[specifications/dsig] Which applications require a dsig table?

[m4rc1e]

It's 2018 and I'm wondering which MS apps depend on this table?

There's no rationale in the test, just a very loose comment.

https://github.com/googlefonts/fontbakery/blob/master/Lib/fontbakery/specifications/dsig.py

I'd love for someone to confirm that MS Office 2013 depends on this table etc and then we can add this to the test rationale.

btw, Fontmake doesn't create a dsig table.

cc @khaledhosny

[jenskutilek]

I can confirm that Word 2016 does not require a DSIG table in TTFs for the OT layout features to be recognized.

[anthrotype]

🍾

[chrissimpkins]

Is it possible to revisit this FAIL? We are still failing default fontmake builds which means that a project must implement a post-compile workaround to pass fontbakery tests when fonts are compiled with fontmake.

I suggest that we either provide explicit rationale for this failure so that users can understand whether to exclude it themselves or (ideally) downgrade to a WARN in the universal profile and expand the rationale for the test.

Associated: googlefonts/fontmake#431

Information on affected applications from Khaled Hosny: googlefonts/fontmake#431 (comment)
Information on MS Word 2016 from Jens Kutilek: #1845 (comment)

[bobh0303]

I can confirm that, with Windows 10, Word 2013 does require DSIG in some contexts. For example, Stylistic Sets won't work in latin script fonts without DSIG.

(As mentioned above, this is no longer true for Word 2016)

[chrissimpkins]

Thanks @bobh0303! That is helpful.

[chrissimpkins]

Office 2013 Extended Support end date is 4/11/2023:

Microsoft Fixed Life Cycle Policy

[felipesanches]

yeah, we'll have to keep the check as-is. We should consider sending a PR to fontmake to ensure it generates fonts with dummy signatures.

[chrissimpkins]

Marc raised the issue in googlefonts/fontmake#431 but there was not support for it.

[chrissimpkins]

I added all of this information to the rationale for the check in #2716

[chrissimpkins]

The MS team confirmed the findings by Jens and Bob here through the developer who changed the behavior in MS Word back in 2014. The absence of a DSIG table has not blocked the enumeration of OpenType features in MS Word since.