– Arun Anantharaman
Since Adobe announced its increased focus on Digital Marketing and Digital Media, the LiveCycle team has met with dozens of customers and partners to discuss the future of LiveCycle. They are all passionate about our technology and the solutions we …
——-
Read the full article at http://blogs.adobe.com/ADEP/2012/01/the-future-of-livecycle.html.
I spent the early part of this week updating Adobe Tech Note #5079 (The Adobe-GB1-5 Character Collection). The number of glyphs remained the same (30,284), as did the glyphs themselves. So, why the update? Well, mainly to bring it in line, format-wise, with the other three related Adobe Tech Notes: #5078 (The Adobe-Japan1-6 Character Collection), #5080 (The Adobe-CNS1-6 Character Collection), and #5093 (The Adobe-Korea1-2 Character Collection). The biggest effort was to create its 61-page glyph table. Besides announcing the update, building the glyph table is the substance of this blog post.
When I embarked on updating Adobe Tech Notes #5080 and #5093 earlier this month, the task was relatively painless, because I was able to use the 47-page glyph table of Adobe Tech Note #5078 as the starting point. (Adobe-CNS1-6 and Adobe-Korea1-2 include approximately 4K fewer glyphs than Adobe-Japan1-6.) In other words, I leveraged an existing resource. I simply trimmed the glyph table down to the appropriate number of rows and changed the font used to render the glyphs. However, the Adobe-GB1-5 character collection has approximately 7K more glyphs than the Adobe-Japan1-6 character collection, so I was forced to recreate the glyph table from scratch. My tools were Perl and Adobe InDesign (CS5.5).
Because I need to guarantee that the glyph for each CID (Character ID) is the correct one, I needed to create the data as InDesign Tagged Text, which is a markup language used by Adobe InDesign. There is special syntax for specifying glyphs by CID. The following is used to specify CID+23058:
<cSpecialGlyph:23058><001A><cSpecialGlyph:>
I used the following Perl script to create the InDesign Tagged Text data:
#!/usr/bin/perl
$max = $ARGV[0];
$count = 1;
print STDOUT "<SJIS-MAC>\n<ParaStyle:\>";
print STDOUT "\t0\t1\t2\t3\t4\t5\t6\t7\t8\t9\t10\t11\t12\t13\t14\t15\t16\t17\t18\t19\n";
foreach $cid (0 .. $max) {
print STDOUT "$cid" if $count == 1;
print STDOUT "\t<230D><cSpecialGlyph:$cid><001A><cSpecialGlyph:><230C>";
$count++;
print STDOUT "\n" and $count = 1 if $count > 20;
}
print STDOUT "\n";
I simply specified “65534″ as the argument to create an InDesign Tagged Text file that covers all possible CIDs (0 through 65534), as follows:
% mkcidtable-indd-tt.pl 65534 > data-65534.txt
The next step is to import the InDesign Tagged Text file, data-65534.txt, into an InDesign document, then format it as a multiple-page table. Note that each CID that is specified is surrounded by U+230D and U+230C characters. I built a special-purpose (name-keyed) OpenType font that includes non-spacing glyphs for registration marks, which I encoded using these code points. I’d rather not enter 65,535 pairs of registration marks manually, so they are included as part of the InDesign Tagged Text file.
Other than formatting the table, I needed to create the following four named Character Styles: GlyphTableFont, GlyphTableFontInvisible, Tombo, and TomboInvisible. The Character Styles that include “Invisible” in the name have no color specified, meaning that the characters do not display, and are thus are invisible. The “Tombo” Character Style specifies red as the character color. BTW, tombo (トンボ) is the Japanese word for registration mark. Once I have a fully-formatted table, I create a second layer called “Registration Marks,” and copy the entire table to that layer. I now have the same table in two layers. In the “Main Text” layer, I apply the “GlyphTableFont” Character Style to the 65,535 glyphs. This is easily done by searching for “<001A>” using the Find/Replace feature, and applying the Character Style. The same is done in the “Registration Marks” layer, but the “GlyphTableFontInvisible” Character Style is applied instead. The registration marks are handled in a similar way, by searching for “<230D>” and “<230C>,” then applying the “TomboInvisible” and “Tombo” Character Styles in the “Main Text” and “Registration Marks” layers, respectively.
