Historically, web pages have been rendered using the fonts available on the end user's machine. This hampered the use of any font other than the most common ones. This problem has lately been solved by embedding fonts into the web pages. When a page is downloaded over the net, any embedded fonts are also downloaded without any conscious intervention by the user. e.g. look at NJ laghu SatAvadhAnaM, 1998 transcripts.
1.1 How do I embed a font for viewing in Netscape Communicator?
Netscape Communicator 4.01 (all platforms) and later comes bundled with a Character Shape Player (CSP). This allows the use of Portable Font Resources (PFR) in web pages that are viewed with NS Communicator. Making a web page with PFRs involves three steps:
Internet Explorer 4.0 (on Win 9?/NT and Mac) and later allows Embedded Open Type (EOT) Fonts to be used in web pages. Here is how to do it.
Because NS and IE have gone different ways, we need a workaround to
make the same document viewable on both browsers. This is relatively straight
forward with 4.0? versions as IE ignores the <LINK REL=FONTDEF ...>
tag while NS ignores the @font-face { ... src: url(...)}
tag. This hack may be broken in future versions but for now, the following
works.
1.4 Are all fonts embeddable?
Not all fonts may be embeddable as EOTs (i do not have any info regarding
PFRs). EOTs are made from True Type Open Fonts. The latter allows the font
developers to disallow embedding of their fonts. See http://www.microsoft.com/typography/web/embedding/weft/weft2.htm
for more details
1.5 My TTO Font is not embeddable. What can I do?
If you have the rights to modify the font (otherwise it will constitute
a copyright violation), you can do the following with Fontographer.
Go to the Element> Font Info> OS/2 Data dialog box and set the fsType
embedding field to one of
the following four values.
$0002
Restricted License embedding: Fonts that have this bit set must not
be modified, embedded or
exchanged in any manner without first obtaining permission of the legal
owner.
$0004
Preview & Print embedding: Fonts with this bit set indicate that
they may be embedded within
documents but must only be installed temporarily on the remote system.
Any document which
includes a Preview & Print embedded font must be opened "read-only;"
the application must not
allow the user to edit the document; it can only be viewed and/or printed.
$0008
Editable embedding: Fonts with this bit set indicate that they may be
embedded in documents, but
must only be installed temporarily on the remote system. In contrast
to Preview & Print fonts,
documents containing Editable fonts may be opened "read-write;" editing
is permitted, and changes
may be saved.
$0000
Installable embedding: Fonts with this setting indicate that they may
be embedded and permanently
installed on the remote system by an application. The user of the remote
system acquires the
identical rights, obligations and licenses for that font as the original
purchaser of the font, and is
subject to the same end-user license agreement, copyright, design patent,
and/or trademark as was
the original purchaser.
1.6 Can I just link my web page to a PFR/EOT on a different site?
Not always. Both PFRs and EOTs are limted to use in particular domains
enlisted at creation time by the developer. They cannot be used in web
pages not originating from one of the listed domains. Mostt of the time,
you would be forced to make a PFR/EOT yourself :-(
2.0 Does font embedding work on all platforms?
PFRs are supposed to work in NS Communicator on all platforms. EOTs
work in IE on all platforms except Unix (this may change in future).
2.1 What versions of Netscape support font embedding?
On what platforms?
4.01 and later, all platforms.
2.2 What versions of IE support font embedding? On
what platforms?
4.0 and later, except on Unix
3.1 I am having trouble with EOTs on IE. Where can I find help?
See http://www.microsoft.com/typography/web/default.htm
Yes. raMgavalli,
telugu lipi , sa.ra.dA.lO
raMgavalli and RTS2ISCII
help you do so, directly or indirectly.
Unfortunately no font encoding standard exists for telugu and other
indic scripts. This reduces the processability (e.g. searching , spell
correction) of information stored in a particular font's format. To avoid
encoding translation headaches in future, you should use RTS to store your
information and use one of the converters mentioned in faq 4.0 to convert
that text into a particular font's encoding.
No. Because our font encodings are not standardized, font embedding
technology doesn't really make telugu a first class citizen on the net.
It only helps skirt the issues of standardization. A better solution (certainly
not the best) is emerging with the advent of OpenType
(also called TrueType Open) font specification. It helps transfer the unicode->font
code conversion logic from applications to font tables (which is where
it should belong). Work arounds such generic converters are also possible
and are being looked at by several developers.
Prepared by Prasad A. Chodavarapu
Last updated on Oct 27, 1998.