Re: [apps-discuss] font/*

["Martin J. Dürst" <[e-mail]>]

On 2011/11/09 2:15, Mark Nottingham wrote:
> Oh, I had thought it would be
>
>    font/PostScript
>    font/TrueType
>
> i.e., NOT identifying the specific typeface in use. After all, we don't have text/html/home-page, do we?

It's definitely that.

 From http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-singer-font-mime-00
(which requires some serious rewriting around security issues, but 
otherwise is recommended reading for people who want to comment in this 
discussion):

    This document defines a top-level MIME type "font" under which
    differing representation formats of fonts may be registered (e.g. a
    bitmap or outline format).  It should be emphasized that, just as
    under the "image" top-level type one does not find registration for,
    for example, "The Night-watch" (by Rembrandt) but instead "JPEG" (an
    image representation system), so, under "font" one will not find
    "Courier" (the name of a popular font) but perhaps "BDF" (the name of
    a commonly used bitmap font format).

> BTW, before naming this thing, please have a discussion with a typographer about the difference between a "font" and a "typeface."
>
> (My wife, who teaches typography, would beat me if I didn't make that distinction)

http://fontfeed.com/archives/font-or-typeface/ explains that in very 
simple terms. As far as the analogy there with MP3<=>font, 
song<=>typeface goes, we definitely need Mime types for fonts, not for 
typefaces.

Regards,   Martin.