[GRASS-dev] font path question for Linux and Windows

[William Kyngesburye]

On Apr 30, 2007, at 1:50 PM, Michael Barton wrote:

> Are any of the fonts normally in the /Library/Fonts directory of  
> OSX NOT
> freetype? Would there be any problem with a non-freetype font  
> sneaking into
> freetypecap beyond it simply not displaying?
>
> If the answer to these is generally negative, why not just grab all  
> the
> fonts from /LibraryFonts (and maybe $HOME/Library/Fonts) for  
> freetypecap and
> not worry about whether they have a .ttf extension or not.
>
> Michael

This is related to another font item that I hesitated to bring up  
since the focus has been on TT fonts - postscript and opentype (which  
are really just font packages for PS and TT) fonts.  Sure, assuming  
all files are font files may be OK, and thus get all types of fonts  
(PS and TT).  But with PS fonts, there are multiple files per font face.

On OSX there is the bitmap/suitcase that has the pre-made bitmaps for  
certain sizes and references to all the faces, and then each face has  
its own PS font file.  You normally reference a suitcase font from  
the suitcase file and a face index or name, not the PS file (though  
FT may be able to do that also, I don't know).  And on other  
platforms PS fonts are usually split into individual faces, but can  
also have more than one file per face - pfb/pfa, afm and possibly  
others.

You would have to filter out the extras or you will get a mess of  
duplicate or unusable fonts.

One possibility would be to test each font file found with freetype  
calls, but this might add more time to the startup than simply  
listing files, and I don't know if it could be done from a script -  
mkftcap might need to be a C prog.

-----
William Kyngesburye <kyngchaos*at*kyngchaos*dot*com>
http://www.kyngchaos.com/

"Oh, look, I seem to have fallen down a deep, dark hole.  Now what  
does that remind me of?  Ah, yes - life."

- Marvin