Information accompanying submissions

The process of deciding which characters should be included in the repertoire of the standard by WG 2 depends on the availability of accurate and comprehensive information about any proposed additions. WG 2, at its San Francisco meeting 26, designed a form (template) that will assist the submitters in gathering and providing the relevant information, and will assist WG 2 in making more informed decisions. This form has been revised over the years and the latest version is included in the following pages of this annex. The latest version of this form must be used in submissions. This form is also made available on line from the WG 2 web site - see http://www.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/summaryform.html.

A duly completed proposal summary form must accompany each new submission. Such a form will assist WG 2 to better evaluate the proposal, and progress the proposal towards a speedier acceptance and inclusion in the standard. Submitters are also requested to ensure that a proposed character does not already exist in the standard. The latest version of ISO/IEC 10646 is available on line under 'Freely Available Standards' at: http://standards.iso.org/ittf/PubliclyAvailableStandards/.

Submitters are encouraged to visit the "Where is my Character" page on the Unicode web site for more information on checking if their proposed character or script is already encoded in the standard, or a similar proposal has already been made by someone else. The latest versions of ISO/IEC 10646 are available on line under 'Freely Available Standards at:http://isotc.iso.org/livelink/livelink/fetch/2000/2489/Ittf_Home/ITTF.htm. There are also several electronic discussion lists maintained by the Unicode consortium that one could use to discuss with other experts internationally on various subjects related to the standard. Submitters are also encouraged to familiarize themselves with ISO/IEC TR15285 - Character Glyph Model (available on line fromhttp://standards.iso.org/ittf/PubliclyAvailableStandards/c027163_ISO_IEC_TR_15285_1998(E).zip).

National bodies should take note of the guidelines in section C.4 Some guidelines on proposing new material as ballot comments in the P&P document.

In addition to text extracted from the standard in Annex L: Character-naming guidelines in the P&P document, the following definitions from the standard are also referenced in the proposal summary form:

Clause 4.12 Combining character: 
A member of an identified subset of the coded character set of ISO/IEC 10646 intended for combination with the preceding non-combining graphic character, or with a sequence of combining characters preceded by a non-combining character (see also 4.14).
NOTE - ISO/IEC 10646 specifies several subset collections which include combining characters.

Clause 4.14 Composite sequence: 
A sequence of graphic characters consisting of a non-combining character followed by one or more combining characters (see also 4.12). 
NOTE 1 - A graphic symbol for a composite sequence generally consists of the combination of the graphic symbols of each character in the sequence. 
NOTE 2 - A composite sequence is not a character and therefore is not a member of the repertoire of ISO/IEC 10646.

Submitter's responsibilities

The national body or liaison organization (or any other organization or an individual) proposing new character(s) or a new script shall provide:

1. Proposed category for the script or character(s),character name(s), and description of usage.
2. Justification for the category and name(s).
3. A representative glyph(s) image on paper: 
   If the proposed glyph image is similar to a glyph image of a previously encoded ISO/IEC 10646 character, then additional justification for encoding the new character shall be provided. 
   Note: Any proposal that suggests that one or more of such variant forms is actually a distinct character requiring separate encoding, should provide detailed, printed evidence that there is actual, contrastive use of the variant form(s).  It is insufficient for a proposal to claim a requirement to encode as characters in the Standard, glyphic forms which happen to occur in another character encoding that did not follow the Character-Glyph Model that guides the choice of appropriate characters for encoding in ISO/IEC 10646. 
   Note: WG 2 has resolved in Resolution M38.12 not to add any more Arabic presentation forms to the standard and suggests users to employ appropriate input methods, rendering and font technologies to meet the user requirements.
4. Mappings to accepted sources, for example, other standards, dictionaries, accessible published materials.
5. Outline font resource: Prior to the preparation of the final text of the next amendment or version of the standard a suitable outline font resource is required. Outline fonts must be in TrueType format. Postscript fonts are acceptable if conversion to TrueType is possible using the tools available to the editors. Fonts submitted must have no license restrictions that prevent embedding into PDF documents. Because of synchronization between ISO/IEC10646 and The Unicode Standard, any grant of license must cover use in publishing both standards and related documents (see resolution M45.30). For technical reasons, the editors must be able under that license to freely modify or replace glyph outlines in their copies of the fonts. The submitter should be prepared to provide fonts of suitable quality and license conditions, unless equivalent fonts are already available to the editors.
6. List of all the parties consulted: Towards ensuring that all significant stakeholders have been consulted, WG 2 requests that submitters solicit feedback from other groups who use the proposed characters, and list these contacts. Submitters are encouraged to provide the email id-s of the submitters as well as other experts who have been consulted to facilitate any clarification queries.
7. Equivalent glyph images: 
   If the submission intends using composite sequences of proposed or existing combining and non-combining characters, a list consisting of each composite sequence and its corresponding glyph image shall be provided to better understand the intended use.
8. Compatibility equivalents: 
   If the submission includes compatibility ideographic characters, identify (per resolution M45.29):
   • the source which contains two distinct code positions that correspond to a single unified CJK Ideograph character of ISO/IEC 10646
   • the ISO 10646 unified CJK Ideograph
   • the code position in the source for the unified CJK ideograph
   • the code position in the source for the proposed compatibility ideograph
9. Properties that may affect the BiDi processing 
   Any BiDirectional algorithm related properties associate with the characters should be spelled out (see UAX#9 - http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr9/).
10. Any additional information that will assist in correct understanding of the different characteristics and linguistic processing of the proposed character(s) or script.
11. If any of the proposed characters are suitable as syntax characters please take note of guideline D.2.5 (in the P&P document) and of Unicode Standard Annex 31 at http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr31/.