[Devel] RE: [OpenType] BDF-Erweiterung

[Paul Nelson]

Werner,

You stated "Years ago, Microsoft extended the BDF format slightly to
support graymaps with with bpp > 1 (as used in TTFs).  This extension is
a fourth argument to `SIZE', specifying the pixel depth.  Example for a
8bpp graymap:

  SIZE 20 75 75 8

Valid arguments would be 1, 2, 4, and 8; no fourth argument means bpp
equal to 1."

I have not been able to find any such documentation to indicate this is
the case. Our SBIT32 software has documentation that states "The
specification is available at
ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/DeveloperSupport/Technotes/PSfiles/5005.BDF.ps".

I have also looked through code related to BDF manipulation and do not
see anything that would indicate supporting the graymap you are
referring to.

I am interested in understanding the source of your information. 

Thanks,

Paul Nelson
Development Lead
Microsoft Typography



-----Original Message-----
From: Werner Lemberg [mailto:address@hidden 
Sent: Tuesday, June 04, 2002 2:34 PM
To: address@hidden
Cc: address@hidden; address@hidden; address@hidden;
address@hidden; address@hidden; address@hidden
Subject: RE: [OpenType] BDF-Erweiterung



[about a BDF extension for storing graymaps with bpp > 1

> I've tracked down Terry O'Donnell as the keep of the BDF format spec 
> here at Adobe, but from what I hear it really is not high on the list 
> to do anything with it.
> 
> If you can come up with a strong reason why Adobe absolutely has to 
> update the spec please make your pitch to Terry, but to be honest I 
> don't see a big chance for that. It will involve more than "just 
> updating the spec". To allocate resources to look into this issue must

> be justified by the return on investment for Adobe.

OK, here a translation of the original German message I sent to Torsten.

Years ago, Microsoft extended the BDF format slightly to support
graymaps with with bpp > 1 (as used in TTFs).  This extension is a
fourth argument to `SIZE', specifying the pixel depth.  Example for a
8bpp graymap:

  SIZE 20 75 75 8

Valid arguments would be 1, 2, 4, and 8; no fourth argument means bpp
equal to 1.

The nibbles in the BITMAP are interpreted according to that value.

Besides those MS tools for TTFs some other programs do support BDF
graymaps: Mark Leisher's bitmap editor xmbdfed, George William's font
editor pfaedit, and our FreeType library.

The idea of asking Adobe to mention this extension in the BDF specs is
`to prevent a proliferation of different ways of specifying greymaps by
BDF files' (G. Williams).

I think that Adobe shouldn't act here as a company interested in money
but the maintainer of the BDF specification.  In case Adobe is no longer
interested in maintaining the specs I'm volunteering to do that.


    Werner

--
OpenType - a discussion group for technical issues specific to building
and using OpenType fonts.

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