This repo is used to discuss issues related to ISO/IEC 14496-22 "Open Font Format" (OFF) specification. Participants of the activities and discussions in this repo must follow and adhere to ISO Code of Conduct. Participation in the ISO activities is subject to ISO's copyright and data protection policy, which is detailed by the following Declaration for Participants in ISO Activities
The most recent edition of the OFF and the latest amendment are publicly available documents that can be downloaded using the following links:
The suggested process for a new change proposal (clarificatons, updates, amendments, etc.) is to start with the currently published OFF text and create a new issue for each change proposal. We can formulate and discuss the proposed changes / text amendments in this repo, and then finalize the text of the proposal as input contribution to SC29/WG3 and share it for final discussion and approval on the AHG mailing list.
When filing an issue, please use one of the tags (related to table names, features, etc.) to identify the specific parts of the OFF specification. We hope discussion here will lead to rapid resolution of raised issues.
If you have an idea for how the Open Font Format (OFF) specification (spec) can be improved, file an issue on this repo! There may be related discussions on the mpeg-otspec mailing list, which has a public archive you can search. (Sadly, file attachments are not available in the mpeg-otspec mail archive, but all formal input and output documents can be found in the MPEG document registry and on ISO Livelink document repositories, which are only available to active members of SC29.)
Issues on Github are easy to track and discuss, with "unread messages" notifications in the web ui for logged in users, tags and milestones for grouping and prioritizing, inline formatting with markdown, images and file attachments with drag and drop, message editing for yourself, and moderation tools to keep discussions within the bound of the code of conduct.
However, an issue here is just a first step in the journey to an updated specification. The next step is a proposal for a change. This could be a Markdown or HTML file contributed via Pull Request to this repo, or could be a file you develop in any format outside this repo.
Whichever way it happens, once they are ready, all change proposals should be emailed to the mpeg-otspec list for review by Ad Hoc Group (AHG) members. The goal of such 'AHG review' of prospective proposals is to refine them via open comments, and reach a consensus on the proposed changes, resulting in the official submission of the proposal to the Working Group (WG), along with the AHG Report that recommends the WG support the changes. Please note that the use of the GitHub is now autorized as part of the AHG mandates for technical issues only, any procedural discussions (if they are within the scope of established mandates) should be conducted on the AHG email list.
There may be further discussions of the proposed text changes on that list, as the chair of the Ad Hoc Group will officially call for consensus on that list within a specified time period. If you have any objections, you must email them to that list; and once your objections are resolved, you must send an email to that list saying you retract your objections and now approve of the proposal. Comments made elsewhere on the internet (even in this repo) will not be officially counted as objections or approvals, no matter how strongly they are worded.
There may also be further discussions elsewhere, such as this repo, another Github repo, or in any other forum. For anything notable, please do reference the discussion in your issue here, either by simply including an incoming link to it in any other Github issue, or posting an outgoing link.
If no objections were raised, or if all objections were retracted, then the AHG Chair will deem the proposal to gain consensus approval, and submit it to the MPEG Systems Working Group (SC29/WG3) as AHG Input Contribution (IC), along with the AHG report that summarizes recent AHG activities and recommendations.
IC documents must be in .docx format for their formal submission to the WG.
(While 'AHG review' is highly preferred, it is not mandatory, and proposals can be submitted directly to the WG by active members of SC29.)
Depending on the content of the contribution, and upon its acceptance by the WG, the suggested changes will either be merged into an existing working draft of the OFF spec, or be used by the WG to create a New Work Item Proposal (NWIP), either to create a new amendment or a new edition of the OFF standard (as the case may be). NWIP will have to be approved by the Working Group's parent, SubCommittee 29 (SC29), and an approval ballot will be issued by SC29 Secretariat for National Body (NB) votes. Amendments and new editions of the OFF standard will also be subject for comments and approval by NB votes, with corresponding ballots issued as the standards work progresses from a Committee Draft (CD) stage to Draft International Standard (DIS) to Final Draft International Standard (FDIS). Additional changes can be introduced via CD and DIS ballot comments, the FDIS approval ballot only allows yes/no votes.
The voting is done by national standards bodies, and you can join your country of residence's standards body through your employer, your own company, or (if your NB allows) as an individual, depending on your country's rules.