1 | GENTIUM-FAQ
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2 | Gentium Release 1.02
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3 | 28 November 2005
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4 | ========================
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5 |
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6 | Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about the Gentium fonts:
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7 |
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8 |
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9 | General
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10 | ========
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11 |
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12 | How do you pronounce Gentium?
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13 |
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14 | The preferred pronunciation is with a soft G as in 'general', not a
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15 | hard one as in 'gold': JEN-tee-oom.
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16 |
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17 | What is GentiumAlt?
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18 |
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19 | It is a version of the font with redesigned diacritics (flatter
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20 | ones) to make it more suitable for use with stacking diacritics, and
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21 | for languages such as Vietnamese. The Greek glyphs also use the
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22 | Porsonic (single-curve) design for the circumflex. Since Gentium
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23 | does not currently include any 'smart' rendering routines, there is
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24 | no easy way to access these alternate diacritic shapes from within
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25 | the regular Gentium font. The encoding of the fonts are the same, so
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26 | the same text can be viewed with either one. There is also no
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27 | problem with having both font families installed at the same time.
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28 |
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29 |
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30 | Licensing
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31 | =========
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32 |
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33 | I want to use Gentium in my publication - can I?
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34 |
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35 | Gentium is released under the SIL Open Font License, which permits use
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36 | for any publication, whether electronic or printed. For more answers
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37 | to use questions see the OFL-FAQ. The license, alongside information
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38 | specific to Gentium, is in the release package.
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39 |
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40 | I would like to bundle Gentium with my application - can I?
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41 |
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42 | This is our most common question. The SIL Open Font License allows
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43 | bundling with applications, even commercial ones, with some restrictions.
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44 | See the OFL file.
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45 |
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46 | Can I use the font on my web site?
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47 |
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48 | You can certainly create web pages that request that Gentium be used to
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49 | display them (if that font is available on the user's system). According
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50 | to the license, you are even allowed to place the font on your site for
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51 | people to download it. We would strongly recommend, however, that you
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52 | direct users to our site to download the font. This ensures that they
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53 | are always using the most recent version with bug fixes, etc. To make
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54 | this easier, we've simplified the URL for Gentium:
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55 | http://scripts.sil.org/gentium
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56 |
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57 | Is Gentium going to stay free?
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58 |
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59 | There is no intention to ever charge users for using Gentium. The
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60 | current version is licensed under a free/open license and future
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61 | versions will be similar.
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62 |
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63 |
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64 | Modification
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65 | ============
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66 |
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67 | I would like to modify Gentium to add a couple of characters I need. Can I?
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68 |
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69 | Yes - that is allowed as long as you abide by the conditions of the
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70 | SIL Open Font License.
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71 |
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72 | So will you add glyphs upon request?
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73 |
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74 | If you have a special symbol that you need (say, for a particular
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75 | transcription system), the best means of doing so will be to ensure
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76 | that the symbol makes it into the Unicode Standard. It is impossible
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77 | for us to add every glyph that every person desires, but we do place
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78 | a high priority on adding pretty much anything that falls in certain
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79 | Unicode ranges (extended Latin, Greek, Cyrillic). You can send us your
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80 | requests, but please understand that we are unlikely to add symbols
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81 | where the user base is very small, unless they have been accepted
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82 | into Unicode.
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83 |
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84 | Can I send you work I've done to be incorporated into Gentium?
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85 |
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86 | Yes! See the FONTLOG for information on becoming a contributor.
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87 |
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88 |
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89 | Technical
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90 | =========
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91 |
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92 | Can you help me get Gentium working on my system?
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93 |
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94 | We cannot afford to offer individual technical support. The best
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95 | resource is this website, where we hope to offer some limited help.
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96 | However, we do want to hear of any problems you encounter, so that
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97 | we can add them to the list of bugs to fix in later releases.
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98 |
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99 | Our contact address is <gentium AT sil DOT org>. Please understand
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100 | that we cannot guarantee a personal response.
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101 |
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102 | I can't find all the extended Latin letters in the font. How do I type them?
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103 |
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104 | Gentium is Unicode-encoded, which means that the computer stores a
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105 | special, unique code for each letter in your document. Since most
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106 | keyboards do not have hundreds of keys, special software is needed
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107 | in order to type the hundreds of special characters supported by the
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108 | font.
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109 |
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110 | I can't find the 'o with right hook' in the font. Where is it?
