的任务,针对这项任务先分析了少数民族文字中蒙古文的语法特点和书写特点、桌面系统平台库QT的体系结构特点以及OpenType字体文件的特点,在此基础之上提出在QT中使用OpenType字体文件来实现蒙古文显示的详细实现方案,最后给出了目前该方案在项目中的实现情况和效果,并阐述了还有哪些地方需要进一步研究和改进。

传统蒙古文变形显示机制研究与实现

多年来蒙古文处理系统重复开发、互不兼容的根本原因就是没有统一的标准:编码标准不统一、字库标准不统一、输入法不统一。随着国际化、多语言化的发展,开发基于ISO/IEC10646和UNICODE国际编码标准、OpenType智能字体技术的不同语言文字处理系统已经成为趋势。本文阐述了一个蒙古文显示系统,它完全支持Unicode标准并使用了OpenType技术自动进行字形选型,其实现是基于QT库的,但核心实现很容易移植到Pango,ICU等其他复杂文本布局(CTL)处理项目中。

基于ISO/IEC10646标准的藏文操作系统若干问题研究

长期以来尚未有完整的藏文操作系统,原因是藏文文字的特性要求特定的文字处理。本文基于ISO/IEC10646的藏文字符集标准,结合藏文正字法要求,详细分析了藏文操作系统实现中的关键问题:(1)藏文字符集方案比较与藏文存储;(2)藏文输入;(3)藏文显现。藏文显现是公认的“瓶颈”问题。对此,本文提出基于音节划分、使用OpenType字体及相应的文本引擎来解决藏文“叠加”字符的显现。此方案应用于Qt库的实验及相关测试证明基于ISO/IEC10646标准的藏文操作系统实现是较合理的方案。

藏文编码字符集的扩充集在Linux上的实现

国内藏文软件开发普遍使用的是基于垂直预组合字符的实现方案,但是缺乏统一的编码标准.藏文编码字符集扩充集的推出,对于国内藏文软件的标准化、国际化具有重要意义.本文通过分析ISO/IEC 10646藏文编码字符集基本集、藏文编码字符集扩充集国家标准,区分它们描述字丁的差异,分析由编码方案所导致的实现上的关键问题.最后,针对藏文扩充集B的特殊性,提出并实现了基于Linux国际化架构下支持藏文扩充集标准的解决方案.

Adobe Devanagari typeface

Typeface design: collaborative work commissioned by Adobe Inc. Published but unreleased. The Adobe Devanagari typefaces were commissioned from Tiro Typeworks and collaboratively designed by Tim Holloway, Fiona Ross and John Hudson, beginning in 2005. The types were officially released in 2009. The design brief was to produce a typeface for modern business communications in Hindi and other languages, to be legible both in print and on screen. Adobe Devanagari was designed to be highly readable in a range of situations including quite small sizes in spreadsheets and in continuous text setting, as well as at display sizes, where the full character of the typeface reveals itself. The construction of the letters is based on traditional penmanship but possesses less stroke contrast than many Devanagari types, in order to maintain strong, legible forms at smaller sizes. To achieve a dynamic, fluid style the design features a rounded treatment of distinguishing terminals and stroke reversals, open counters that also aid legibility at smaller sizes, and delicately flaring strokes. Together, these details reveal an original hand and provide a contemporary approach that is clean, clear and comfortable to read whether in short or long passages of text. This new approach to a traditional script is intended to counter the dominance of rigid, staccato-like effects of straight verticals and horizontals in earlier types and many existing fonts. OpenType Layout features in the fonts provide both automated and discretionary access to an extensive glyph set, enabling sophisticated typography. Many conjuncts preferred in classical literary texts and particularly in some North Indian languages are included; these literary conjuncts may be substituted by specially designed alternative linear forms and fitted half forms. The length of the ikars—ि and ी—varies automatically according to adjacent letter or conjunct width. Regional variants of characters and numerals (e.g. Marathi forms) are included as alternates. Careful attention has been given to the placements of all vowel signs and modifiers. The fonts include both proportional and tabular numerals in Indian and European styles. Extensive kerning covers several thousand possible combinations of half forms and full forms to anticipate arbitrary conjuncts in foreign loan words. _____

