Hi SignWriting List,
The SignWriting 2010 font development continues. I've had some
major breakthroughs. When I started working with the TrueType
fonts, I was unsure how far I could take the development. I'm happy
to report that everything is falling into place.
This work will be a solid foundation for future SignWriting
development. The reduction in file size, network connections, and
processing is staggering. Files are 30 times smaller. Thousands of
network connections are eliminated. Processing is instantaneous
rather than network dependent.
While the details are technical, the average user will not need to
know the specifics. These tools will be used by developers to speed
their development and their resulting applications.
I am still working on some of the finer details, so any feedback or
comments are welcome. If you are feeling adventurous, please view
the source HTML, Javascript, and CSS for more details.
http://signpuddle.net/iswa/demo/glyph_sizing.html
http://signpuddle.net/iswa/demo/signwriting_2010.js
http://signpuddle.net/iswa/demo/signwriting_2010.css
Here are a few of the latest achievements.
Nice looking symbols
------------------
I have been able to improve the TrueType font import so that the
symbol glyphs in the font look as nice the symbol SVG.
Two color fonts
--------------
Rather than a 2-color font, I've created 2 different fonts: one font
for the primary color (SignWriting 2010) and one font for the
secondary color (SignWriting 2010 Filling). These fonts work
together.
Properly aligned symbol glyphs in 2-dimensions
-----------------------------------------
The fonts can be used with SVG or with the HTML 5 Canvas to create
2-dimensional images. Either way, the symbol glyphs are easy to
arrange in 2-dimensions without extraneous processing or
conditions. A few dozen simple lines of Javascript can handle
either conversion. ( See functions getSignSvg and getSignCanvas in
file signwriting_2010.js )
Symbol glyph sizing
-----------------
An unusual constraint for SignWriting is that the symbols come in
various sizes. There are 37,811 symbols. If we specifically define
the size of each, we need a data file that is over 600 KB.
Conversly, we can achieve the same effect with a few dozen simple
lines of Javascript (about 1 KB) using the TrueType font with the
HTML 5 Canvas. ( See function getSymSize in file
signwriting_2010.js ) There are minor errors (off by 1 pixel) with
some of the symbols. I'm hoping to be able to fix this soon.
The function to get the symbol size is quick. It can be called
thousands of times a second.
SignWriting 2010 Glyph Sizing Demo
----------------------------------------------
http://signpuddle.net/iswa/demo/glyph_sizing.html
----------------------------------------------
The top of the page, starts with the following.
If you press the "Hello World" button, you will see several sign
image examples. Each of these images is created by using the
TrueType fonts that have been installed on your computer.
The SVG images are similar to what we are using now, but uses SVG
Text with the TrueType font rather than SVG Paths from a server.
The HTML 5 Canvas works nicely with the TrueType fonts. The glyphs
are written to the canvas and then the canvas can be converted to a
PNG image. This all happens in the browser without requiring a
network connection.
There is also a speed and accuracy checking section. This section
will compare the actual symbol size against the function derived
size. The test will check each of the 37,811 symbols. The full
accuracy test will take less than a minute. You can select less
time to end the test early.
Here's the output for a 1 second test:
Here's the output for a 1 minute test:
If you don't have the fonts installed, you will receive the
following message is you try any of the buttons.
I updated the development fonts yesterday, so you will need to
remove or replace any SignWriting 2010 fonts from an earlier time.
Regards,
-Steve