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111 |
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112 | Combinations of base letters with diacritics are often called
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113 | composite, or pre-composed glyphs. Gentium has hundreds of these
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114 | (the ones that are included in Unicode). There are, however, many
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115 | common combinations that are not represented by a single composite.
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116 | It is possible to enter these into a document, but only as
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117 | individual components. So 'o with right hook' would be entered as
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118 | 'o', then 'right hook'. Although this may not look very good in some
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119 | cases, we're not able to anticipate every possible combination.
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120 | Future versions of Gentium will include 'smart font' support for
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121 | technologies such as OpenType and SIL's Graphite. This will make
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122 | diacritic positioning much better.
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123 |
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124 | Some diacritics are not aligning well with base glyphs, and if I type more
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125 | than one diacritic, they run into each other. Why is that?
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126 |
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127 | Gentium currently has no 'smart font' code for automatic diacritic
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128 | positioning, but will in the near future.
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129 |
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130 | How do I type the Greek letters?
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131 |
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132 | You need a Unicode-compatible keyboarding system, which is not
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133 | included in the distribution package.
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134 |
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135 | I'm having problems making PDFs -- why won't my document distill?
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136 |
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137 | Gentium is a large font, with lots of glyphs. As a result, some
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138 | printers can balk at PDFs that have the complete font embedded. The
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139 | easiest way to avoid this is to have Acrobat/Distiller subset the
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140 | font. This is generally a good idea anyway (with any font) and can
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141 | reduce the size of your files.
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142 |
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143 |
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144 | Future
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145 | ======
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146 |
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147 | Now that SIL International has taken over Gentium, who will be the next
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148 | designer?
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149 |
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150 | Victor Gaultney will remain as primary designer, but Annie Olsen, a
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151 | fellow type designer from the SIL Non-Roman Script Initiative, has
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152 | joined the project team. She is a former calligraphy teacher, and is
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153 | well suited for the task. Other members of the NRSI team will also
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154 | add their expertise in technical matters.
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155 |
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156 | Do you plan to include other typographic enhancements (small caps, old style
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157 | figures, etc.)?
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158 |
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159 | Those would be nice, wouldn't they. From a design point of view,
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160 | it would be great to have these refinements, and we haven't ruled
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161 | them out. But there are other needs that are much higher priority
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162 | (Bold, Cyrillic, etc.). If you think you could contribute some of
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163 | your time and effort to these enhancements, see the FONTLOG file for
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164 | information on becoming a contributor.
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165 |
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166 | What about bold?
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167 |
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168 | We hope to make a prototype of a Bold weight (and a few others,
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169 | including italic) available soon, but it will only cover basic Latin
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170 | glyphs at first. Once we are confident that the basic design is solid,
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171 | we will begin to design the bold versions of the other hundreds of
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172 | glyphs. Be patient, though, as Gentium has lots of glyphs!
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173 |
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174 | Sans-serif?
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175 |
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176 | There is a definite need for a sans-serif font that shares some of
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177 | GentiumÕs strengths -- high readability, economy of space, etc. It
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178 | would also be great if that font also harmonized well with Gentium.
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179 | We don't currently have any plans for a companion face, although one
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180 | of our other projects - Andika - may be useful. Andika is a sans-serif
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181 | font designed specifically for use in literacy programs around the
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182 | world. A prototype should be available in a few months.
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183 |
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184 | Will you be extending Gentium to cover other scripts, and Hebrew in
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185 | particular?
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186 |
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187 | It is very unlikely that we would do this, as there are so many
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188 | pressing needs in Latin, Greek and Cyrillic scripts. But you could
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189 | contribute to the project.
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190 |
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191 | When will Cyrillic be completed?
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192 |
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193 | As soon as we can get it done, but it is still a few months away.
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194 |
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195 | I need a couple of ancient Greek glyphs, such as the digamma. When will
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196 | those be ready?
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197 |
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198 | These have already been designed and will be in the next release
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199 | (mid-2006).
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200 |
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201 | Will there be a Type 1 version? What about OpenType?
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202 |
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203 | The next generation of Gentium will have OpenType, Graphite and AAT
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204 | support. We do not plan to produce Type 1 versions at this time, but
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205 | please write us if this is important (and tell us why). We are, however,
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206 | considering releasing a version in OT-CFF format, but it will not go
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207 | through the same careful testing as the standard OT/Graphite/AAT version.
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