Alverata: Latin, Greek and Cyrillic typeface

Alverata: a typeface design for Europe This typeface is a response to the extraordinarily diverse forms of letters of the Latin alphabet in manuscripts and inscriptions in the Romanesque period (c. 1000–1200). While the Romanesque did provide inspiration for architectural lettering in the nineteenth century, these letterforms have not until now been systematically considered and redrawn as a working typeface. The defining characteristic of the Romanesque letterform is variety: within an individual inscription or written text, letters such as A, C, E and G might appear with different forms at each appearance. Some of these forms relate to earlier Roman inscriptional forms and are therefore familiar to us, but others are highly geometric and resemble insular and uncial forms. The research underlying the typeface involved the collection of a large number of references for lettering of this period, from library research and direct on-site ivestigation. This investigation traced the wide dispersal of the Romanesque lettering tradition across the whole of Europe. The variety of letter widths and weights encountered, as well as variant shapes for individual letters, offered both direct models and stylistic inspiration for the characters and for the widths and weight variants of the typeface. The ability of the OpenType format to handle multiple stylistic variants of any one character has been exploited to reflect the multiplicity of forms available to stonecutters and scribes of the period. To make a typeface that functions in a contemporary environment, a lower case has been added, and formal and informal variants supported. The pan-European nature of the Romanesque design tradition has inspired an pan-European approach to the character set of the typeface, allowing for text composition in all European languages, and the typeface has been extended into Greek and Cyrillic, so that the broadest representation of European languages can be achieved.

Sarkar Bengali typeface

Fiona Ross, Tim Holloway (co-designers) were commissioned by the renowned newspaper and publishing house Anandabazar Patrika (ABP) to design a new low-contrast typeface in a contemporary style for print and screen use in its publications. Ross and Holloway designed ABP's Bengali house typeface (Linotype Bengali - the first digital Bengali font) that has been in daily use in its newspaper since 1982. The design team was augmented by Neelakash Kshetrimayum; OpenType production undertaken by John Hudson. This Bengali typeface is the first fully functional OpenType design for the script. It demonstrates innovative features that resolve problems which hitherto hindered the successful execution of low-contrast Bengali text fonts: this connecting script of over 450 characters has deep verticals, spiralling strokes, wide characters, and intersecting ascenders. The new design has solutions to overcome the necessity to implement wide interlinear spacing and sets more words to the line than has yet been possible. This project therefore combines the use of aesthetic, technical and linguistic skills and is highly visible in newspapers of the largest newspaper group and publishing house in West Bengal in print and on-line. The design and development of Sarkar has positive implications for other non-Latin script designs, just as the Linotype Bengali typeface formed the blueprint for new non-Latin designs three decades ago. Sarkar was released on 31 August 2012 with the launch of Anandabazar Patirka's new newspaper Ebela.

Adobe Bickham Script Greek typeface

Design support for typeface design: collaborative work commissioned by Adobe, Inc. Published 2011. The original Bickham typeface was based on the hands of the 18th century writing master George Bickham. The ornate script represented the apogee of the art of formal writing with a steel nib, and defined the visual style for decorated, formal documents. In 2010 Adobe revised and extended the typeface, with the express purpose of making it a showcase for OpenType technology, demonstrating the visual importance of using different glyph forms in different contexts, employing contextual substitution rules. Although Bickham had published a single example of a Greek style, it was a standalone exercise, never intended to match the Latin. The key challenge was to identify historical records for appropriate Greek writing, preferably by writers familiar with the language, adapt them for digital typography and the particularities of contextual substitution, in a manner that would not make the Greek a ‘second-class citizen’. Research involved uncovering and analysing appropriate contemporary and later writing examples to identify both the range of writing styles of the period, and the manner of joining letters in written Greek with both pointed pens and broad nibs. This work was essential to make up for the comparative lack of relevant material by Bickham, as well as investigating the possible range of stylistic variants that were approved for the final typeface, which attempted to emulate a written texture through complex substitutions. This aspect of the work is highly original for implementing a substantial number of contextual alternates and ligatures. These were reviewed in the context of use, bringing together an analysis of occurring letter combinations and patterns, and the design of stylistic alternates to imitate natural handwriting.