News: 2006 - 2008

September 10

After some delays, the STIX Fonts final organization for the basic font set has been established. Many of the variant glyphs that were located in the non-Unicode section of the beta fonts have been moved to the Unicode section. Based on feedback from beta testers, we have also decided to replicate the Plane One math italic, bold, and bold italic glyphs in both the regular weight, upright font and also in the appropriate italic, bold, or bold italic font.

June 9

Corrected glyphs have been produced by our designer and progress continues to be made in creating the final OpenType fonts for the STIX project. After discussions with Microsoft, we are preparing the math tables and other enhancements for the "advanced feature" font. We still expect the final production version to be available some time this summer (hopefully by August).

April 4

Final correction instructions have been provided to our designer and he is working to prepare corrected glyphs for shapes where the beta test uncovered design problems. We expect this process to consume most of April. In parallel with this effort, we are building "math tables" that should be compatible with Word 2007 and discussing how to rearrange the font assignments of glyphs for the final production version. As these decisions are completed, they will be documented on this web site.

March 11

The STIX Fonts project team has completed its analysis of the more than 200 feedback comments received during and after the beta test period. Today we are releasing a Frequently Asked Questions document that summarizes our responses. We continue to do some testing in collaboration with software vendors. This testing should conclude by the end of March. In parallel with this work, we are making some refinements to glyph shapes and adding a few characters to the font set. By the end of April, we should be ready to begin preparation of the final release versions. We expect that work to take about two months, followed by a few weeks of internal testing. We thus hope to release the final version some time in July.

Other Items:

January 10, 2008:

The STI Pub Group has terminated the Beta Test period as of 10 January 2008. Thank you to the 13,116 individuals who downloaded the fonts and to the 177 people who provided feedback regarding installation, licensing, and use of the beta fonts. After a recess during the holiday season, we are preparing updated responses to feedback received during the beta test period. We hope to release much more extensive comment/response pages for all aspects of the project within the next two weeks. In particular, we are re-considering the possibility of using an open source font license for the final distribution of the release version of the fonts.

Dec 3:

We continue to receive feedback regarding the STIX Fonts Beta Test release. Additional responses to some of these comments have been posted today to the Messages to Beta Testers page and more will be posted soon. Important NOTE: in working through the comments, we have discovered that the final version of the STIX Fonts License was not used for the beta release. That license has now been revised. The correct license can be viewed here.

Nov 2:

Thank you for the many comments and questions that have been posted to the Web site. We are actively working to respond, but the process will take a few days.

Oct 25:

The beta fonts have been delivered to technical representatives from all of the STI Pub companies, and are being reviewed to uncover any problems. So far the reviews are going well and we have established 31 October as the target date for release of the beta font set. If you have not as yet registered to receive an email alert when the fonts are available, you should do so now using the link, below, on this page.

Oct 12:

The sub-group working on font packaging reports that they will deliver the fonts to the STIX Technical Review Committee for a final check at the end of today. This process should require about ten days once the fonts have been received by TRC members. As soon as we have the fonts, we will establish a firm release date. It now appears that this date will be sometime during the last week of October. In response to comments from open source font licensing experts, we have made one further modification to paragraph 4 of the STIX license, which can be seen here.

Oct 8:

The sub-group working on font packaging reports that they are very close to being ready to release the fonts to the STIX Technical Review Committee for a final check. This process should require about two weeks once the fonts have been received by TRC members. As soon as we have the fonts, we will establish a firm release date. It now appears that this date will be sometime during the last two weeks of October.

The business leaders for this project met on Friday and approved some revisions to the STIX license, which can be seen here.

Sept 19:

A review of the final list of glyphs to be included in the beta version has resulted in a slight upward revision of the final glyph count to 8,047. The new configuration tables reflect this revised count. .We are awaiting the final printouts of the beta STIX Fonts for final review, and expect to receive the printouts this week. The difficulties reported last week regarding use of the Private Use Area (PUA) have been resolved. We are still looking for a beta release by the end of September.

