New subject: [Bug 839303] [ta_IN] Submission of glyphs for Tamil fractions/symbols to be included in the Lohit Tamil fonts

Wednesday, 11 July 2012

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=839303

            Bug ID: 839303
        QA Contact: extras-qa(a)fedoraproject.org
          Severity: unspecified
           Version: rawhide
          Priority: unspecified
                CC: fonts-bugs(a)lists.fedoraproject.org,
                    i18n-bugs(a)lists.fedoraproject.org, psatpute(a)redhat.com
          Assignee: psatpute(a)redhat.com
           Summary: [ta_IN] Submission of glyphs for Tamil
                    fractions/symbols to be included in the Lohit Tamil
                    fonts
        Regression: ---
      Story Points: ---
    Classification: Fedora
                OS: Unspecified
          Reporter: samjnaa(a)gmail.com
              Type: Bug
     Documentation: ---
          Hardware: Unspecified
        Mount Type: ---
            Status: NEW
         Component: lohit-tamil-fonts
           Product: Fedora

Created attachment 597580
  --> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/attachment.cgi?id=597580&action=edit
Lohit Tamil, Lohit Tamil Classical and Lohit Tamil Chart fonts with new
characters

Contributing new Tamil glyphs to Lohit Tamil family:
----------------------------------------------------

I have prepared a proposal to encode 62 characters for old Tamil fractions and
symbols to be encoded in Unicode. Seven of these are being proposed for the
Tamil BMP block and rest for a new Tamil Supplement block in the SMP.

For the glyphs required for the code chart I have largely devised new glyphs
based on existing Lohit Tamil glyphs under the derivative rights granted by the
OFL. Some glyphs which could not be derived, I created myself using Inkscape
and other tools. 

I would like to donate all these glyphs to the Lohit project under the OFL for
eventual inclusion into the Lohit Tamil/Tamil Classical fonts. For now they may
be included in the PUA of an unofficial fork of the Lohit Tamil fonts. When
they are eventually encoded in Unicode, they may be officially mapped to the
new codepoints and included in the official distribution of the Lohit
Tamil/Tamil Classical fonts.

Using Lohit Tamil glyphs for Unicode code chart:
------------------------------------------------

In the proposal, I am also requesting the Unicode / ISO 10646 project editors
to use the Lohit Tamil font for the Unicode Tamil code charts (Tamil block, and
newly proposed Tamil Supplement block) because:

1) When the new characters are encoded and my glyphs used for the code chart,
it would look good to maintain stylistic uniformity in the code chart, and my
designed glyphs are stylistically like the Lohit Tamil glyphs as they are
mostly derived from them. So it would be good to use Lohit Tamil glyphs
throughout.

2) There are currently 72 Tamil characters in Unicode 6.1.0. The present
proposal almost doubles the number with 62 new characters. It would be a
significant and unnecessary effort for anyone else to duplicate my glyph design
work for so many characters to keep in with the current Tamil code chart font
style. So switching to Lohit Tamil for all glyphs is easier and advisable.

3) Personally I think the glyphs of Lohit Tamil are much "cleaner" than the
existing Tamil code chart font, and more representative of the nature and
beauty of the Tamil script.

4) The OFL already permits the use of the Lohit Tamil font (and its
derivatives) for any purpose, so there are (hopefully) no legal issues
pertaining which need to be cleared between Unicode and Red Hat (but of course,
IANAL).

I also sincerely request the cooperation of the Lohit / Fedora / Red Hat people
in permitting the Lohit Tamil glyphs to be used for the Unicode Tamil code
charts (i.e. for two blocks).

Fonts with new glyphs:
----------------------

I attach herewith a ZIP file containing three font files:

1) Lohit Tamil font, with newly proposed character glyphs mapped to the PUA.

2) Lohit Tamil Classical font, likewise.

3) Lohit Tamil Chart font, containing only glyphs required for the code chart
(for existing and new characters, totalling 134 in number, across two blocks
Tamil and Tamil Supplement) mapped to the existing and proposed characters for
convenience of Unicode / ISO 10646 editors.

Behaviour of new characters and requirement from the fonts' side:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

None of the newly proposed characters are combining characters in the sense of
combining marks. However, most of them are proposed for a new SMP Tamil block
and care might need to be taken for proper mapping so that on all platforms the
SMP characters are accessible. 

There is only one sequence of characters which needs to ligate: TAMIL DIGIT ONE
௧ + TAMIL SIGN KALAM (which looks like TAMIL LETTER LLA ள) should always
ligate. I have also provided the ligature glyph after the glyphs for the
individual characters (mapped to PUA E03F) in the fonts 1 and 2 above. I have
not added any substitution mapping however as it is for now only temporarily in
the PUA.

Etcetera:
---------

It is my intention to submit the proposal within a week or so and I will
upload/link here a copy of the proposal.

If at all any changes are required to the set of glyphs as a result of any
feedback from scholars or other sources, I will upload fresh TTF font files.

I thank everyone, especially Pravin Satpute, for their support regarding this.

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[Bug 839303] New: [ta_IN] Submission of glyphs for Tamil fractions/symbols to be included in the Lohit Tamil fonts