When exporting the document to PDF, be sure that the PDF version is 1.5 or greater, which is the first version to support layers, and to select the option to include the layers. For these glyph tables, I lock the main layer, because it doesn’t make much sense to allow readers to make that portion of the document invisible. The “Registration Marks” layer is the interesting one, because toggling it on and off will make the registration marks appear and disappear.
What I ended up with is a multiple-page two-layer InDesign table that can be repurposed in the future, and is not bound to any specific ROS. Given that the maximum CID is 65534, I saved myself a ton of work by building a table that encompasses all 65,535 possible CIDs.
My first use of this table was to update Adobe Tech Note #5079, which was done quickly and easily.
With the launch of Adobe Edge Preview 4 we are excited to bring you the new web fonts feature! The web fonts tool in Edge is extremely versatile by letting you use your font service of choice to display web fonts and custom font stacks in your composition. We’ll go over some how-to steps to get you started with some popular web font services.
It’s a myth that @font-face has only been in use since the introduction of CSS3. @font-face support has been around since IE4! Currently web fonts are supported by the following browsers:
IE4+
Safari 3.1+
Opera 10+
Chrome 4+
Firefox 3.5+
Modern browsers have gone their separate way as far as font support goes. For this reason it’s good for your @font-face declaration to contain several fallback font files.
Internet Explorer only supports EOT
Mozilla browsers support OTF and TTF
Safari and Opera support OTF, TTF and SVG
Chrome supports TTF and SVG.
Mobile browsers like Safari on the iPad and iPhone require SVG.
A typical CSS file with an @font-face declaration will have something similar to the following:
@font-face {
font-family: ‘FertigoProRegular’;
src: url(‘fertigopro-regular-webfont.eot’);
src: url(‘fertigopro-regular-webfont.eot?#iefix’) format(‘embedded-opentype’),
url(‘fertigopro-regular-webfont.woff’) format(‘woff’),
url(‘fertigopro-regular-webfont.ttf’) format(‘truetype’),
url(‘fertigopro-regular-webfont.svg#FertigoProRegular’) format(‘svg’);
font-weight: normal;
font-style: normal;
}
.classname {
font-family: ‘FertigoProRegular’, Helvetica, Arial;
font-size:12px;
color:#3AAA35;
}
If you’re having problems with displaying web fonts, check first to make sure you have all available font types. For example if your web font only has an EOT and TTF file, your font won’t display on an iDevice.
In this example, you will be using a local CSS file containing the @font-face declaration. In this instance you will need the CSS file and your web font files (preferrably in the same directory.)
Step 1:
If you do not already have a CSS file with an @font-face declaration or your web font files, go to fontsquirrel.com to generate a font kit using an existing font.
Step 2:
Move the font and the generated CSS file to the directory of your Edge composition. Your files should look similar to this.
Step 3:
Click on the “+” icon under “Fonts” in the Library.
Step 4:
Enter your embed code, font name and any fallback fonts and click “Add Font”.
Step 5:
Create a text box and apply your new font.
In this example, you will be using a hosted CSS file containing the @font-face declaration. In this instance we will be using Google Fonts.
Step 1:
Visit Google Fonts and select a font from their library. Chose “Add to Collection”.
Step 2:
Select the “Use” button at the bottom of the screen.
Step 3:
Scroll to the bottom of the page and grab the embed code. Here you will also find your font name.
Step 4:
Click on the “+” icon under “Fonts” in the Library.
Step 5:
Enter your embed code, font name and any fallback fonts and click “Add Font”.
Step 6:
Create a text box and apply your new font.
In this example, you will be using a hosted JS file containing the @font-face declaration in conjunction with an online font service. In this instance we will be using Typekit.
Step 1:
Visit Typekit and create an account.
