Hi,

I'm evaluating :

1) Java
2) Open source

font models. I've had a look at iText, Batik and FOP. Since the FOP
community seems to be the most active, my message goes to this list ;-)

Here we go :

I've been confronted to the terrible :
[FATAL] Unicode cmap table not present
[FATAL] Unsupported format: Aborting

... when I tried to generate some font metrics for a true type font.

Indeed, the following comment in TTFFile.java :

//Read offset for all tables. We are only interested in the unicode table

is clear :-)

First question : is there any chance that the FOP programmers could be one
day interested by other tables ?

You could answer : get a Unicode mapped font ! But... maybe if you have a
look at the fonts I want to make available to the FOP font model, you will
surely admit that I have a serious problem. Ready ? Click :
http://www.yare.org/egypt/files/gardiner.zip

You will notice that :

Those fonts are... antique ;-) They were designed at a time when Unicode
didn't exist : that's why "the" font needs 5 files.
Those fonts *can't* be "Unicodified" until I can demonstrate to the Unicode
Consortium that they can be by writing a "real world" application.

I think you now better understand why I am *seriously* evaluating font
models.

So... second question :

Any plan for TTFFile.writeXXX methods (vs. TTFFIle.readXXX ones) and/or
PFMFile.unloadXXX methods (vs. PFMFile.load XXX ones) ?

Having a full programmatic access to the Glyph and to the mappings would be
a big step for me, but the big problem remains the font layout which needs a
very specific processing. That's my part of the works : those interested by
the problem can read the following, unfortunately very light document :
http://www.catchpenny.org/codage/

Notice that Batik is able to generate SVG fonts definitions
(http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/fonts.html) for the afore mentioned font files.
It demonstrates that Batik is less picky than FOP about mappings (but I
still don't know if it is an advantage or not :-).

Third question : are there any plans for supporting the SVG Font format ?

Since I am a Java XML developper egyptologist (yes !), it would be quite
easy for me to generate a hieroglyphic font engine that could allow me to
demonstrate that the hieroglyphs integration in Unicode could go beyond the
draft stage (http://www.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/n1944.pdf) but, frankly,
it would be easier for me if I were backed-up by the FOP community.

So... how can this community help me ?

Cheers,

p.b.







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