249 lines
9.7 KiB
Plaintext
249 lines
9.7 KiB
Plaintext
GENTIUM-FAQ
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Gentium Basic Release 1.102
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28 November 2013
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========================
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Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about the Gentium fonts:
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General
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========
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How do you pronounce Gentium?
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The preferred pronunciation is with a soft G as in 'general', not a
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hard one as in 'gold': JEN-tee-oom.
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What is GentiumAlt?
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It is a version of the font with redesigned diacritics (flatter
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ones) to make it more suitable for use with stacking diacritics, and
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for languages such as Vietnamese. The Greek glyphs also use the
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Porsonic (single-curve) design for the circumflex. Since the main
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Gentium fonts do not currently include any 'smart' rendering routines,
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there is no easy way to access these alternate diacritic shapes from
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within the regular Gentium font. The encoding of the fonts are the same,
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so the same text can be viewed with either one. There is also no
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problem with having both font families installed at the same time.
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Licensing
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=========
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I want to use Gentium in my publication - can I?
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Gentium is released under the SIL Open Font License, which permits use
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for any publication, whether electronic or printed. For more answers
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to use questions see the OFL-FAQ. The license, alongside information
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specific to Gentium, is in the release package.
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I would like to bundle Gentium with my application - can I?
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This is our most common question. The SIL Open Font License allows
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bundling with applications, even commercial ones, with some restrictions.
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See the OFL file.
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Can I use the font on my web site?
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You can certainly create web pages that request that Gentium be used to
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display them (if that font is available on the user's system). According
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to the license, you are even allowed to place the font on your site for
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people to download it. We would strongly recommend, however, that you
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direct users to our site to download the font. This ensures that they
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are always using the most recent version with bug fixes, etc. To make
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this easier, we've simplified the URL for Gentium:
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http://scripts.sil.org/gentium
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Is Gentium going to stay free?
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There is no intention to ever charge users for using Gentium. The
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current version is licensed under a free/open license and future
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versions will be similar.
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Modification
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============
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I would like to modify Gentium to add a couple of characters I need. Can I?
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Yes - that is allowed as long as you abide by the conditions of the
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SIL Open Font License.
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So will you add glyphs upon request?
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If you have a special symbol that you need (say, for a particular
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transcription system), the best means of doing so will be to ensure
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that the symbol makes it into the Unicode Standard. It is impossible
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for us to add every glyph that every person desires, but we do place
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a high priority on adding pretty much anything that falls in certain
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Unicode ranges (extended Latin, Greek, Cyrillic). You can send us your
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requests, but please understand that we are unlikely to add symbols
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where the user base is very small, unless they have been accepted
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into Unicode.
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Can I send you work I've done to be incorporated into Gentium?
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Yes! See the FONTLOG for information on becoming a contributor.
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Technical
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=========
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Can you help me get Gentium working on my system?
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We cannot afford to offer individual technical support. The best
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resource is this website, where we hope to offer some limited help.
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However, we do want to hear of any problems you encounter, so that
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we can add them to the list of bugs to fix in later releases.
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Our contact address is <gentium AT sil DOT org>. Please understand
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that we cannot guarantee a personal response.
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I can't find all the extended Latin letters in the font. How do I type them?
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Gentium is Unicode-encoded, which means that the computer stores a
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special, unique code for each letter in your document. Since most
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keyboards do not have hundreds of keys, special software is needed
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in order to type the hundreds of special characters supported by the
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font.
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I can't find the 'o with right hook' in the font. Where is it?
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Combinations of base letters with diacritics are often called
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composite, or pre-composed glyphs. Gentium has hundreds of these
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(the ones that are included in Unicode). There are, however, many
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common combinations that are not represented by a single composite.
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It is possible to enter these into a document, but only as
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individual components. So 'o with right hook' would be entered as
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'o', then 'right hook'. Although this may not look very good in some
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cases, we're not able to anticipate every possible combination.
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Future versions of Gentium will include 'smart font' support for
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technologies such as OpenType and SIL's Graphite. This will make
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diacritic positioning much better. The Gentium Basic fonts do,
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however, include limited support for both OpenType and Graphite,
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and demonstrate the type of support that will eventually be provided.
