Hello Pierrick On 23.04.2004 20:20:19 Pierrick Brihaye wrote: > 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 ;-)
FOP more active than iText? Interesting. > 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 ? Not the FOP programmers as they seem to be quite happy with the current TrueType support. But obviously there are other people like you who need a few thing in addition. That counts just as much. > 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 Very cool!!! (Not the problem, but the task) > 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) ? No need until today. Obviously, functionality such as this is not quite in the scope of this project. On the other side we will soon reorganize the FOP and Batik projects under a new umbrella where I'd like to separate some of the basic components (for example the font subsystem) from the main project codebase. Like this, the font subsystem could become a little subproject of its own defining its own scope, just like the PDF library could use parsing support for PDF. I see no problem with accepting patches adding the methods you suggest. We're always glad if we get help in the maintenance of our code. > 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 :-). I guess this is all about requirements. > Third question : are there any plans for supporting the SVG Font format ? One todo item is to support SVG fonts as Type 3 fonts in the PDF and PS Transcoders (SVG to XY transformation using Batik). But this is pretty low priority given our available resources. > 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 ? As long as your work is at least partially within the scope of FOP (meaning you also want to generate PDF via XSL-FO and/or SVG with hieroglyphic fonts) I think there will be noone turning down any help (and especially code) you can give. On the contrary. If it's just the font subsystem you're interested in, it's probably better to poll the other committers first to see whether anyone feels negatively on having you work exclusively on special features for the font subsystem. FOP as a whole should somehow profit from your work. Stretched as we are a distraction without benefit wouldn't be too good. So how can we help you? If you'd like to start coding here I suggest you subscribe to [email protected] to discuss development issues. You can send in patches (unified diffs against CVS HEAD) via BugZilla which one of the committers is going to review and apply. If nothing happens just bang on the table. I'll be glad to lend a hand as time permits but my priorities lie elsewhere ATM. We've got a bunch of new committers now which hopefully have more time to review patches. I hope this answers your questions. We'd be delighted to have you working with us. If you have any questions, just ask. Jeremias Maerki --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
