BaseValues Table

A BaseValues table lists the coordinate positions of all baselines named in the BaselineTag array of the corresponding BaseTagList and identifies a default baseline for a script.

Note: When the offset to the corresponding BaseTagList is NULL, a BaseValues table is not needed. However, if the offset is not NULL, then each script must specify coordinate positions for all baselines named in the BaseTagList.

The default baseline, one per script, is the baseline used to lay out and align the glyphs in the script. The DefaultIndex in the BaseValues table identifies the default baseline with a value that equals the array index position of the corresponding tag in the BaselineTag array.

For example, the Han and Latin scripts use different baselines to align text. If a font supports both of these scripts, the BaselineTag array in the BaseTagList of the HorizAxis table will contain two tags, listed alphabetically: "ideo" in BaselineTag[0] for the Han ideographic baseline, and "romn" in BaselineTag[1] for the Latin baseline. The BaseValues table for the Latin script will specify the roman baseline as the default, so the DefaultIndex in the BaseValues table for Latin will be "1" to indicate the roman baseline tag. In the BaseValues table for the Han script, the DefaultIndex will be "0" to indicate the ideographic baseline tag.

Two or more scripts may share a default baseline. For instance, if the font described above also supports the Cyrillic script, the BaselineTag array does not need a baseline tag for Cyrillic because Cyrillic and Latin share the same baseline. The DefaultIndex defined in the BaseValues table for the Cyrillic script will specify "1" to indicate the roman baseline tag, listed in the second position in the BaselineTag array.

In addition to identifying the DefaultIndex, the BaseValues table contains an offset to an array of BaseCoord tables (BaseCoord) that list the coordinate positions for all baselines, including the default baseline, named in the associated BaselineTag array. One BaseCoord table is defined for each baseline. The BaseCoordCount defines the total number of BaseCoord tables, which must equal the number of baseline tags listed in BaseTagCount in the BaseTagList.

Each baseline coordinate is defined as a single X or Y value in design units measured from the zero position on the relevant X or Y axis. For example, a BaseCoord table defined in the HorizAxis table will contain a Y value because horizontal baselines are positioned vertically. BaseCoord values may be negative. Each script may assign a different coordinate to each baseline.

Offsets to each BaseCoord table are stored in a BaseCoord array within the BaseValues table. The order of the stored offsets corresponds to the order of the tags listed in the BaselineTag array of the BaseTagList. In other words, the first position in the BaseCoord array will define the offset to the BaseCoord table for the first baseline named in the BaselineTag array, the second position will define the offset to the BaseCoord table for the second baseline named in the BaselineTag array, and so on.

Example 3 at the end of the chapter has two parts, one that shows a BaseValues table and one that shows a chart with different baseline positions defined for several scripts.

BaseValues table

Type	Name	Description
uint16	DefaultIndex	Index number of default baseline for this script
		—equals index position of baseline tag in BaselineArray of the BaseTagList
uint16	BaseCoordCount	Number of BaseCoord tables defined
		—should equal BaseTagCount in the BaseTagList
Offset	ð BaseCoord	Array of offsets to BaseCoord
	[BaseCoordCount	—from beginning of BaseValues table
		—order matches BaselineTag array in the BaseTagList