[mapserver-users] creating truetype font files

[Peter.Bruton at ccrs.nrcan.gc.ca]

Hi Randy;

The glyph I added to 0033 was a simple "u" shape.  The exclamation point is
the character that maps to that location in the font file.

So far Richard Greenwood has supplied the only possible workaround.  That
being, to take an existing font that works and substitute existing glyphs
with new glyphs.

Thanks to all who replied.  Have a good day.

Peter Bruton

-----Original Message-----
From: randy james [mailto:rjames57 at yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2002 4:05 PM
To: mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu
Subject: Re: [mapserver-users] creating truetype font files


I've had a few problems with fonts on my system, i was
using a font that did not use unicode mapping and had
the problems you discribe. When you added the glyph to
0033 was the glyph the shape of an explanation mark? I
ask because all the problems i had were related to the
fact that when the glyph at a unicode cell was not the
glyph that should have been there, the character did
not show up.

hope this helps 
Cheers

--- Peter.Bruton at ccrs.nrcan.gc.ca wrote:
> Hello;
> 
> I am trying to create a truetype font file for use
> in MapServer.  My
> Mapserver install in version 3.6.3 on a LINUX
> platform.
> 
> To create the font, I used High Logic's Font Creator
> 3.1.1.  I selected
> "Unicode" as the font template.  For testing
> purposes I simply added 1 glyph
> at the font cell with the exclamation point caption.
>  After saving the newly
> created font, I installed it on my PC (Microsoft
> Windows 2000 OS).  Then I
> viewed the font file using the OS's Character Map. 
> The glyph appeared
> correctly.  I then opened up Microsoft WORD and
> tested the font.  The font
> correctly rendered the glyph. 
> 
> After transferring the new font file to my LINUX
> box, I used FreeType's
> "ftdump" to examine the fonts properties.  They were
> as follows:
> 
> 
> [bruton at grumbler fonts]$ ftdump mysecondfont.ttf
> There is 1 face in this file.
> 
> ----- Face number: 0 -----
> 
> font name entries
>    family:     NewUnicodeFont
>    style:      Regular
>    postscript: NewUnicodeFont
> 
> font type entries
>    FreeType driver: truetype
>    sfnt wrapped:    yes
>    type:            scalable
>    direction:       horizontal
>    fixed width:     no
>    glyph names:     yes
>    EM size:         2048
>    global BBox:     (25,0):(1280,1280)
>    ascent:          1854
>    descent:         -434
>    text height:     2355
> 
> charmaps
>    0: platform: 1, encoding: 0
>    1: platform: 3, encoding: 1
> 
> Based upon the results of previous ftdumps I
> performed on truetype fonts
> files (ESRI truetype fonts such as esri_39.ttf and
> esri_33.ttf) I have
> successfully used in a MapServer map file to
> symbolize points, I expected
> this font to work properly.  It seems that MapServer
> accepts "Windows
> Unicode" as a valid character mapping (platform = 3
> and platform specific
> encoding = 1).
> 
> I added the new font file to the "fonts.list" file
> and then added a new
> symbol based upon this file to my "symbols.sym"
> file.  
> 
> SYMBOL
>    NAME uuuuuu
>    TYPE TRUETYPE
>    FONT mysecondfont
>    FILLED TRUE
>    ANTIALIAS TRUE
>    CHARACTER "!"
> END
> 
> This symbol was then used to symbolize points from
> an ArcView point
> shapefile.  The points were being successfully
> rendered when I used a
> previously defined symbol.  However, when I changed
> the existing symbol to
> the newly added symbol, the points were no longer
> rendered on the map.
> 
> Another interesting behavior is the font files
> appearance in MapLab.  My
> organization uses DM Solutions MapLab (2.0rc2) to
> create/edit and maintain
> map files.  The MapEdit module of MapLab displays a
> sample of all font files
> contained in the "font.list" file when a map author
> clicks on the "Font"
> property of a Classes Label object.  With the
> exception of the font file I
> created, all other fonts have characters displayed.
> 
> Any assistance in creating valid truetype font file
> is appreciated.
> 
> Have a good day.
> 
> Peter Bruton
> GeoAccess Division
> Canada Centre for Remote Sensing
> 615 Booth Street, Room 650
> Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0E9, Canada
> telephone 1-613-947-0465
> fax 1-613-947-2410
> 


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