Sept 10:

We have been held up by some problems with the font creation software that has made our assignment of non-Unicode glyphs to the Private Use Area (PUA) difficult. Barring any further problems, a set of STIX Fonts will be generated for final review by the technical team by September 14. The review will require about two weeks. While the review is in progress, we will also be setting the bits in the code range tables, adding metadata to the fonts, and tuning line spacing data. We will also be reviewing the requirements for the Microsoft-specific math tables used by Office 2007, in particular by Word 2007 with the Cambria Math font, to see if we can incorporate this data into the fonts before the beta release. If we determine that adding these tables will delay the beta release, we will leave this work for later, perhaps as a revised beta release. It would be useful for us to know if any of the groups waiting for our beta release plan to make use of these tables. (Our testing shows that the STIX Fonts cannot be used in place of Cambria Math within Word 2007 unless these (undocumented) tables are in place.) It would be useful to hear from any of you who need this support. Our revised target for release is now the end of September.

Aug 20:

The packing of the OpenType version of the STIX Fonts is almost complete. We are resolving a few dozen final corrections and hope to be ready to release the fonts within the next two weeks.

July 24:

Although we were hoping to complete the packaging of the beta test version by 23 July, vacations by some key project team members have forced a delay in the release until mid-August

June 29:

  The design review has been completed, pending a few questions that will be resolved by feedback from the beta test.  The following groups were completed since the last update:

June 12:

Substantial design review progress has been made.  It is possible that we will be ready to release the beta fonts by the end of June, although the release date may slip a little bit into July.

Since last week’s report, the following groups have been completed:

May 4:

Since last week’s report, the following groups have been completed:

The design review continues to make progress, albeit at a slower rate than hoped.  Once all of the design changes are complete, the fonts will be released within two weeks.  Although this review is taking some time, we are confident that the work being done now will result in an essentially complete set for the beta test, and few further revisions will be required prior to final release.

As the review progresses, we are also adding additional math characters that have been added to the Unicode standard for the next revision.  We have also resolved some issues regarding Plane 1 Unicode support in Windows and Macintosh applications.

Apr 24:

For the design review, symbols have been grouped according to common sizes/shapes. Symbols in these groups need to be reviewed together. A particular symbol may appear in more than one group. There were 31 groups identified for the review. The following groups have been completed:

Apr 5:

The font packager has been provided with final redesign instructions. We expect to be able to name the release date within the next week or two.

Mar 19:

The final task remaining for the design review is establishing consistent sizes for various glyphs based on square or circle designs. Samples of all current versions of such glyphs have been sent to the Technical Review Committee members to seek input on optimum sizes for all ranges from each publishing house. Feedback should be complete by the end of next week, and then the designer will be instructed to make the final corrections or additions and the beta fonts will be prepared for release. Confidence remains high that we will release the fonts some time in April. Everyone who registered to receive the beta STIX Fonts will receive an email alert when the fonts are released.

In preparation for the release, an updated set of configuration tables has been prepared. These tables implement the new file names for all of the font files. A table describing the file names and the contents of each is given here. The new configuration tables reflect these revised file names and additional glyphs added to the project during the design review. The current Unicode glyph count stands at 6,942 with an additional 1,077 non-Unicode glyphs making a total for the fonts of 8,019. It is certain that the square and circle review will result in additional Unicode glyphs, but the exact number is not yet determined.

Feb 28:

Work on the design review is proceeding, but at a slower pace than we had anticipated. It now appears that the review can be completed by the end of March. We have discovered some serious inconsistencies in sizes of square and circular symbol glyphs that require some time to sort out. Once the corrections are made, we should be able to quickly release the beta fonts. We will begin to issue revised tables for the various sub-ranges next week.

January 23, 2007:

Parallel efforts continue on completing the design review and resolving packaging issues. A re-alignment of glyphs into separate fonts for Unicode glyphs and non-Unicode glyphs has solved many of the open issues, but problems with getting browsers to properly display Plane 1 glyphs (the math alphabets) remain. We are getting some assistance from Microsoft and Firefox, but so far these issues are not resolved. We do not want to release the beta fonts until we have answers to these questions. It now appears that the earliest that we will be able to release the beta test version is near the end of February. A further update with more details will be provided the week of 29 January.

