https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1753295
--- Comment #102 from Hans Ulrich Niedermann <rhb...@n-dimensional.de> ---
(In reply to Nicolas Mailhot from comment #101)
> (In reply to Artem S. Tashkinov from comment #93)
> > (In reply to Patryk Obara from comment #92)
>
> > So much for the conversion which was announced like ten years ago?
> >
> > Why don't we have tools which produce proper bitmap fonts yet if everything
> > has been ready for the new shiny Pango for ages?
>
> That’s because bitmap font users didn’t try to use the tools before the
> decade allocated to the conversion ran out and the depreciation was
> complete. No users = no polishing nor bugfixing, no different from any other
> kind of software.
The problem about the announcement of the conversion is that what I got
to see about it went about as follows:
About ten years ago:
fonts ppl:
"Support for legacy bitmap fonts will be dropped.
We use these vector font formats now. Convert your font."
me, as bitmap font user and package maintainer:
"I like my pixel perfectly rendered bitmap font. Converting
the bitmap font to a vector font defeats its purpose.
I am not able to maintain bitmap font rendering software.
Sigh... I'll have to enjoy the bitmap font for the next
one or two years until bitmap font support is dropped."
About two years later, and then again and again:
me, as bitmap font user and package maintainer:
"Apparently, I have been lucky bit map font support has not been
dropped yet as announced. Well, keep those old fonts working
and enjoy it while it lasts."
Late 2019:
font ppl:
"Use these tools to convert bitmap fonts to *.otb
Opentype bitmap fonts. You should have converted
your bitmap font to otb ten years ago."
me, as bitmap font user and package maintainer:
"Wait... what? Opentype support *bitmap* fonts?"
If I had known about Opentype supporting bitmap fonts ten years
ago, I could have converted the font back then. Nobody can change
the past, so let's convert my bitmap fonts *.otb right now and
continue enjoying crisp in focus looking letters on the screen for
the foreseeable future.
> All the 19xx-era software that is still stuck using X11 Core fonts or Xft
> will break hard on 4K HiDPI screens (none of the fonts from the 90’s are
> designed for this kind of hardware, new fonts are not exposed with the old
> methods because the old methods were depreciated because they couldn't
> handle new fonts in a satisfactory manner). ETA: about five years.
Good point. But with HiDPI screen rendered vector fonts should finally
look similarly crisp as a bitmap font does on 72ppi or 96ppi screens,
which will finally be the time when bitmap fonts stop being useful, and
vector fonts will start making sense for letter grid based applications
like command line terminals and text editors.
I have been looking forward to that day for about twenty years.
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