CJKV Information Processing, 2nd Edition

174

|

Chapter 3: Character Set Standards

sucient to render subtle details, and also has the ability to capture the writing order of

each stroke, along with the writing direction of the stroke.

CDL descriptors can be nested, meaning that a CDL descriptor can refer to another CDL

descriptor for one or more of its components. e CDL also has a mechanism for specify-

ing variant forms.

More information about the CDL can be found on Wenlin Institute’s website.

*

CJKV locale-specic character form dierences

e result of the processes that took place when developing Unicode, from a practical

point of view, is a set of 20,902 partially unied ideographs. is has certain implications

for those who feel that they can build a single typeface that will satisfy the character-form

criteria for all CJKV locales.

Table 3-99 illustrates several ideographs contained in Unicode, along with example

representations in four of the CJKV locales.

CJKV character form dierencesTable 3-99.

Unicode code point China Taiwan Japan Korea

4

   

4

   

5224

   

5668

   

557

   

677

   

938

   

98

   

Note how 4 can use the same character form (glyph) across all four CJKV locales,

but that the others are slightly dierent across locales, though some forms are shared by

more than one locale. is is not a criticism of Unicode, but rather the reality one must

deal with when ...