Bug 51117

Summary:	Request for 5 characters for Penobscot alphabet
Product:	DejaVu	Reporter:	Margaret Pearce <margaret.pearce>
Component:	General	Assignee:	Deja Vu bugs <dejavu-bugs>
Status:	RESOLVED NOTABUG	QA Contact:
Severity:	enhancement
Priority:	medium
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	All
OS:	All
Whiteboard:
i915 platform:		i915 features:
Attachments:	Penobscot font

Description Margaret Pearce 2012-06-15 06:22:53 UTC

Created attachment 63072 [details]
Penobscot font

Hello,

I have a somewhat urgent request and am hoping for the best. I'm not a linguist, I'm a cartographer, and I'm building a map in Penobscot with the Penobscot Cultural & Historic Preservation Department. They use their own alphabet, created by anthropologist Frank Siebert in the 1970s, later converted to a TTF (see attached) (link to download site is here: http://www.penobscotculture.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=117&Itemid=83

The problem is this: it is only a font, not a family. Maps need style and font depth in order to convey a depth of spatial relationships. To solve this problem, I went looking for a Unicode substitute, and when I found Deja Vu family of fonts, specifically sans and serif together, I was in heaven. I can do everything I need to do in it, EXCEPT there are 5 missing characters:

1. kw (the w is a superscript)
2. hw (w is superscript)
3. ss (2 s's placed close together)
4. kk (2 k's placed close together)
5. cc (2 c's close together, with a diacritical over each; don't know the name of this double character. see attached font)

With over 600 place names to locate, fit to irregular line paths, and translate, it is challenging to build these characters by hand each time. 

May I request these 5 characters added to both the serif and sans serif faces, such that the Penobscot alphabet would then be supported in full by both faces? All other characters are present.

Thank you very much for your consideration.

Dr. Margaret W. Pearce
Department of Geography
University of Kansas
margaret.pearce@ku.edu
740-590-9978 cell

Comment 1 James Cloos 2012-06-15 13:46:40 UTC

> 1. kw (the w is a superscript)
> 2. hw (w is superscript)

Those two are not a single character in the UCS; the ʷ is:

  U+02B7 MODIFIER LETTER SMALL W

and it looks like all of the DejaVu faces support that character.

> 3. ss (2 s's placed close together)
> 4. kk (2 k's placed close together)

You can simulate those two with kerning.  It’ll take a little more code,
but will be usable with essentially any font.

> 5. čč (2 č's close together)

Again, use kerning.  The individual chars are:

  U+010D LATIN SMALL LETTER C WITH CARON
  U+010C LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C WITH CARON

Looking at the font you attached, you may not require any kerning
after all; just set ss as ss, kk as kk and čč as čč.

Comment 2 Margaret Pearce 2012-06-15 13:55:52 UTC

Thank you, James Coos!
I shall do as you advise.

All the best,
Margaret

On Fri, Jun 15, 2012 at 4:46 PM, <bugzilla-daemon@freedesktop.org> wrote:

> https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51117
>
> --- Comment #1 from James Cloos <cloos@jhcloos.com> 2012-06-15 13:46:40
> PDT ---
> > 1. kw (the w is a superscript)
> > 2. hw (w is superscript)
>
> Those two are not a single character in the UCS; the ʷ is:
>
>  U+02B7 MODIFIER LETTER SMALL W
>
> and it looks like all of the DejaVu faces support that character.
>
> > 3. ss (2 s's placed close together)
> > 4. kk (2 k's placed close together)
>
> You can simulate those two with kerning.  It’ll take a little more code,
> but will be usable with essentially any font.
>
> > 5. čč (2 č's close together)
>
> Again, use kerning.  The individual chars are:
>
>  U+010D LATIN SMALL LETTER C WITH CARON
>  U+010C LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C WITH CARON
>
> Looking at the font you attached, you may not require any kerning
> after all; just set ss as ss, kk as kk and čč as čč.
>
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Comment 3 nocturnaldreamer 2014-01-16 15:52:21 UTC

Cleaning up, should have been closed already. Sorry for the spam.

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