vhea — Vertical Header Table (OpenType 1.8)

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The vertical header table (tag name: 'vhea') contains information needed for vertical fonts. The glyphs of vertical fonts are written either top to bottom or bottom to top. This table contains information that is general to the font as a whole. Information that pertains to specific glyphs is given in the vertical metrics table (tag name: 'vmtx') described separately. The formats of these tables are similar to those for horizontal metrics (hhea and hmtx).

Data in the vertical header table must be consistent with data that appears in the vertical metrics table. The advance height and top sidebearing values in the vertical metrics table must correspond with the maximum advance height and minimum bottom sidebearing values in the vertical header table.

See the section “OpenType CJK Font Guidelines“ for more information about constructing CJK (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) fonts.

Table Format

The difference between version 1.0 and version 1.1 is the name and definition of the following fields:

  • ascender becomes vertTypoAscender
  • descender becomes vertTypoDescender
  • lineGap becomes vertTypoLineGap

Version 1.0 of the vertical header table format is as follows:

Version 1.0
Type Name Description
Fixed version Version number of the vertical header table; 0x00010000 for version 1.0
SHORT ascent Distance in FUnits from the centerline to the previous line’s descent.
SHORT descent Distance in FUnits from the centerline to the next line’s ascent.
SHORT lineGap Reserved; set to 0
SHORT advanceHeightMax The maximum advance height measurement -in FUnits found in the font. This value must be consistent with the entries in the vertical metrics table.
SHORT minTopSideBearing The minimum top sidebearing measurement found in the font, in FUnits. This value must be consistent with the entries in the vertical metrics table.
SHORT minBottomSideBearing The minimum bottom sidebearing measurement found in the font, in FUnits. This value must be consistent with the entries in the vertical metrics table.
SHORT yMaxExtent Defined as yMaxExtent=​minTopSideBearing+(yMax-yMin)
SHORT caretSlopeRise The value of the caretSlopeRise field divided by the value of the caretSlopeRun Field determines the slope of the caret. A value of 0 for the rise and a value of 1 for the run specifies a horizontal caret. A value of 1 for the rise and a value of 0 for the run specifies a vertical caret. Intermediate values are desirable for fonts whose glyphs are oblique or italic. For a vertical font, a horizontal caret is best.
SHORT caretSlopeRun See the caretSlopeRise field. Value=1 for nonslanted vertical fonts.
SHORT caretOffset The amount by which the highlight on a slanted glyph needs to be shifted away from the glyph in order to produce the best appearance. Set value equal to 0 for nonslanted fonts.
SHORT reserved Set to 0.
SHORT reserved Set to 0.
SHORT reserved Set to 0.
SHORT reserved Set to 0.
SHORT metricDataFormat Set to 0.
USHORT numOfLongVerMetrics Number of advance heights in the vertical metrics table.

Version 1.1 of the vertical header table format is as follows:

Version 1.1
Type Name Description
Fixed version Version number of the vertical header table; 0x00011000 for version 1.1
Note the representation of a non-zero fractional part, in Fixed numbers.
SHORT vertTypoAscender The vertical typographic ascender for this font. It is the distance in FUnits from the ideographic em-box center baseline for the vertical axis to the right of the ideographic em-box and is usually set to (head.unitsPerEm)/2. For example, a font with an em of 1000 fUnits will set this field to 500. See the baseline section of the OpenType Tag Registry for a description of the ideographic em-box.
SHORT vertTypoDescender The vertical typographic descender for this font. It is the distance in FUnits from the ideographic em-box center baseline for the horizontal axis to the left of the ideographic em-box and is usually set to (head.unitsPerEm)/2. For example, a font with an em of 1000 fUnits will set this field to 500.
SHORT vertTypoLineGap The vertical typographic gap for this font. An application can determine the recommended line spacing for single spaced vertical text for an OpenType font by the following expression: ideo embox width + vhea.vertTypoLineGap
SHORT advanceHeightMax The maximum advance height measurement -in FUnits found in the font. This value must be consistent with the entries in the vertical metrics table.
SHORT minTopSideBearing The minimum top sidebearing measurement found in the font, in FUnits. This value must be consistent with the entries in the vertical metrics table.
SHORT minBottomSideBearing The minimum bottom sidebearing measurement found in the font, in FUnits. This value must be consistent with the entries in the vertical metrics table.
SHORT yMaxExtent Defined as yMaxExtent=​minTopSideBearing+(yMax-yMin)
SHORT caretSlopeRise The value of the caretSlopeRise field divided by the value of the caretSlopeRun Field determines the slope of the caret. A value of 0 for the rise and a value of 1 for the run specifies a horizontal caret. A value of 1 for the rise and a value of 0 for the run specifies a vertical caret. Intermediate values are desirable for fonts whose glyphs are oblique or italic. For a vertical font, a horizontal caret is best.
SHORT caretSlopeRun See the caretSlopeRise field. Value=1 for nonslanted vertical fonts.
SHORT caretOffset The amount by which the highlight on a slanted glyph needs to be shifted away from the glyph in order to produce the best appearance. Set value equal to 0 for nonslanted fonts.
SHORT reserved Set to 0.
SHORT reserved Set to 0.
SHORT reserved Set to 0.
SHORT reserved Set to 0.
SHORT metricDataFormat Set to 0.
USHORT numOfLongVerMetrics Number of advance heights in the vertical metrics table.

'vhea' Table and OpenType Font Variations

In a variable font, various font-metric values within the 'vhea' table may need to be adjusted for different variation instances. Variation data for 'vhea' entries can be provided in the metrics variations ('MVAR') table. Different 'post' entries are associated with particular variation data in the 'MVAR' table using value tags, as follows:

'vhea' entry Tag
ascent 'vasc'
caretOffset 'vcof'
caretSlopeRun 'vcrn'
caretSlopeRise 'vcrs'
descent 'vdsc'
lineGap 'vlgp'

For general information on OpenType Font Variations, see the chapter, OpenType Font Variations Overview.

Vertical Header Table Example

Offset/
length		 Value Name Comment
0/4 0x00011000 version Version number of the vertical header table, in fixed-point format, is 1.1
4/2 1024 vertTypoAscender Half the em-square height.
6/2 -1024 vertTypoDescender Minus half the em-square height.
8/2 0 vertTypoLineGap Typographic line gap is 0 FUnits.
10/2 2079 advanceHeightMax The maximum advance height measurement found in the font is 2079 FUnits.
12/2 -342 minTopSideBearing The minimum top sidebearing measurement found in the font is -342 FUnits.
14/2 -333 minBottomSideBearing The minimum bottom sidebearing measurement found in the font is -333 FUnits.
16/2 2036 yMaxExtent minTopSideBearing+​(yMax-yMin)=2036.
18/2 0 caretSlopeRise The caret slope rise of 0 and a caret slope run of 1 indicate a horizontal caret for a vertical font.
20/2 1 caretSlopeRun The caret slope rise of 0 and a caret slope run of 1 indicate a horizontal caret for a vertical font.
22/2 0 caretOffset Value set to 0 for nonslanted fonts.
24/4 0 reserved Set to 0.
26/2 0 reserved Set to 0.
28/2 0 reserved Set to 0.
30/2 0 reserved Set to 0.
32/2 0 metricDataFormat Set to 0.
34/2 258 numOfLongVerMetrics Number of advance heights in the vertical metrics table is 258.