Ntyp

nTyp is a compact, language-agnostic notation designed to encode typographic instructions and font metadata within plain-text documents. It aims to bridge human-readable content with machine-actionable styling by allowing authors to specify font family, weight, size, line height, color, kerning, and ligatures without relying on separate style sheets. nTyp blocks can be embedded inline or scoped to a text region, enabling precise control of typography in contexts where markup is limited or where a text-first workflow is preferred.

Syntax and structure: an nTyp block uses a lightweight token sequence with key-value pairs separated by semicolons. A block begins with a marker such as nTyp{ and ends with }. Attributes are optional; defaults may be defined by a processor. Nested blocks apply to contained text, while text outside a block reverts to outer defaults. The design emphasizes forward compatibility, allowing new attributes to be added without breaking older implementations. Processors can convert nTyp blocks into CSS, OpenType feature selectors, or PDF metadata.

Example: nTyp{font=Inter; size=12pt; weight=700}This headline nTyp{font=Inter; size=11pt; weight=400}continues as body text.

Adoption and tools: nTyp is presented as a supplementary notation for text-first workflows, not a replacement for stylesheets. It can be parsed by converters to CSS, font feature applications, or document layout engines. Several open-source projects have explored nTyp-like approaches to improve portability of typography across platforms. Criticisms include potential readability impact in source text, a learning curve, and fragmentation if multiple token schemes coexist.

See also: CSS, OpenType, Unicode, typography notation, markup languages.