Re: Descriptions of the Runes

From: Nick Eden <nick_at_pheasnt.demon.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 22:36:51 +0000

I don't know for sure, but I suspect that descriptive text's easy enough to include as an alternate text for an image file, but what we normally use  and certainly what Zack is describing is a wingdings style font that happens to look like a rune. Much easier to incorporate in text aimed at the sighted and much easier to set up - I've done a few in my time. I don't think that kind of alternate text would be possible in most ebooks. Then again, that kind of wingdings font's not easy in an ePub or mobi book either, so they might need inserted images.

On 26 November 2013 18:24, <pomeroi_at_mailfass.de> wrote:

> On 26.11.2013 17:41, Phil Hibbs wrote:
> >
> > Do ebooks have markup for alternative text to read aloud? S,o when it
> > came across a Mastery Rune, it could say "Mastery Rune" rather than
> > reading out the letter that the runic typeface uses?
>
> I don't know about ebooks, I suppose they could and should do it like
> they describe a picture (by just a caption perhaps). But markup is the
> right thing in general. in HTML for example, there are lots of so called
> entities that are not just letters, but can only be read by mouthing
> their name, like pound, asterisk, cent, greater than and so on. Look
> here: http://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_entities.asp
>
> We could file a petition to the w3c, asking to add (gloranthan) runes to
> the set of entities ;-)
>
> Zack, what are the tools of publisher who especially do this for blind
> people? Do they describe signs, icons, pictures?
>
> Pomeroi
>
>
>