All news prior to January 2007 has been removed from the web site and archived.

December 14, 2006:

Work continues on the design review, and we have made some progress in resolving the font packaging issues. We have consulted with Microsoft, Mozilla.org (Firefox), Adobe, and Design Science, and it appears that the best compromise solution will increase the number of fonts to about 42. Each font will have only one Unicode value for each glyph in the font. This approach is still being refined, and further information will be provided when the final decision is made.

We still hope to issue the beta font set by the end of January, but final resolution of these packaging issues could cause a slip into February 2007.

December 4, 2006:

All STIX glyphs have been entered into the beta test OpenType fonts. A design review is now underway to ensure that similar shaped glyphs delivered at different times during the project are design-compatible. During the packaging phase, we have discovered some difficulties with the intended packaging. These problems will increase the number of fonts for the project from the planned eight to a number closer to 50. The details are still being worked out, and the final decision will be posted to this website as soon as it is made.

It is now clear that there will be a further delay in the timetable for beta release. We are now hoping for a January 2007 release. We regret this additional delay, but hopefully the changes being made now will lead to a smoother beta test period with less problems identified at that stage.

November 7, 2006:

The STIX Fonts beta test configuration is essentially complete, with nearly 7,900 glyphs having been configured. A few glyphs that require more research will probably be added over the next few weeks. This table shows the full glyph assignments. We expect the beta version to be released by early December, after we complete a final design review to confirm that deliveries from different font designers received throughout the life of the project are totally consistent in metrics and appearance.

The STIX Fonts license has also been released. This license has been revised in light of comments received on this website in response to the posting of the original license draft. The new license can be viewed here.

October 18, 2006:

More than 7,300 glyphs have been configured for the STIX Fonts OpenType beta test. We expect to complete the full configuration this week. This table shows exactly which ranges have been assigned (rows marked "Final") and which ranges remain to be assigned (rows marked "Complete"). The final text of the STIX Fonts license should also be available by the end of this week.

October 2, 2006:

More than 6,200 glyphs have been configured for the beta test, covering all Plane 0 ranges and many Mathematical Symbols sub-ranges from Plane 1. This table shows exactly which ranges have been assigned (rows marked "Final") and which ranges remain to be assigned (rows marked "Complete"). The final draft of the STIX Fonts license should be available in the second week of October.

September 7, 2006:

As of 7 September more than 5,510 glyphs have been configured for the beta test, covering ranges from u0 0020 - u0 27FF. This table shows exactly which ranges have been assigned (rows marked "Final") and which ranges remain to be assigned (rows marked "Complete"). A few previously released listings of included code points and glyph styles have been updated (V0.2, V0.3, or V0.4), and additional ranges are being released practically on a daily basis. The configuration page shows all code points in each glyph style or size that are included in the first release of the STIX Fonts. This page is being expanded as additional code point ranges are configured.

We have (reluctantly) concluded that the start of the beta test should be delayed until we can complete a design review to ensure consistency of the design of similar characters. The new anticipated date for the beta test to begin is late October. We regret this delay, but feel that it is necessary and will reduce the number of changes that need to be made after the beta period concludes and prior to the first production release, which is still scheduled to occur before the end of December 2006.

In other news, we are negotiating with a consultant to do the TeX packaging of the fonts. There will be a beta test of the TeX package, but that release will follow the OpenType beta test by at least 60 days. (Additional time will be required to re-package the fonts as Type1 and to perform the necessary changes to support TeX. Finally, we expect to release the proposed final text of the user license agreement by the end of September.

August 29, 2006:

Nearly 4,500 glyphs have been configured for the beta test, covering ranges from u0 0020 – u0 22FF. This table shows exactly which ranges have been assigned (rows marked "Final") and which ranges remain to be assigned (rows marked “Complete”). A few previously released listings of included code points and glyph styles have been updated (V0.2 or V0.3), and additional ranges are being released practically on a daily basis.  The configuration page shows all code points in each glyph style or size that are included in the first release of the STIX Fonts. This page is being expanded as additional code point ranges are configured.

