The hinting section: I tried to order VTT a while back, and it was a p-i-t-a. The process is still clinging to 1996: including the fax. (Yes!) Do you still listen to Dj Bobo over there? The documentation is scarce (when it’s not overwhelming, as in Beat’s raster disaster), and the few provided docs are saved in an ancient MS Word format not accessible to newer word processors, the links to sample files are dead etc. Truetype hinting is the elephant in the room right now and you guys could really get us somewhere if you’d make it a little more accessible. How about a video tutorial section explaining the basics of the program?

I thought you meant opening a can of Worms, but then I remembered it came out in 1995.

… it’s been around since 1996 and much of the content hasn’t been updated in a quite a long time. […] I wanted to get feedback from the community of users (you folk!) as to what needs to be updated, clarified or added.

Why on earth should we independent type business stakeholders step in on demand and provide professional content input to sponsor MS’s promotion activities?
Sorry, but I fail to follow you.

In my opinion it is not convincing policy if a player like MS does generously commission a handful of decent typefaces (though decent they are indeed) and eventually edit a range of technical specifications un-updated since more than 10 (!!) years, now stumbling in and asking for “advice”.

What is typography for MS? A playground?

In the sphere you’re acting in you should admitt that substantial (professional) consulting is not something to get for nothing. But maybe it’s just me riding the wrong horse here…

I can’t help smelling that this is yet another “please-do-my-homework” request of which quite a bunch is overcrowding this place for a while.

However, personally I wish you success with your job, naturally.
No hard feelings, I hope.

Regards, A. St.

No intend to dismiss the posts above, but:

May I offer my thanks back to the (original) Microsoft Typography team? I've read literally each and every page and Word document top to bottom, and it was all I needed to get a thorough grasp of the innards of Truetype and Opentype fonts. So much unlike Adobe's half-hearted stab at documentation.

I think I would enjoy a good overview of currently supported OTF features in Uniscribe (admittedly, I haven't visited the pages lately so it might already be there). Cleartype has been talked about a couple of times in the Build forum, it might be about time to get an official stance on that as well.

First of all, congratulations again on your new job!

Andreas, I don't think Aaron is asking us to contribute content; to me it seems wholly reasonable market research to find out what people like / don't like about the site before updating it.

Aaron, one thing I've been confused by is the structure of the site: the homepage doesn't seem to fully list all the subsections (Without a bookmark I'd be searching for ages for the character design standards — as I wouldn't automatically think to look under 'articles') I'd also like to see the design standards cover characters in blocks, and be a bit more complete (though of course this needs to be realistic). It could even be a wiki. The structure at the moment has been enough to discourage me from exploring further than absolutely essential research.

If I were in your shoes I'd want to look at the site analytics to see which sections of the site are actually used, as I suspect a lot of it is redundant. I can't honestly see who the site is aimed at: it seems to target both people who need to know about cleartype hints and people who don't know how to install a font. Disaggregating the target visitors would be hugely beneficial.

Sounds like a good idea. Perhaps some of us had not been there in a while since there is not much new there anymore. I think it would be great if you could go through and make everything current and consistent. That is not a small task, but a major computing company should be able to handle it with all the skills and technology it has at hand?

Thank you to everyone who’s replied so far! You've provided exactly the kind of perspective I was hoping to get.

And just to re-iterate, the goal of this thread is not to ask for a serious review of the site, but to help inform my work and give a more complete perspective on what needs to be updated.

Cheers

Truetype hinting is the elephant in the room right now and you guys could really get us somewhere if you’d make it a little more accessible. How about a video tutorial section explaining the basics of the program?

This would be a huge improvement. I cannot understand how Microsoft has spent so much money developing screen type technology and done such a poor job educating type designers about designing and hinting type to actually render well on Windows.

"I cannot understand how Microsoft has spent so much money developing screen type technology and done such a poor job educating type designers about designing and hinting type to actually render well on Windows."

It's simple to understand. Will be publishing an explanation about his shortly, too. Gonna make a note to link it back here.

Lotsa luck to Bell

rich

Is this 'explanation' going to be your personal speculation, Rich? Or have you interviewed the good folk at MS Typography or the ART group?

Aha! Saw that coming, John.
Would you review the few paragraphs that deal with it, for me?
Or is there a confidentiality issue?

rich

Why not ask someone at MS to fact check what you write about them? My personal speculations are not necessarily better informed than your own.

.

Aaron, congrats - you're in a good place.

hhp

How should we contact you then? email?

Hi David, feel free to contact me at abell@... or send a direct message through typophile.

Cheers.