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

[William Kyngesburye]

On May 1, 2007, at 9:28 AM, William Kyngesburye wrote:

> On May 1, 2007, at 4:05 AM, Glynn Clements wrote:
>
>> Wolf Bergenheim wrote:
>>
>>> Trying to find all fonts (within a configured font path) on a Linux
>>> system is actually quite easy. Just run the command 'fc-list'
>>
>> Part of fontconfig. Although that's a fairly common package, it isn't
>> guaranteed to be installed, particularly on servers.
>>
>> It probably won't be present on Windows or MacOSX unless you have a
>> fair amount of Linux compatibility stuff installed. I have several
>> native GTK+ apps on my Windows box, but no native fc-list. I have a
>> Cygwin fc-list, although that fails to list the Windows TTF fonts.
>>
> Fontconfig is included in the OSX X11 package, and searches the  
> standard OSX font locations.  Though this is an optional package  
> for OSX, it's still required for the current tcltk GUI.  I do know  
> that at one time fontconfig was NOT included in the OSX X11, but I  
> think it's in OSX 10.3.9 X11.  I realize we want to reduce  
> dependecy on X11 in OSX, but this looks like a useful tool.

I just had a chance to check OSX 10.3 (Panther) X11 - fontconfig is  
present.  For OSX Panther, X11 is v1.0, before that (OSX 10.2 and  
below) it was a beta and is not available for download any more, as  
far as I can tell.  I think the betas must be where fontconfig wasn't  
a part of Apple's X11 package (and I'm sure it wasn't at first).

So, using fc-list on OSX, if it's available, for mkftcap is  
reasonable, for now.

> I just thought of another possibility for OSX - AppleScript.  AS  
> can run from the CLI.  The Font Book application in OSX (which  
> handles font installation) can return font info for installed  
> fonts, including font paths.  I can look into that.
>
After a bit of thought, this could work, yes.  But it would mean that  
Font Book.app would briefly run so that AppleScript can do its  
thing.  A minor inconvenience, especially if mkftcap is only run on  
install or infrequently when a user installs fonts.

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

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