Re: Fwd: SVG Fonts

James Cloos wrote:
> In any case, I would argue that the fact that SVG fonts are getting used
> in the mobile sector is an important reason for gecko to support them too.

I don't see why.

Let's be clear.  What we have here are two different technological 
solutions to the same problem: that of creating custom fonts to use with 
a web page (defined as something present on the web; doesn't have to be 
HTML).  The question is whether to implement one or the other or both.

Things that _are_ relevant to this decision (not exhaustive; just off 
the top of my head):

1)  Comparative capabilities of the two technologies in terms of the
     fonts they can define.
2)  Availability of authoring tools and other sources (e.g. font
     foundries) for the fonts.
3)  Ease of authoring web pages using the technology.
4)  Whether existing web content relies on one or the other (or both).
5)  Whether web content will be able to use one or the other (or both)
     in the near future.
6)  Whether there are pressing reasons why we think one or the other is
     better for the web,
7)  What the implementation and maintenance costs are for the two
     technologies.

One thing that is NOT relevant is which technology is used as an 
intermediate serialization format in a closed-loop process.  This 
includes mobile walled gardens, on-the-wire data formats for printer 
drivers, interface description languages for UI toolkits and so forth. 
The two obvious exceptions are if we want Gecko to be used as part of 
such a closed-loop process (which is not high on our priority list) or 
if there is a good chance that the data involved will end up on the web 
(see points 4 and 5 in the "relevant" list).

Put another way, just because there's lots of software that deals with 
VBScript doesn't mean we should implement VBScript.  That would remain 
true if VBScript were a W3C standard (and is in fact true of a number of 
W3C standards today).

-Boris

P.S. No actual opinion on the relative merits of svg fonts and 
@font-face per my 7-item list above.  Just trying to head off logical 
fallacies before they get too far.