4. Glyphs and Glyph Registration

All the characters are rendered with specification of their actual shapes (see NOTE1). Actual shapes are specified by their abstract shapes (glyphs) and typeface designs. A glyph is identified by a glyph identifier. A glyph identifier is not specified by a standard but registered in accordance with the international standard, ISO/IEC 10036: Font information interchange - Procedures for registration of font-related identifiers.
It is due to the fact that:

(1) Glyphs can configure an infinite set. A character can map to a number of glyphs and there can be a glyph that maps to no coded character.
(2) New glyphs can be created if necessary.

NOTE 1: Font is a collection of actual glyph shapes having the same typeface design.

4.1 Registration Authority

The registration authority for ISO/IEC 10036 was AFII (Association for Font Information Interchange). Since the activity of AFII has stopped, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 notes the possibility of Japan's assuming responsibility of the Registration Authority for ISO/IEC 10036 and requests that a final decision on whether someone in Japan will be able to do this be taken by 1 June 2000.

4.2 Registration Procedure

Registration should be carried out according to the following procedure:

(1) Application requests Any individual or organization having a need for the assignment and registration of an identifier shall submit the registration request to the registrar.
(2) Application review The registrar shall ensure that the required information has been provided.
(3) Identifier assignment The primary criterion for registration of any object is uniqueness.
(4) Application response The applicant shall be notified of the assigned identifier.
(5) Database maintenance The registrar shall maintain all the information.

4.3 Glyph Identifier in AP Font Library

All the shapes in AP Font Library should be assigned with their glyph identifiers for referencing and AP Font Library should manage the mapping table between character codes and glyph identifiers included in the library.

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