W3C

DRAFT Web Fonts Working Group Charter

This is a DRAFT charter for discussion and has not been approved by the W3C Advisory Committee.

The mission of the Web Fonts Working Group , part of the Fonts Activity , is to develop specifications that allow the interoperable deployment of downloadable fonts on the Web. Existing specifications ( CSS3 Fonts , SVG ) explain how to describe and link to fonts, so the main focus will be the standardisation of font formats suited to the task, and a specification defining conformance (for fonts, authoring tools, viewers ...) covering all the technology required for WebFonts.

As the relevant specifications are all implemented, WOFF 1.0 is at Candidate Recommendation, with full test suite and either standardised (OpenType by ISO/IEC 14496-22:2009, SVG by the SVG 1.1 Recommendation) or mature (WOFF, EOT, CSS3 Fonts) the group would be chartered to only make many implementations . In the minimal changes needed past two years there has been substantial uptake of WebFonts on production web pages.

However, for interoperability fonts with many glyphs (such as are typically used for Chinese and standardisation. In addition, Japanese, for example), even with the provision compression provided by WOFF 1.0, download sizes are still large. Recently a modified, two-stage compression scheme was proposed which could offer filesize savings of interoperable font formats would allow the testing order of CSS3 Fonts, speeding it 40% compared to Recommendation status. WOFF 1.0. This proposed charter adds stansdardisation of this new method as a deliverable of the existing WebFonts Working Group.

Join the Web Fonts Working Group .

End date 31 March 2012 Mar 2015
Confidentiality Proceedings are public
Initial Chairs Vladimir Levantovsky (Monotype Imaging)
Initial Team Contacts
(FTE %: 40) 		Chris Lilley
Usual Meeting Schedule Teleconferences: Weekly
Face-to-face: Twice Annually

Scope

The Fonts WG will develop Recommendation-track specifications as listed under deliverables; track emerging implementations, and maintain communications with the typography, Web design and implementor communities.

Success Criteria

Existence of:

The Working group should encourage implementations, and engage in dialogue with implementors, but is not expected to be the sole source of implementations.

Out of Scope

Creation of new font formats, and significant, implementation-breaking changes to existing ones, are out of scope.

Creation of new font linking mechanisms is out of scope.

Deliverables

Recommendation-track Deliverables

WOFF 1.0 specification
The Working group will continue to progress WOFF 1.0 format, by Jonathan Kew (Mozilla Corporation), Tal Leming (Type Supply), and Erik van Blokland (LettError), emerged as a strong favourite for the medium towards W3C Recommendation, and longer term. track post-Rec erratta.
WebFont conformance WOFF 2.0 specification
This specification will reference enhance WOFF 1.0 by adding an improved compression scheme, as an alternative to the font formats one used in existing use (OpenType, WOFF, SVG, and EOT), the font referencing and linking specifications (in both CSS and XML serialisations), access policies such as same-origin and CORS, and define which linking mechanisms, policies and formats are required for compliance. WOFF 1.0. New user agents will be the required format for compliance, the others being optional. The Working Group will decide whether to make handle both the formats older and linking mechanisms normative references or, on the other hand, produce a document citable by other specifications (CSS3 Fonts, XSL, SVG) when claiming conformance. newer schemes.

Other Deliverables

The group may also produce outreach and tutorial material, notes, demos and tools as it deems appropriate.

Milestones

May Jul Oct 2010
Milestones
Note: The group will document significant changes from this initial schedule on the group home page.
Specification FPWD LC CR PR Rec
WOFF July 2010 Nov 2010 Aug 2011 Mar 2011 May 2011
WebFonts Conformance WOFF 2.0 Jun 2010 Oct 2012 Sep 2010 May 2013 Dec 2010 Oct 2013 Dec 2011 Oct 2014 Mar 2012 Feb 2014

Dependencies and Liaisons

Dependencies

CSS Working Group
The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group maintains CSS3 Fonts , which defines the CSS serialisation of the WebFont linking mechanism.
SVG Working Group
The Scalable Vector graphics (SVG) Working Group defined the XML serialisation of the WebFont lnking mechanism, and also an SVG font format.

Liaisons

WAI Protocols and Formats Working Group
Accessibililty review of deliverables
Internationalization Activity
Internationalisation review of deliverables. Note that, for formats which repackage OpenType fonts, the I18N capabilities are the same as the original font.
Hypertext Coordination group
The WebFonts WG will coordinate with other relevant groups by participating in the Hypertext CG

External Groups

ISO/IEC JTC1 SC29/WG11
The WebFonts WG will, if needed, coordinate with SC29/WG11 regarding the Open Font Format (OpenType) specification. Changes to Open Font Format (OpenType) are out of scope of the WebFonts WG, although requirements may be communicated to SC29/WG11 if needed via the existing Class C liaison between W3C and SC29.

Participation

To be successful, the Web Fonts Working Group is expected to have six or more active participants for its duration. Effective participation to Web Fonts Working Group is expected to consume one work day per week for each participant; two days per week for chairs and editors. The Web Fonts Working Group will allocate also the necessary resources for building Test Suites for each specification.

Participants are reminded of the Good Standing requirements of the W3C Process.

Communication

This group primarily conducts its work on the public mailing list public-webfonts-wg@w3.org ( archive ).

Information about the group (deliverables, participants, face-to-face meetings, teleconferences, etc.) is available from the Web Fonts Working Group home page .

Decision Policy

As explained in the Process Document ( section 3.3 ), this group will seek to make decisions when there is consensus. When the Chair puts a question and observes dissent, after due consideration of different opinions, the Chair should record a decision (possibly after a formal vote) and any objections, and move on.

This charter is written in accordance with Section 3.4, Votes of the W3C Process Document and includes no voting procedures beyond what the Process Document requires.

Patent Policy

This Working Group operates under the W3C Patent Policy (5 February 2004 Version). To promote the widest adoption of Web standards, W3C seeks to issue Recommendati promot