Step 2:
Select a font to add to your kit and launch the Kit Editor.
Step 3:
Click on “Kit Settings” and enter the ip “127.0.0.1”. This will allow you to view the fonts locally, You can also add a site for publishing seperated by a comma.
Step 4:
Select “Embed Code” and copy the two lines of Javascript in the window.
Step 5:
Click on “Using fonts in CSS”.
Step 6:
Copy the font name.
Step 7:
Publish your fonts. If you don’t publish, you won’t see your font rendered.
Step 8:
Enter your embed code, font name and any fallback fonts and click “Add Font”.
Step 9:
Create a text box and apply your new font.
These are just some of the options you have for using web fonts in Edge, and by following the steps you can apply the same method to use other font services. Happy typesetting!
Thursday, March 1 is Adobe Day at the CSUN Conference. We’ve got five sessions lined up, all in Elizabeth C (2nd floor):
There’s more to come. (Probably involving hors d’oeuvres.) But for now, mark your calendars, and we’ll see you in San Diego.
I’m currently working on an HTML/JavaScript application that allows you to author content entirely on the client. I want to let users download that content and save it locally, but without bouncing it off a server. After some trial and error, I have it working fairly well using a data URI. Rather than explain it, it’s probably easiest just to show the code:
HTML:
<a href="javascript:onDownload();">Download</a>
JavaScript code:
function onDownload() {
document.location = 'data:Application/octet-stream,' +
encodeURIComponent(dataToDownload);
}
The only limitation is that I can’t figure out a way to give the downloaded file a name (and have concluded that it’s not currently possible, though I’m happy to be proven wrong). I’ve only tested the code in Safari and Chrome, and in both cases, the file name defaults to "download" (with no extension). All the data is in the file, but it’s not a very intuitive experience for the end user.
I’ll be releasing the application shortly which should demonstrate why downloading data directly from the client can be useful. In the meantime, I’m curious if this is something any of you might use, and if so, if you think the file name issue should be fixed.
Let me know in the comments.
We’ve grown up with a notion that teacher is always right! I’ve gone to the extent of sometimes disagreeing with my parents if my teacher said something otherwise. I’m sure some of you must have had similar experiences. This is truly rewarding for the teachers and they’ve earned it by teaching their students everything correctly and putting in all the efforts to tell everything right to the students.
But doesn’t this leave the student with a blind faith in the teacher which could result in accepting everything that the teachers say without questioning them… This can have a long term impact on the analysis and evaluation skills in the learners and they will never ask the ‘Why?’ question to their teacher ‘coz ‘Teacher is always right!’
So it’s all good and rewarding for the teacher. But is it really beneficial for the learner? Without developing the analysis, reasoning, and questioning skills, is his learning complete? Time to wear our thinking caps again!
In my honest opinion, we need to introduce some changes to our training techniques so that the learners are completely attentive in your class, listen carefully, and analyze each and every thing you say. They should be allowed and encouraged to stop and question you at any point in time and the best part – Have the courage and liberty to tell you that you are not correct. I know some of you are nodding your heads in disagreement, but let me explain! 
It’s time to do something unusual in the class to break their notion. Let’s bring in Jerk Technology here!
Jerk Technology, as proposed by Dr. D. N. Sansanwal, is a mechanism to turn your students into active learners and make learning joyful by creating a tension-free atmosphere in the class. There’s an interesting toolset for implementing Jerk Technology which includes Mirror Image Writing, Disproportionate Word Writing, Double Negative Sentences, Unusual Sentence Construction, etc. Click here to learn more about these interesting tools.
These tools help the learners stay active in the class because they are not sure when the teacher will do something unpredictable. Once they sense that the teacher is up to playing some tricks with them, they would like to be the first one in the class to let everyone know that there’s something unusual/wrong in what the teacher just said/wrote. It helps in keeping the tension out of the class and you’ll see bright and nice faces of the learners, eagerly waiting for you to come and teach them. Isn’t this more rewarding than just being right? Think!
Chime in with you thoughts here…