Adobe and Microsoft just posted a notice on the OpenType mailing list about a draft of version 1.5 of the OpenType spec, and requesting suggestions/proposals for version 1.6.

If you’re interested in the mailing list:

subscribe: opentype-migration-sub@indx.co.uk
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messages: opentype-migration-list@indx.co.uk

Here’s the text of our posts, with handy links.

Si Daniels wrote:

A draft of version 1.5 of the OpenType spec has been posted for review here:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec150/default.htm

A summary of the changes can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec150/changes.htm

We’ve posted it in an unlinked location so that the community can review it for any typos, errors or omissions – changes from 1.4 are highlighted in color (red and blue). Once we’re happy with it, we will post it alongside version 1.4 on the main site.

Our goal with 1.5 was to reflect changes implemented in the most recent versions of Unicode as well as Microsoft and Adobe’s software and fonts. Because of this we’ve already started work with our colleagues at Adobe on version 1.6. Tom Phinney will be sending out a list of what’s in the works along with a call for ideas for the next update, which we hope to finalize in the coming months in order to meet ISO deadlines.

I’d like to thank everyone at Adobe and Microsoft who’ve worked on this over the past few months. In particular I’d like to thank Michelle Hill who’s been coordinating the effort.

Please direct any corrections to mihill at microsoft (with a dot-com on the end). Note that for some reason the PDFs are not working, but these remain unchanged from OT 1.4.

I added:

Now that we have a solid draft of the OpenType 1.5 spec, we’re also
soliciting your ideas/proposals for OpenType 1.6.

Generally, the best way to propose something new for OT 1.6 is to post
it to the OpenType list. If for some reason you want private feedback
first, you could send it to me and Si.

Ultimately, we’ll need any proposal in full formal spec language.
However, it may sometimes be useful to kick around the general concept
on the list first. If you aren’t yourself up for writing up your idea in
the standard spec language, you’ll need to find somebody who is; either
Microsoft or Adobe may adopt your idea to move it forwards, or perhaps
you can find some other interested party.

Besides a host of colleagues at Adobe and Microsoft, I’d like to
especially thank Sairus Patel here at Adobe, who has been the lead
technical person for both the 1.5 spec and potential 1.6
changes/additions.

For your reference, here are some things already being considered for
the OpenType 1.6 spec:

New Features:

1) Changes to stylistic sets feature to support human-readable named for
the sets, in any language(s). Considerable thought has already been
given to this, with an initial proposal from Adobe and a
counter-proposal from Microsoft, but it still needs more work, so it
didn’t make it into 1.5.

Other clarifications:

2) Clarify TrueType instruction handling relating to INSTCTRL and
GETINFO.

3) More clarifications in the ‘name’ table

For “Recommendations”:

4) Add info on how to detect and process the incorrect ‘size’ feature
structures put in a bunch of Adobe fonts.

5) Add info on what names should get put into formatting markup

6) Add more info on how the line height should be computed given the
addition of bit 7 in the fsSelection field of the OS/2 table

7) Consider having the recommendations given for “First Four Glyphs in
Fonts” apply to the C1 control characters.