August 4, 2006:

2,945 glyphs have been configured as of today, representing Unicode code points from u0 0000 - u0 04FF. This table shows exactly which ranges have been assigned (rows marked "Final") and which ranges remain to be assigned (rows marked "Complete"). For the first time, we are releasing the listing of included code points and glyph styles. The configuration page shows all code points in each glyph style or size that are included in the first release of the STIX Fonts. This page will be expanded as additional code point ranges are configured.

July 19, 2006:

Even as the final delivery of glyphs is still under review, the STIX Fonts project team has begun to build the beta test fontset. Nearly 2,000 glyphs have already been assigned to the beta fonts. This table shows exactly which ranges have been assigned (columns marked "Final") and which ranges remain to be assigned (rows marked "Complete"). Two new columns are present in this table. The column RX is a count of extensible or oversize glyphs in RU style, and the column BX is a count of extensible or oversize glyphs in BU style. Tables providing each Unicode value and each font style to be included in the beta package will be posted to this web site as they are completed. The first set of tables will be posted next week (the week of 24 July).

July 12, 2006:

On 10 July, the STI Pub group received the final delivery of requested glyphs for the STIX Fonts Project. This final set is being reviewed by the STI Pub Technical Review Committee, and packaging instructions for the beta test of the fonts are being prepared. Tables of STIX glyphs will begin to appear on this website within the next few weeks, and the beta font set will begin to be constructed.

June 6, 2006:

Working with MicroPress, the STIX Fonts Project has determined that an additional 127 glyphs are required to complete the design phase. We expect to receive the final group before the end of June. Font packaging work can begin sooner, as many Unicode blocks have now been completed. We are currently awaiting final TeX names for new characters before starting to create configuration tables. A revised character table summary is available here showing exactly which ranges are complete and which additional glyphs are required to complete all ranges.

At the STI Pub business group meeting in April, the schedule for completion of the STIX Fonts project was reviewed. After reviewing the tasks required for completion of the project, September was established as a revised target for the beta test. The final production release will likely occur in December, but the TeX package may not be ready until January 2007. Revised terms for the font license were discussed, and the new license text should be made available on the website by the end of June.

April 19, 2006:

After careful analysis of the latest delivery from MicroPress, the STIX Fonts Project has determined the final glyph count to be included in the final release. We have also determined that an additional 152 glyphs are required to complete the design phase. We expect to receive the final group before the end of May, but font packaging work can begin much sooner, as many Unicode blocks have now been completed. The revised character table summary is available here showing exactly which ranges are complete and which additional glyphs are required to complete all ranges.

March 27, 2006:

We have received the final full delivery of glyphs for the STIX Fonts project (a few more glyphs may be needed, but not enough to constitute another full "phase"). Two tasks are currently in progress - a final design review, comparing delivered glyphs to make sure that the "family" of glyphs delivered over 3 1/2 years by multiple designers all work together and have a consistent "look" and the creation of configuration tables for each Unicode range that will describe how the STIX Fonts package will be delivered. We expect these two tasks to be complete by the end of April. A beta test release of the full fonts will occur as soon as the packaging is complete. It appears that the beta will not be available for release until the end of June. Assuming a successful beta, with only minor changes necessary before the final release, we expect the STIX Fonts project to be complete by the end of the summer.

February 2, 2006:

A careful review of all submitted characters and remaining requests for glyph designs has resulted in revisions to the Progress @ a Glance chart on the left side of this page. Changes occurred to the total STIX Glyph count due to supply of some additional, recently added Unicode values from the ranges being included in STIX. An updated character table summary is available here.

Work is nearly completed on a configuration table application that will next be populated with information about the location of each glyph within the STIX Fonts font set. This work has led to some changes in the packaging of the fonts. Further details are available in the list of final project completion steps. We should begin to populate the configuration table within the next two weeks. It will be created by Unicode range. As each range is completed, the data will be posed to this website, allowing software designers to begin to configure their applications in advance of the beta release, which is still planned for April. A description of the columns to be included in this table is available.

