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

[Michael Barton]

This is sounding more encouraging. If there is a way to dependably use
fc-list in the new freetypecap script, along with scanning directories for
*.ttf files, then it can be pretty representative of available fonts on a
system. I suppose then, that a user could manually add to the freetypecap
file if there are other fonts in other locations that he/she wanted to use
for default display fonts. In this case, we could indeed have a scrolled
list box of fonts (many) and not worry about a file browser.

Michael


On 5/1/07 8:38 PM, "William Kyngesburye" <woklist at kyngchaos.com> wrote:

> 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
> 
> 

__________________________________________
Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity
Arizona State University

phone: 480-965-6213
fax: 480-965-7671
www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton