On 12/1/07, Isaiah Beerbower <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 11/30/07, Fred Kiefer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Isaiah Beerbower wrote: > > > Hello all, > > > > > > A while back there was some discussion about the way GNUstep handles > > > fonts. The two ways discussed were nfont bundles and fontconfig. I > > > like nfonts because they give you more control over how your fonts are > > > organized, but I also like the fontconfig method because it makes font > > > installation easier for fonts which don't need to be organized beyond > > > the computers knowhow. I would like to propose a new method which > > > gives both advantages. > > > > > > If we used a GNUstep maintained font index plist as our only cache and > > > used fontconfig + FreeType for retrieving information from font files > > > except when we come across an nfont (in which case we would read its > > > plist) we would receive many advantages from both sides: > > > > > > * Those who want to distribute a font family in a pre-organized way > > > can do so using an nfont. > > > > > > * Those who don't, won't have to do anything. > > > > > > * Those who want to keep their fonts organized a specific way can > > > either put them all into nfonts, or change values in the font index. > > > > > > * Those who don't care aren't bothered. > > > > > > * GNUstep gets to choose which folders get indexed. > > > > > > We can also put other information in the index (if we want) such as > > > wether an installed font is enabled or not. > > > > > > The index I am envisioning at this point would be a plist with an > > > array of dictionaries, each dictionary holding the path to a font > > > file, the file's last modification date, the font's family name, > > > postscript name, style, whether it should use anti-aliasing or not, > > > etc., etc.. > > > > > > I would like this for cairo, but if it can be coded once then used in > > > art also, that would be great to. > > > > > > I'm ready to implement such a thing if acceptable. > > > > > > > Sounds like a nice idea to me, but I would prefer to see code, before I > > judge on it :-) > > In that case I'll write some ...
I have an almost complete implementation working with the cairo back end. Should I create a new branch for it under /libs/back/branches? This is my first contribution to GNUstep, which is why I ask. > > As I understand it, the nfont model provides more information per font > > than we can get from FT and FC. How would your code try to substitute > > values for that? > > I believe the problem with using fontconfig was that it doesn't cache > the postscript name. The postscript name can be accessed with > FreeType, but you have to cache it yourself. Thanks, Isaiah Beerbower -- www.ipaqah.com _______________________________________________ Discuss-gnustep mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss-gnustep