January 9, 2006:

Today, an additional 48 new glyphs have been received from our font designer, MicroPress, Inc. A newly updated character table, showing the additions from the last two deliveries, will be released next week. We are also in the final stage of testing a web application that will be used to populate the Configuration Table, which will be used as directions to our font packaging subcontractors (one for OpenType, one for Type1/TeX). As soon as the web application is fully tested, we will begin to populate the configuration table for all Unicode ranges that are complete. As ranges are fully entered and tested, we will post them to this website under: Info for SW Developers. Work is progressing on a revised software license, which will be made available for review just as soon as our attorney completes the revisions.

December 19, 2005:

The STI Pub Group apologizes for the long delay in updating this web site. Be assured, however, that work has continued over the past few months. Many design issues have been resolved, and the final 400 glyphs should be delivered by the end of February 2006, at the latest. A new configuration table, which will map the delivered glyphs to their positions in the final font set, is being created and data entry to build the fonts will begin early in 2005.

September 30, 2005:

The STI Pub steering group met today at IEEE Headquarters in New York. The group reviewed progress toward completing the design phase and reluctantly agreed that a postponement of the beta test is required. Final deliveries cannot occur sooner than the end of the year, and packaging for the beta test will require an additional 60 - 90 days. Accordingly, the beta test date has been revised to March 2006.

The STI Pub group also reviewed comments posted regarding the terms of the draft STIX Fonts license and agreed to several changes to the license text. A new version will be posted after legal review, and an FAQ that responds to the comments will be made available at the same time.

September 22, 2005:

During the review of the latest character submission, the STIX Fonts Technical Review Committee identified an additional 31 glyphs that are required to complete the project. A request for the additional glyphs has been forwarded to the font designer. The STI Pub steering group will meet next week (29 September) to review progress. A report on the decisions taken will be posted to this website after the meeting.

September 9, 2005:

The draft user license has resulted in many useful comments from interested parties. The STI Pub group is giving these comments careful consideration and will respond to everyone who submitted comments once potential changes have been considered and implemented.

August 29, 2005:

The draft user license is now available for review and comment. The table of included characters has also been updated with the results of the latest submission.

August 23, 2005:

Last week, the project received an additional 199 Glyphs from the font designer for the project, MicroPress, Inc. These glyphs are being processed, and the table of characters will be updated with the results later this week. Because the final few glyph deliveries contain sets of a few characters from many different Unicode ranges, they are taking longer to complete. Accordingly, we now anticipate that the Beta Test release will not occur until the end of October 2005. We still hope to produce a final general release before the end of 2005. Another achievement in the past week has been the identification of a consultant to do the beta and final release packaging of the OpenType fonts and another consultant to do the final TeX work for the font set. This work will begin in September.

July 5, 2005

The STIX Fonts Project took delivery of an additional 216 glyphs from MicroPress, the font designer for the project. Also completed during the past week was the analysis of glyphs provided under license from MicroPress ("pre-existing glyphs). This analysis added 35 glyphs to the project count. All of these updates are reflected in the "At a Glance" chart and the newly updated table.

Slight corrections have been made to the table of included characters. Most of these changes relate to the Private Use Area ranges, where most have been consolidated or moved to newly assigned Unicode ranges.

A final, comprehensive review of all glyphs to be included in the STIX Fonts has been completed, and the total number of glyphs has been updated to 7,967 During this review an additional 398 glyphs were identified as being required, and the project’s font designer, MicroPress, Inc., has begun work on supplying them. The first of fourth final monthly deliveries will be received later in June. All delivered glyphs are now reported in this updated table. NOTE: All ranges starting with E200 and above are yet to be revised and consolidated into consecutive ranges within the Unicode Private Use Area. During this consolidation, many of these glyphs – those which have been added to the Unicode standard during this project – will be moved to defined Unicode ranges from Plane 0 or Plane 1.

At a teleconference of the STIX Fonts Technical Review Committee on 26 May, it was determined that the beta release would need to be delayed until September 2005. This delay is required to complete all of the work necessary to release the beta test, but the delay will also allow the beta version to contain all of the glyphs planned for final release.

Target Release Date Established for the STIX Fonts Project

AIP White Paper on STIX Fonts (PDF - 220KB)