Tiro Typeworks

Introducing OpenType Variable Fonts @tiro/https-medium-com-tiro-introducing-opentype-variable-fonts-12ba6cd2369" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">medium.com/@tiro/https-me… #OpenType #VariableFonts

@Konkanist Note: this contextual substitution works correctly in HarfBuzz shaping environments, but not in Apple’s CoreText environment. Investigating.

@Konkanist We use this traditional form in our fonts, but if a user wants to force a half form rendering then we contextually substitute the variant form of –tra that connects more aesthetically and doesn’t look disjointed. Think like a scribe, not like a typewriter.

I like how this #Konkani font renders the conjunct ⟨-str-⟩ compared to the one rendered by the Hindi font belonging to the same family of fonts. The Konkani style looks more aesthetic.

I have written up a @harfbuzz issue regarding support of jihvāmūlīya and upadhmānīya, including recommendations for handling the currently script-ambiguous Vedic Extension characters. github.com/harfbuzz/harfb…

@Konkanist @a_srinidhi I don’t know where that shape come from, but in general Schegel’s type is really weird. I have a copy of Antpn Boller’s Sanskrit grammar from 1847, and it contains some of the oddest Devanagari shapes I have ever seen excepting those in Diderot’s encyclopedia.

@TiroTypeworks @a_srinidhi Do you know where the glyph for 9 used in Schegel's Devanagari font comes from. I've written 1978 in a modern rendition of Schegel's font.

Different ways of writing numbers in different styles of the #Devanagari script.

@a_srinidhi @Konkanist This variant form with the horizontal bar will be included in the next Tiro Devanagari updates. github.com/TiroTypeworks/…

@Konkanist Yes , x.com/TiroTypeworks/…

New update to the Tiro Builder tool, fixing an issue with hinting in CFF fonts instantiated from CFF2 variable build streams. Just finished testing it on a collection of complex Indic fonts build on-the-fly from multiple sources, which still feels magic. github.com/TiroTypeworks/…

Marwari ḍa is an outlier in the Devanagari script, having its stem connection to the head stroke on the left rather than on the right or centered. Wondering if the positioning in the second row might be appropriate, and if anyone has examples to support either positioning?

@dwarkesh_sp This is full of inaccuracies. Mainz was a major trading hub on the Rhine. It was not illegal for lay people to read or own Bibles. Most of Gutenberg’s initial print run was presubscribed and sold out immediately. His de facto bankruptcy was due to capital debt, not poor sales.

Gutenberg invented the most important technology of the millennium and immediately went bankrupt — and so did the bank that foreclosed on him, and so did his apprentices. Gutenberg could make a batch of 300 books for the cost of one, but there weren't enough buyers in his small, landlocked village in Germany. It it took the better part of a century of further innovations, social changes, and setting up of distribution networks before you could have a pamphlet like Luther's 95 thesis get from Wittenberg to London in 17 days.

@xomoc @JimMcMurtry01 I’ve written about the typography of First Nations alphabets in the context of the Skeena Indigenous font family. microsoft.github.io/Skeena-Indigen…

@xomoc @JimMcMurtry01 In general, there is a strong sense of ownership of these alphabets within BC indigenous language communities, even though they were initially developed with linguists. And I say *with* linguists rather than by linguists, because indigenous speakers were active participants.

The Musqueam alphabet was made up at UBC and adopted in 1997. Not a single Musqueam person knows it. One letter is a question mark, another is a Greek theta (θ) and a further looks like Waldo (ƛ̓).

WAVE 2: Writing As Visual Engagement Conference: 26th-29th March (hybrid) and 11th April (online). Join us for 30+ presentations on writing from around the world, historical and modern! Programme and Zoom registration via the link. viewsproject.wordpress.com/writing-as-vis…

Just finished reading _Chinese Characters Across Asia_ by @ZevHandel. It’s the clearest introduction I have read about how the Chinese writing system works—dispelling common, long-held misunderstandings—, and how the script was adapted to Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Zhuang.

@scrumpyh3 @JamesBlevins0O7 @VictoriaPeckham @thetimes re. ‘I have no problem with reading my @thetimes!’ Perhaps worth noting, for the benefit of those who may not be aware: the Times newspapers do not use Times New Roman, either online or in their print editions; indeed, they have not done so since the 1970s.

@JamesBlevins0O7 @VictoriaPeckham @thetimes But the websites are catering for phone sized screens; which is presumably why Calibri is often preferred! My point was that it was swapped out by USAGov for being “woke” in catering to this and those with less acuity of vision. I have no problem with reading my @thetimes !

Never, ever let post-modernists make policy, they disdain the real world of bodies, pain, fear & blood. On the BMJ essay on female genital mutilation. Me in @thetimes. thetimes.com/article/fff872…

The Cambria text fonts now support four scripts: the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic of the original release, and a new Armenian design by Ruben Tarumian. Licenses now available for webfont use and app embedding: #purchase" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">tiro.com/fonts/cambria#…

New promo specimen images of Cambria and Cambria Math created by @Paul_Hanslow. See these and others at tiro.com/fonts/cambria

@iwsfutcmd @cobbaltt So can one conversely summarise Chomsky as saying ‘The way you think shapes (big-l) Language?’😁

weeeeellll i actually think the linguists and the philosophers are asking a different question here Sapir-Whorf says "your (small-l) language shapes the way you think" Wittgenstein says "(big-l) Language shapes the way you think" i actually agree with Wittgenstein about as much as i disagree with Sapir & Whorf

the philosophers need to read up on Sapir-Whorf

@debramhunter @Bratt_world @cbcwatcher @nationalpost @VancouverSun Jean Teillet’s history of the Métis, _The North-West Is Our Mother_, makes this point very clearly. Very good book, well worth reading.

@debramhunter @Bratt_world @cbcwatcher @nationalpost @VancouverSun Although a lot of Canadians use the term Métis to refer to anyone with mixed indigenous heritage, that is not how the term is used by the Métis Nations, which have always had a very clear sense of its identity traced to specific families and communities in specific places.

AFN Chief Woodhouse Nepinak takes a swing at Metis "That's another reason outstanding first nations treaty rights must be reconciled before others because Metis rights do not include rights over first nations lands, territories and resources." "First nations, with the exception of the Inuit, are the only true landowners of these traditional territories." On Carney "He's going to have to sit there and he's going to have to listen to chiefs as they approach that mic." "And that MIC can get pretty heated when it comes to politicians up there." @chiefcindyafn