Sagittal font version 2 is now available

Greetings tuning revolutionaries,

This message should be of interest to anyone who suspects there might be more than 12 pitches in an octave. :-)

Anna Nouncement
---------------

Version 2 of the Sagittal font, with the complete symbol set, is now available in both TrueType and Postscript Type 1 formats at http://dkeenan.com/sagittal/

To upgrade or not to upgrade
----------------------------

If you're happy using version 1 of Sagittal, you do not need to upgrade. No symbols have changed their outlines significantly.

We were hoping to bring you a font whose outlines would be more cleanly and faithfully rendered on-screen thanks to some TrueType-instructing by Keenan Pepper. The Sagittal font has always been fine for printing, but not so good on screen. Keenan made a good start, however his unix-based tools seemed to damage other aspects of the font file. We managed to get a partly instructed font to work on Windows XP again, but have been unable to get it working on Windows 98 or Mac OS. Since we have not received any reply from our emails to Keenan for almost a year now, we have sadly made the decision to release an earlier version without instructing.

If you have an LCD screen you can obtain much better rendering of Sagittal by turning on "ClearType" if you haven't already. For Win2000/XP you choose
"Start/Control Panel/Display/Appearance/Effects/Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:/ClearType".

If you're using Sagittal with Hudson Lacerda's marvelous MicroABC you don't need to upgrade as you will already be using the version 2 postscript font (there have been no changes since 2.0d8).

Scala was also updated to use version 2 some time ago. It uses individual bitmaps for the sagittal symbols so the changes were minimal and transparent.

Jacob Barton is working on updating his Sibelius scripts to work with the new font. We'll let you know when they are ready.

History and Philosophy
----------------------

It has been about three years since we released the first version of the Sagittal font. This TrueType font contained only half the symbols needed for a completely universal system, albeit the most useful half by far. We left spaces in the character map for the rest, as we felt we had a fair idea of where they would be needed and what they would look like. But we also knew that it would take time for people to understand the system and start to use it enough to be able to let us know what was really needed.

So, having waited three years, we certainly can't be accused of rushing to publish half-baked ideas. But judging from the number of times Google finds the Sagittal notation system mentioned, _outside_ of the tuning lists, if we waited much longer we'd be in danger of committing the opposite sin of changing things after a significant number of people have started using them.

Good news and bad news
----------------------

The last of the outstanding questions about the symbol set were settled some months back, when Gene Ward Smith pointed out that 99-ET was deserving of a relatively simple notation. As it turns out, we didn't leave quite enough gaps in some parts of the font and we left too many in others. So the bad news is that some symbols have had to change their position in the font.

The good news is that this reshuffle has left enough room for us to include the popular Tartini-Couper quartertone symbols.

We've got you covered
---------------------

The Tartini-Couper symbols are used in conjunction with sagittal symbols in Herman Miller's MOS-nominal notation system for linear temperaments, and with Johnny Reinhard's cents notation.

So the Sagittal font now has things pretty well covered microtonally, particularly when you consider that it also includes Erv Wilson's plus and minus 5-comma symbols which allow a version of HEWM notation, and provide a path for users of the Sims notation to migrate to sagittal.

And if anyone is still tying themselves in knots trying to transpose or modulate in Johnston extended JI notation, please consider the advantages of a notation based on Pythagorean nominals.

Ringing the changes
-------------------

The sagittal cores (unaccented sagittal symbols) still appear in the font in order of untempered size, from sagittal-double-flat thru conventional-natural to sagittal-double-sharp, and the natural is still in the middle with character code 144 decimal. Here's a diagram indicating how the mapping has changed. If you are viewing this on the Yahoogroups web interface you will need to choose (to the right of the top of this message) "Show Message Option/Use Fixed Width Font".

Old sequence: bb b - # x <213-----sagittal-----cores> ! . + ' |
Character codes: 33 144 255
New sequence: bb <b b < - . ! <209-sagittal-cores> | ' + > # ># x

where < stands for the Couper backwards flat and > for the Tartini semisharp.

Of the single-shaft symbols, only 8 have changed their codes. For those who need it, here are the gruesome details.

For old character codes in ranges:
35,38-58,65-68 add 2,
34,61-64,71-111,118-121 add 1,
32,33,114-117,124-164,171-174 no change,
167-170,177-217,224-226 subtract 1,
220-223,230-250,253 subtract 2,
36 becomes 253, 37 becomes 255, 251 becomes 39,
252 becomes 38, 254 becomes 250, 255 becomes 249.

We're on the map
----------------

Full details are given in the new character map at
http://dkeenan.com/sagittal/sagittal2_character_map.xls
This is an Excel-97 spreadsheet. You will need to first install the Sagittal-2 font for this spreadsheet to display the correct symbols. There may be a problem with the character mapping when you open this Windows Excel file on a Mac. Please let us know.

There is a wealth of information about Sagittal in this table. The relative importance of each symbol is indicated by its size in the table and the height of its row. The most popular (the 5-comma and 7-comma symbols) are over 100 times more likely to be needed than the least popular symbols. Feel free to ignore the smallest ones. They may never be needed by anyone, but they are there for completeness. Of course all symbols should be rendered the same size on a staff (usually 24 point).

