Submission Request to W3C

We, W3C member, Bitstream Inc., hereby submit to the Consor tium the following submission comprising the document linked below:

Font Management for Web and TV systems

Which is referred to as "the submission." We request th e submission be known as the "Web and TV Font Management" submi ssion.

Abstract

Content that can be delivered to various clients connected to the Inte rnet, or Cable and Satellite communication networks is a crucial ingredie nt for the advancement of on-line communications. Text is an integral pa rt of the pages being viewed. The proper rendering of high-quality text and the font subsystems used are important system design considerations.< /P>

Font management and rendering solutions to be part of the W3C recommen dation must be able to be implemented in a static or dynamic process. Fo r example, a set of fonts may exist in ROM in a set-top box and rendered on demand by Internet or Interactive Television applications executing wi thin the set top box. The W3C font format will also be required to funct ion on the head-end server of the network in several ways. First the con tent provider may render or rasterize the content in a proxy server and p roduce an MPEG, or PNG data stream that is broadcast down to the set top box. Secondly, for down loaded applications that require a variety of fo nts, servers can dynamically create small font objects that contain only the character data required to image the content, and they are downloaded to the set top. These small font objects can augment any static fonts t hat exist within the set-top to obtain the smallest dynamic memory footpr int. Once the application has no further need, the small font objects ca n be deleted.

Features of a Font Subsystem for Imaging Internet Conte nt

Bitstream Inc. proposes that the W3C forms a working group for the purpose of specifying the font subsystem components and the managemen t of font objects to be used in the imaging of Internet content for TV. Bitstream purposes the portable font resource (PFR) of the TrueDoc Imagin g System, a completely cross-platform portable font rendering and managem ent solution be implemented as a W3C recommendation for font management f or Television and Web applications. The W3C font management and renderin g solution should contain the following features to best serve the merger of Internet content and TV applications.

Platform Independent Byte Stream for the Font Format

The W3C requires a byte stream format that can be transferred to a ny platform within an Internet, Cable or Satellite network. Network node s may be running a variety of operating systems on a variety of processor s so it is necessary that the format is reduced to a byte stream of known data. Implementations of the format across processors and operating sy stems must not favor or require a particular processor or operating syste m.

Scaleable Outline Font Format

A scaleable cubic outline format is required to resolve the differ ing resolutions or aspect ratios of the target devices. The format must be capable of supporting any font style or treatment for the purpose of i maging within a target Internet or digital TV device. In the event that static output devices such as printers are connected to an Internet or di gital TV device, the format must be suitably rendered in the resolution o f the output device.

Character Encoding

Digital content that references characters within W3C environments are based on UNICODE and the fonts must fully support UNICODE.

Default Character Set for Resident Font(s)

W3C target platforms may contain the ISO-Latin-8859-1 character se t in a Bitmap or Outline format. It is desirable to extend the current t ext and UNICODE character access mechanism to support outline font techno logy. Augmenting the character set dynamically is highly desirable so th at multi-lingual digital content can be imaged and displayed. Manufactur ers may implement any extra character sets to support target markets with in their devices statically or by dynamic downloading.

Dynamic Merging of Character Sets

Character access via UNICODE implies multilingual support and can be accomplished by downloading either bitmap or outline font fragments. The selected font format must be easy to combine font fragments so that f ont fragments appear as a single font with a single unified character set =2E

Memory, Font Format Size and Compression

Size of the outline font format must not burden the W3C target dev ice with unnecessary data (ROM or RAM), or require specialized decompress ion logic. The selected font format must be dense or tightly coded and n ot require the commercial licensing of data compression logic.

Floating Point Processing

W3C compliant network nodes may not contain a FPP so the selected font format must not require floating point processing.

Font Rendering Considerations

The W3C recommended scaleable cubic outline font format must be ab le to be rendered with the following considerations. Extensions to HTML and XML tags to direct these rendering effects within the target device w ill comprise the bulk of the work for the W3C working group chartered wit h formulating a W3C Specification.

Specification of a default font of known static character set. For this we propose a san-serif design which has been expertly defined e specially for ITV applications. The proposed static character set would include most characters from the ISO-Latin 8859-1 to 9 character set spec ifications.

Specification of query functions to understand the level of font m anagement and rendering functionality available within the client.

Specification of the system behavior given various levels of fo nt rendering and font management support.

Format and Technology Availability

The W3C recommended font management solution require that the sele cted format be available fairly to all W3C members. The W3C also requires that commercially available technology to dynamically generate the forma t, manage the font objects, and render the font format.

Synergy with other Standards (DAVIC, DVB, W3C, and UNICODE)

W3C devices will be connected to both the Internet and Cable and S atellite digital television systems. Therefor the W3C font management so lution should be compatible with existing digital television font format standards. The Bitstream Portable Font Resource (PFR) is the designated portable font format for the Digital Audio Visual Counsel (DAVIC 1.3 and 1.4), the standards committee driving system level design and component s election for the digital television environment. PFR format is call out in the current W3C CSS specification. DVB has also included the PFR forma t in its latest specifications. Finally, the PFR format uses UNICODE two byte encoding as its preferred character encoding mechanism.

Intellectual Property Rights

Bitstream Inc. agrees to allow any company to implement the font machinery that generates, manages, or renders the proposed format i n a fair and non-discriminatory manner.

This contribution is supplied on an "as is" basis with no Wa rranty. Bitstream Inc. and its suppliers make no express warranty, wheth er written or oral, with respect to this submission.

Suggested Action

We suggest that the W3C evaluate this proposal as part of t he Font Management for Web and TV systems discussion and/or working group once one has formed.

Resources

Bitstream Inc. is willing to commit resources to the furthe r development of this specification and will make available a trial imple mentation to assist in its evaluation.

Change Control

Should any changes be required to the document, we would ex pect future versions to be produced by W3C process.

Contact

Inquiries from the public or press about this submission sh ould be directed to:

Greg Porell, gporell@bitstream.com, Phone: 1 617 520 8347

Submitted

This 10th day of June, 1998,

Bitstream Inc.