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Dear All,<BR>
<BR>
Below is a message from <TT>Nicolas Mailhot</TT> who's asking for testing on DejaVu.<BR>
Please kindly have a look.<BR>
<BR>
Regards,<BR>
Chester<BR>
<BR>
<TT>%<--------------------------------------------------------------------</TT><BR>
<TT>Hi,</TT><BR>
<BR>
<TT>I'm calling for a round of testing/feedback on DejaVu</TT><BR>
<TT>(<A HREF="http://dejavu.sf.net/">http://dejavu.sf.net/</A>). You don't need any technical background to</TT><BR>
<TT>provide it. Just read this message.</TT><BR>
<BR>
<TT>DejaVu is the most popular FOSS derivative of Bitstream Vera. DejaVu is</TT><BR>
<TT>currently consolidating the Vera forks initiated after it become clear</TT><BR>
<TT>Vera would not be updated or fixed any time soon</TT><BR>
<TT>(<A HREF="http://www.gnome.org/fonts/">http://www.gnome.org/fonts/</A> lists the last Vera release time as April</TT><BR>
<TT>16, 2003).</TT><BR>
<BR>
<TT>The main DejaVu aims are :</TT><BR>
<TT>1. Quality (fix all the problems of existing Vera glyphs)</TT><BR>
<TT>2. Coverage (extend Vera beyond its Latin-9 limits: Cyrillic, Greek,</TT><BR>
<TT>Armenian, Arabic, etc - cf attached coverage table)</TT><BR>
<BR>
<TT>Some DejaVu screenshots are available on</TT><BR>
<TT><A HREF="http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/gtk-frontend/screenshots/20060621_dejavu2.7_exp/">http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/gtk-frontend/screenshots/20060621_dejavu2.7_exp/</A></TT><BR>
<BR>
<TT>DejaVu is already extensively used by Debian, Ubuntu and Suse to name</TT><BR>
<TT>some major Linux distributions.</TT><BR>
<BR>
<TT>It's being proposed as the Fedora Core 6 default font.</TT><BR>
<TT><A HREF="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=170218">https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=170218</A></TT><BR>
<TT><A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2006-June/msg00292.html">http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2006-June/msg00292.html</A></TT><BR>
<BR>
<TT>Two kinds of objections have been raised so far:</TT><BR>
<BR>
<TT>1. DejaVu big coverage and use of advanced OpenType features is</TT><BR>
<TT>stressing the font infrastructure. The current problems were best</TT><BR>
<TT>described by Ben Laenen here:</TT><BR>
<TT><A HREF="http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=18518811">http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=18518811</A></TT><BR>
<BR>
<TT>-> I ask you not to bring these issues up again unless </TT><BR>
<TT>a. you wish to work with the pango team on locl, </TT><BR>
<TT>b. help push</TT><BR>
<TT><A HREF="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/fontconfig/2006-June/002332.html">http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/fontconfig/2006-June/002332.html</A></TT><BR>
<TT>c. or work on BASE OpenType support.</TT><BR>
<BR>
<TT>None of the issues are DejaVu specific, they all need fixing regardless</TT><BR>
<TT>of DejaVu Fedora Core inclusion, and while DejaVu could use the fixes</TT><BR>
<TT>it's not faring worse than any other complex font (like popular</TT><BR>
<TT>Microsoft fonts) without them now.</TT><BR>
<BR>
<TT>2. Some people feel this big coverage was attained by sacrificing</TT><BR>
<TT>quality. This was never the project intent. To help put this issue to</TT><BR>
<TT>rest I ask everyone interested in crisp fonts on FOSS Desktops to:</TT><BR>
<BR>
<TT>a. Install DejaVu (yum install dejavu-fonts dejavu-fonts-experimental</TT><BR>
<TT>dejavu-fonts-makedefault if you have the Fedora Extra repositories</TT><BR>
<TT>configured, direct download from</TT><BR>
<TT><A HREF="http://dejavu.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Download">http://dejavu.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Download</A> otherwise)</TT><BR>
<BR>
<TT>b. Try it in your usual apps and report any problem you find on </TT><BR>
<TT><A HREF="https://bugs.freedesktop.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=DejaVu">https://bugs.freedesktop.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=DejaVu</A></TT><BR>
<TT>Problems may include:</TT><BR>
<TT>- bad rendering in some sizes or apps</TT><BR>
<TT>- ugly, difficult to read or missing glyphs</TT><BR>
<TT>- bad glyph or accent spacing</TT><BR>
<BR>
<TT>If you just wish to report the font is great I'm sure the designers</TT><BR>
<TT>would appreciate a mail to</TT><BR>
<TT><A HREF="http://dejavu.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Dejavu-fonts_mailing_list">http://dejavu.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Dejavu-fonts_mailing_list</A> </TT><BR>
<BR>
<TT>To help evaluate your reports please indicate your cultural background</TT><BR>
<TT>as remarks from native speakers or professional typesetters obviously</TT><BR>
<TT>weight more than someone commenting on foreign language rendering.</TT><BR>
<TT>Screenshots exhibiting problems help a lot.</TT><BR>
<BR>
<TT>Reports from native speakers of non western langages would be especially</TT><BR>
<TT>appreciated (Arabic, Armenian...)</TT><BR>
<BR>
<TT>Lastly if you don't want to bother with subscribing to the dejavu</TT><BR>
<TT>mailing list or create a bugzilla account just send me your reports by</TT><BR>
<TT>mail and I'll dispatch them wherever needed. </TT><BR>
<BR>
<TT>This message is being sent to Fedora and DejaVu related English mailing</TT><BR>
<TT>lists. I do not personally follow all of them so do not forget to CC me</TT><BR>
<TT>in your answers. Also, since I realise DejaVu support is weakest for</TT><BR>
<TT>non-western langages, and non-western users often do not read English</TT><BR>
<TT>lists, I'd appreciate if the various local Fedora communities translated</TT><BR>
<TT>this message, and forwarded us a translation of their user answers.</TT><BR>
<BR>
<TT>Thank you for reading this long message and happy testing</TT><BR>
<BR>
<TT>Regards,</TT><BR>
<BR>
<TT>-- </TT><BR>
<TT>Nicolas Mailhot</TT><BR>
<TT>Fedora Extras DejaVu maintainer</TT><BR>
<TT>%<--------------------------------------------------------------------</TT>
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