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Some diacritics are not aligning well with base glyphs, and if I type more
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than one diacritic, they run into each other. Why is that?
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Gentium currently has no 'smart font' code for automatic diacritic
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positioning, but the Gentium Basic fonts do, and similar support will
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appear in the main fonts in the near future.
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How do I type the Greek letters?
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You need a Unicode-compatible keyboarding system, which is not
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included in the distribution package.
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I'm having problems making PDFs -- why won't my document distill?
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Gentium is a large font, with lots of glyphs. As a result, some
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printers can balk at PDFs that have the complete font embedded. The
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easiest way to avoid this is to have Acrobat/Distiller subset the
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font. This is generally a good idea anyway (with any font) and can
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reduce the size of your files.
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Basic
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=====
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How are the Basic fonts (Gentium Basic, Gentium Book Basic) different
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from Gentium?
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These font families are based on the original Gentium design, but with
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additional weights. Both families come with a complete regular, bold,
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italic and bold italic set of fonts. The supported character set,
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however, is much smaller than for the main Gentium fonts. These
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'Basic' fonts support only the Basic Latin and Latin-1 Supplement
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Unicode ranges, plus a selection of the more commonly used extended
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Latin characters, with miscellaneous diacritical marks, symbols and
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punctuation. In particular, these fonts do not support full extended
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Latin IPA, complete support for Central European languages, Greek and
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Cyrillic.
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What is the Book weight?
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It is a complete second font family that is slightly heavier overall,
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and more useful for some purposes. The main Gentium family will
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eventually have a complete matching Book weight, along with matching
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italics.
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Why is the line spacing greater for the Basic fonts?
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In some environments, stacked diacritics in Gentium could display as
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'chopped-off'. Gentium Basic has slightly wider default line spacing
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in order to avoid this problem. Most applications do, however, let you
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set the line spacing explicitly, so you can have the lines spaced
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precisely as you wish.
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Will you be accepting requests for additions to the Basic character set?
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No. We are now focusing our development efforts on the main Gentium
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fonts, which already provide richer character set support.
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Is there an Alt version of the Basic fonts?
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No, although you may notice that capitals and some tall lowercase
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letters do use 'low-profile' versions.
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Future
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Now that SIL International has taken over Gentium, who will be the next
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designer?
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Victor Gaultney will remain as primary designer, but Annie Olsen, a
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fellow type designer from the SIL Non-Roman Script Initiative, has
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joined the project team. She is a former calligraphy teacher, and is
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well suited for the task. Other members of the NRSI team will also
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add their expertise in technical matters.
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Do you plan to include other typographic enhancements (small caps, old style
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figures, etc.)?
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Those would be nice, wouldn't they? From a design point of view,
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it would be great to have these refinements, and we haven't ruled
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them out. But there are other needs that are much higher priority
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(Bold, Cyrillic, etc.). If you think you could contribute some of
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your time and effort to these enhancements, see the FONTLOG file for
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information on becoming a contributor.
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What about bold?
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The Gentium Basic fonts include Bold and Bold Italic versions. The
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main Gentium fonts will also include them in the future.
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Sans-serif?
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There is a definite need for a sans-serif font that shares some of
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Gentium's strengths -- high readability, economy of space, etc. It
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would also be great if that font also harmonized well with Gentium.
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We don't currently have any plans for a companion face, although one
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of our other projects - Andika - may be useful. Andika is a sans-serif
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font designed specifically for use in literacy programs around the
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world, and is available from our web site.
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Will you be extending Gentium to cover other scripts, and Hebrew in
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particular?
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It is very unlikely that we would do this, as there are so many
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pressing needs in Latin, Greek and Cyrillic scripts. But you could
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contribute to the project.
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When will Cyrillic be completed?
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As soon as we can get it done, but it is still a few months away.
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I need a couple of ancient Greek glyphs, such as the digamma. When will
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those be ready?
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These have already been designed and will be in the next main release.
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Will there be a Type 1 version? What about OpenType?
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The next generation of Gentium will have OpenType, Graphite and AAT
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support. We do not plan to produce Type 1 versions at this time, but
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please write us if this is important (and tell us why). We are, however,
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considering releasing a version in OT-CFF format, but it will not go
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through the same careful testing as the standard OT/Graphite/AAT version. |