This project is a long-way from usable.
Currently this repository holds SVG files for my future use in a ‘Pi Fonts’ for various Unicode blocks that are generally not language specific.
Platillo is a name I would like to reserve for my packaging of the glyphs.
At this time I am not seeking contributions.
Eventually the glyphs will be imported into FontForge where they can then be packaged as an OpenType font using PostScript outlines (cubic Bézier curves).
The font will probably be released under the ‘GUST Font License’ (GFL) and so that license applies to this repository in the present.
See the file GUST-FONT-LICENSE.txt and LPPL.txt.
Glyphs will be in sub-directories that correspond with their Unicode block and
the file names will start with the Unicode code-point in hex but without the
leading U+ that proceeds a Unicode code-point. Sometimes the name of the glyph
will follow in the file-name.
The original inspiration for this font was to provide compatibility with common historic 8-bit ‘Pi/Dingbat’ picture-glyph fonts that predate the common use of of Unicode character encoding (such as UTF-8).
When a document contains 8-bit requests for the font ‘Symbol’, those glyphs requests can be transcoded to the Unicode code-points and the specified font changed to ‘Symbol Std’. Systems without ‘Symbol Std’ can them map ‘Symbol Std’ to ‘Platillo’ and the document will render correctly, although full metric compatibility is not a goal.
Note that the 32-bit Symbol does contain Seven (Eight on the Macintosh version)
glyphs that are transcoded to PUA code-points when transcoded to Unicode. For
the ‘®’, ‘©’, and ‘™’ glyphs—the eight-bit Symbol font had both ‘Serif’ and
‘Sans-Serif’ variants available. Unicode has code-points (U+00AE, U+00A9,
and U+2122 respectively) for those glyphs but does not specify serif vs
sans-serif. Adobe solves that problem by putting the specific variants within
the Unicode PUA so that references to the code-point can be transcoded to a PUA
glyph in ‘Symbol Std’. That is what ‘Platillo’ will do. The seventh code-point
in the PUA is for a math symbol. A Unicode equivalent exists but Adobe maps it
to a PUA code-point in ‘Symbol Std’. That is what ‘Platillo’ will do. The eighth
is the Apple symbol, which is trademarked. Adobe and Apple both map it to
U+F8FF in the PUA. Platillo will not infringe upon Apple’s trademark.
In English, the word ‘Symbol’ is phonetically identical to ‘Cymbal’ which in Español can be translated as ‘Platillo’, hence the name of the font.
When a document contains 8-bit requests for the font ‘ITC Zapf Dingbats’, those glyph requests can be transcoded to the Unicode code-points and the specified font changed to ‘ITC Zapf Dingbats Std’. Systems without ‘ITC Zapf Dingbats Std’ can then map ‘ITC Zapf Dingbats Std’ to ‘Platillo’ and the document will render correctly, although again note that full metric compatibility is not a goal.
Thus when used in combination with the TeX Gyre Collection of OpenType fonts, any 8-bit encoding document that specified fonts from the ‘PostScript Level 2’ fonts can be fully transcoded to Unicode and should render similarly to the original document intent. Note that for documents already typeset as PostScript/PDF documents that specify those fonts, metric compatibility is important so in such cases, the URW fonts within Ghostscript should be used when the original Adobe fonts are not available.
Microsoft released four commonly used 8-bit dingbat fonts, ‘Webdings’ and three different ‘Wingdings’. While I believe all the glyphs in those fonts now do have appropriate Unicode code-points (with the exception of the Microsoft logo in the first ‘Wingdings’ font), what ‘Platillo’ will do is put equivalent glyphs in the Unicode ‘Private Use Areas’ (PUA) range. Applications that want the best compatibility with those old 8-bit fonts using Platillo can map those 8-bit requests to the compatibility PUA glyphs in Platillo and change the requested font to ‘Platillo’. Note that this may not be what the user wants, so it should be an application option.
In the bitmap era of the Apple Macintosh, Apple released two 8-bit dingbat fonts, ‘Cairo’ and ‘Taliesin’, the latter of which was later renamed to ‘Mobile’
Since I know a Unicode font named ‘Cairo’ exists that is completely unrelated to the the Apple font ‘Cairo’ (the Unicode font is for Arabic), I would suggest that applications do nothing with requests for ‘Cairo’ and ‘Taliesin’ unless the document uses a Mac Roman encoding. Those fonts were never (officially anyway) released as TrueType fonts and Apple stopped shipping them with System 7.
Some but not all of those glyphs have Unicode code-points, but for best compatibility what I am doing is putting those glyphs in the Unicode PUA so that applications that want the best compatibility can map those 8-bit requests to the PUA glyphs in Platillo and change the requested font to ‘Platillo’. Note that this may not be what the user wants, so it should be an application option.
In addition to the previously mentioned historic 8-bit fonts, Platillo will contain many other Unicode code-points that typically are not associated with a specific written natural language.
It is my humble opinion that every Unicode font should include the full set of 7-bit ASCII characters. Those will be added close to the time of release.
However Bold, Italic/Oblique, and Bold Italic/Oblique variants will not be created.