Corny section headings
----------------------

Didn't you just hate them. :-)

Happy Roman New Year to all.

-- Dave Keenan and George Secor

> We were hoping to bring you a font whose outlines would be more
> cleanly and faithfully rendered on-screen thanks to some
> TrueType-instructing by Keenan Pepper. The Sagittal font has
> always been fine for printing, but not so good on screen. Keenan
> made a good start, however his unix-based tools seemed to damage
> other aspects of the font file. We managed to get a partly
> instructed font to work on Windows XP again, but have been unable
> to get it working on Windows 98 or Mac OS. Since we have not
> received any reply from our emails to Keenan for almost a year
> now, we have sadly made the decision to release an earlier
> version without instructing.

He just posted to tuning-math on the 15th!

-Carl

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Carl Lumma" <clumma@...> wrote:
>
> > We were hoping to bring you a font whose outlines would be more
> > cleanly and faithfully rendered on-screen thanks to some
> > TrueType-instructing by Keenan Pepper. The Sagittal font has
> > always been fine for printing, but not so good on screen. Keenan
> > made a good start, however his unix-based tools seemed to damage
> > other aspects of the font file. We managed to get a partly
> > instructed font to work on Windows XP again, but have been unable
> > to get it working on Windows 98 or Mac OS. Since we have not
> > received any reply from our emails to Keenan for almost a year
> > now, we have sadly made the decision to release an earlier
> > version without instructing.
>
> He just posted to tuning-math on the 15th!

Maybe just overzealous spam filters or something. I'd be very grateful
if someone else could get his attention.

On 3/1/07, Dave Keenan <d.keenan@bigpond.net.au> wrote:
> Maybe just overzealous spam filters or something. I'd be very grateful
> if someone else could get his attention.

I'm here! And spring break is next week, so I'm free of my usual loads
of coursework (which isn't to say I have nothing to do, but I might
have time to help out).

Send the TTF and I'll see what I can do!

Keenan

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Keenan Pepper" <keenanpepper@...> wrote:
>
> On 3/1/07, Dave Keenan <d.keenan@...> wrote:
> > Maybe just overzealous spam filters or something. I'd be very grateful
> > if someone else could get his attention.
>
> I'm here! And spring break is next week, so I'm free of my usual loads
> of coursework (which isn't to say I have nothing to do, but I might
> have time to help out).
>
> Send the TTF and I'll see what I can do!
>
> Keenan

That would be wonderful! Thanks.

Could you please email me (you can do it in reply to this message).
And then I'll be sure I have your current email address. I don't think
I can email you an attachment via this list.

When is Jacob Barton updating Sagibelius scripts for this excellent font? I
would like to use it when providing maqam examples in 79 MOS 159-tET using
the modified SA79 notation that goes: /| (5-comma) |\ (55-comma) /|\
(11-M diesis) etc...

Oz.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Keenan" <d.keenan@bigpond.net.au>
To: <tuning@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: 02 Mart 2007 Cuma 12:58
Subject: [tuning] Re: Sagittal font version 2 is now available

> --- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Keenan Pepper" <keenanpepper@...> wrote:
> >
> > On 3/1/07, Dave Keenan <d.keenan@...> wrote:
> > > Maybe just overzealous spam filters or something. I'd be very grateful
> > > if someone else could get his attention.
> >
> > I'm here! And spring break is next week, so I'm free of my usual loads
> > of coursework (which isn't to say I have nothing to do, but I might
> > have time to help out).
> >
> > Send the TTF and I'll see what I can do!
> >
> > Keenan
>
> That would be wonderful! Thanks.
>
> Could you please email me (you can do it in reply to this message).
> And then I'll be sure I have your current email address. I don't think
> I can email you an attachment via this list.
>
>

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Keenan Pepper" <keenanpepper@...> wrote:
> I'm here! And spring break is next week, so I'm free of my usual loads
> of coursework (which isn't to say I have nothing to do, but I might
> have time to help out).
>
> Send the TTF and I'll see what I can do!
>
> Keenan

My apologies to the list but I emailed Keenan again as soon as he
posted this, and have still had no email from him, so I don't know
what's going on. Have you received any email from me Keenan?

Since we can't send attachments via the list I have put up the
relevant files on the Sagittal website.

The unhinted file I originally sent you about a year ago is what we
released a few days ago:
http://dkeenan.com/sagittal/Sagittal2.0d6.ttf

And I've just put up what you sent back to me about a year ago:
http://dkeenan.com/sagittal/Sagittal2.0d7 (hinted
but badly broken).ttf

And the best I could do to fix the damage:
http://dkeenan.com/sagittal/Sagittal2.0b1 (hinted
and still broken).ttf

I'd appreciate it if you would test anything you do on both Mac and
Windows (preferably both 98 and XP, without ClearType) before sending
it to me.

Good luck.

-- Dave K