[GRASS5] dxf imports

Eric G. Miller egm2 at jps.net
Tue Dec 18 21:38:10 EST 2001


On Tue, 18 Dec 2001 18:48:04 +0000, Glynn Clements <glynn.clements at virgin.net> wrote:

> > I think Grass lacks a "d.text" function, and probably a better support
> > for fonts. the best would be a support for TrueType fonts, usable on
> > both Unix and Windows.
> 
> Are there many (any?) free TrueType fonts available?

Yes/No.  Depends on the use of free.  You can download basic TrueType
fonts from MicroSoft, and there are lots of crappy free fonts the
can be downloaded and used at no cost.  There's also a few fonts
out of the OpenOffice/StarOffice package that are now available
separately.  Distribution of a lot of "free" fonts is often restricted...

> The existing font mechanism may be primitive, but it does provide a
> high degree of portability. No additional fonts are required, and it
> can be made to work on any device which can draw lines.

Yes, but those fonts aren't very pretty either.  Also, who even understands
the binary format used in GRASS?  I've looked at that code that converts
the original fonts to something, but I've no idea what...

I'd propose supporting X bitmapped, PostScript, and TrueType fonts.
The rasterizers already exist and it'd open up a lot of possibilities.

BTW: I have a partly completed set of Cartographic Map Symbols as
a PostScript font.  It'd be nice to be able to use such things for
display and PostScript map output.  


-- 
Eric G. Miller <egm2 at jps.net>



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