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

William Kyngesburye woklist at kyngchaos.com
Tue May 1 23:38:44 EDT 2007


On May 1, 2007, at 9:18 PM, Glynn Clements wrote:

> William Kyngesburye wrote:
>
>> 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.
>
> Is it possible to filter any non-TrueType fonts from the output? Or
> are there not enough TrueType fonts to worry about?
>
I'd say all are TT fonts.  The problem is the mix of font packaging  
and file extensions, or lack thereof.

Though, FreeType is easily built with support for all types of fonts  
and font packages (my FT framework build supports all) - TT & PS (&  
others), and nix/pc flat file, Mac resource font, dfont & otf packages.

I'm a bit puzzled by the fixation on TT fonts for FreeType support.   
Shouldn't the text display commands be able to use whatever types of  
fonts that are supported by the installed build of FreeType?

For the usefulness of particular fonts, this appears to be the  
general pattern of fonts:

- resource fonts (TT) - MS fonts

- ttf - language support fonts, so limited usefulness, but there  
appears to be a couple general use fonts

- dfont (TT) - where most of the useful fonts are, besides the MS  
fonts, including Helvetica, Times and a collection of other fonts,  
but also includes some language support fonts

- otf (TT) - there are a few opentype fonts for Japanese and Chinese


So generally, what is supplied in OSX are all TT fonts, it's just  
that the ttf packaging has the least useful of them.

Then there is the other problem - resource fonts, dfonts and otf  
fonts can have, and most do in the OSX system, multiple faces per  
file.  The font display routines in GRASS need an option to specify a  
face in a font file, either by index number or name.  Otherwise most  
of the fonts included in OSX are of limited usefulness.

(Time to pop over to the tracker and make a feature request...)

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

"Mon Dieu! but they are all alike.  Cheating, murdering, lying,  
fighting, and all for things that the beasts of the jungle would not  
deign to possess - money to purchase the effeminate pleasures of  
weaklings.  And yet withal bound down by silly customs that make them  
slaves to their unhappy lot while firm in the belief that they be the  
lords of creation enjoying the only real pleasures of existence....

- the wisdom of Tarzan





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