+1. I cannot mark this up enough. In basic terms supporting OpenType = supporting Adobe, which would seem at odds with an open source project like LO. As @dajare mentions the SIL Graphite fonts are exceptionally good. IMO it is better to have one great font than a dozen poor ones.
As I recall the OpenType specification is an open standard, so there’s nothing wrong with implementing it.
It is not that simple. OOXML is “open” too, but using it merely promotes MS and is highly contentious as indicated on the mailing list. It is in the interests of LO to promote platform agnostic solutions i.e., Graphite (over OT / AAT). PostScript outline fonts are not likely to be embeddable within an editable document e.g., ODF. Ask Adobe why that might be.
I don’t believe that implementing OpenType implies being awkwardly encumbered the way implementing OOXML does. The modern TeX engines (XeTeX and LuaTeX) implement OpenType with much success and they are both free software projects (XeTeX was actually started by a SIL employee). Yes, Graphite is an excellent technology that deserves more widespread use: right now, it is not implemented on OS X and I wish it was.
I’m interested: does the Graphite in LibreOffice not work on OS X?
That’s right, it doesn’t work. the Wikipedia article on Graphite says “ According to SIL, Mac OS X support is not planned since with AAT, Mac already provides a technology suitable for minority scripts”. I tested it, and when feature tags are applied with Libertine G the font is replaced with a generic sans serif font instead.
Now that I think about it though, when the right experimental feature is enabled in Firefox on OS X in the about:config menu, Graphite is supposed to work. I tested OpenType in this way in Firefox, but I don’t remember testing Graphite, so I can’t say yet whether it really does work.
@CyanCG re. my simplistic OOXML/OT comparison I accept your criticism. Like @Uglyface200, I was under the impression that Graphite2 was being actively developed for MacOS, although I have not looked at it for some time. This blog post by Khaled Hosny regarding LO/XeTeX porting to Harfbuzz (incl. Graphite2) is relevant.
@CyanCG, I feel that Wikipedia quotation requires a “[citation needed]” tag. If you know of evidence supporting the claim I would be interested (and saddened) to know of it. EDIT: A quick test of Graphite support for ligatures under MacOS 10.6.8 / LOv4.0.3.3 using Linux Libertine G shows this appears to be working. Which particular Graphite features are you not seeing?
@CyanCG : Re : Graphite support in Firefox (on Mac). You can get a decent test page here: Miao Unicode: documentation and scroll down a bit. (Assuming you’ve done the “about:config” search “graphite” > “enabled | true” thing, of course.) FWIW.
@oweng thanks for the links. I remember testing small caps and uppercase to small caps with Libertine G, I don’t remember whether I tested anything else. I did not know about Graphite2 being developed for OS X and now I rejoice; it seems that I was misled by this Wikipedia article and it should be updated. @dajare, Graphite indeed works with the test page you linked to in Firefox on my OS X 10.8. As for LibO’s Graphite features on my OS X install, perhaps I have a bug that’s specific to my setup.
I have added a “citation needed” tag to the Wikipedia article statement and a comment in the Talk page.
While it is not specifically mentioned in the original question I thought this thread should note that support for the OpenType locl feature (localized forms) is also now supported (FDO#62154). I imagine this feature will be available in v4.1.0.
According to this bug report OpenType/OTF ligatures are properly supported.
HOWEVER, I have not been able to get them to work at all, despite this functionality being apparently supported in the up-to-date version of LibreOffice I have. So, your mileage may vary.
The questioner specifically excluded ligatures as something he wants. I frequently access stylistic sets, and hate having to use Word to get an alternate g, so +1 for this feature from me.
The solution that works best for me right now is to only make basic typography in LibO, then export the document with Writer2LaTeX 1.2, change a few commands to get small caps, real sup/sub etc. and typeset with XeTeX.
…which doesn’t exactly work for those of us who don’t want to take the time to download and learn a whole programming language for a few aesthetic changes.
I wholeheartedly agree: in the long run, it is very necessary to support all of OpenType. From what I gather, it seems that this would be easier if LibreOffice used Harfbuzz for rendering. This would give LibO a very good edge on MS Office and many other products.
Now, if only the developers could give us some information on how easy/difficult this would be to implement. I’m sure the LibO community would be glad to help.
Certainly. I’m a newbie when it comes to programming, but when I have the time I want to write a detailed “enhancement bug” report, because I want to make sure that those who are responsible for this part of the code base understand how important it is. See this article.