[M4IF Technotes] MPEG4 and fonts?

[AVARO Olivier FTRD/DIH/HDM]

Dear Danilo,
> I have some small questions regarding MPEG4 players:
> 1. What fonts in the current MPEG4 players? Is there a way to
> add new fonts?
MPEG-4 currently does not specify resident fonts. It just specifies some
limited family of fonts. It is understood that this is per se insufficient
to guarantee deterministic rendering, but MPEG-4 Systems is currently
working on Advanced Text and Graphic extensions that will resolve this
issue. A call for proposal will be issued at the end of this week.
Yes, there are ways so signal new fonts. Therefore an application body like
ISMA, DVB, ATSC, ARIB, ... could further specify a more precise support of
fonts for MPEG-4.
One issue that is currently discussed is wether or not MPEG-4 shall mandate
a minimal support for resident fonts (i.e. All terminals shall support
them). It has to be international support and therefore may impact terminal
footprints but has the potential to greatly improve interoperability.
I would be interested to learn more about requirements from the MPEG-4
industry on this topic.
> 2. Is there provision for antialiasing in the spec or is this player
> dependent?
This is player dependent.
cu,
O.