Fedora 32 Self-Contained Change proposal: Provide OpenType Bitmap Fonts

[Ben Cotton]

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/ProvideOpenTypeBitmapFonts

== Summary ==
This proposal plans to provide some additional popular bitmap fonts in
OpenType format to use with pango.

By providing some bitmap fonts from BDF/PCF format to OpenType format,
applications like gnome-terminal can continue to use some bitmap fonts
with the pango 1.44 package.

== Owner ==
* Name: [[User:pwu| Peng Wu]]
* Email: pwu(a)redhat.com
* Name: [[User:tagoh| Akira Tagoh]]
* Email: tagoh(a)redhat.com

== Detailed Description ==
In Fedora 31, pango has been upgraded to 1.44, and switched to use the
HarfBuzz library instead of FreeType.

But HarfBuzz doesn't support bitmap fonts or Adobe Type 1 fonts.
In gnome-terminal, the bitmap fonts can't be used.

In order to use the bitmap fonts with pango 1.44,
we propose to provide some additional popular bitmap fonts in OpenType
format by using fonttosfnt tool.

The bitmap font in OpenType format will be contained in new sub package.
User can choose to install the bitmap font either in legacy format or
OpenType format from different sub packages.

We plan to provide 5-10 bitmap fonts in OpenType format in some packages.
The current font candidates are bitmap-lucida-typewriter-fonts,
terminus-fonts and ucs-miscfixed-font.

== Benefit to Fedora ==
Some popular bitmap fonts are used by many users.

After providing the bitmap fonts in OpenType format, users can
continue to use the bitmap fonts in gnome-terminal, etc.

== Scope ==
* Proposal owners: Fonts SIG

* Other developers: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
* Release engineering: [https://pagure.io/releng/issues/9130 Releng issue 9130]
* Policies and guidelines: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
* Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)

== Upgrade/compatibility impact ==
N/A (not a System Wide Change)


== How To Test ==
N/A (not a System Wide Change)

== User Experience ==
After converting the bitmap fonts, users will be able to use the
popular bitmap fonts again with pango 1.44 in gnome-terminal, etc.

The OpenType bitmap fonts should have the similar shape for each
glyph, compared with the original bitmap fonts.

== Dependencies ==
N/A (not a System Wide Change)

== Contingency Plan ==
* Contingency mechanism: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
* Contingency deadline: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
== Release Notes ==
In Fedora 32, we provide bitmap fonts with modern font format
(OpenType Bitmap Font) to use with gnome-terminal and other
applications which uses pango for font rendering.

-- 
Ben Cotton
He / Him / His
Fedora Program Manager
Red Hat
TZ=America/Indiana/Indianapolis

[Nicolas Mailhot]

Le jeudi 09 janvier 2020 à 12:16 -0500, Ben Cotton a écrit :
>   
> == Detailed Description ==
> In Fedora 31, pango has been upgraded to 1.44, and switched to use
> the HarfBuzz library instead of FreeType.
>   
> But HarfBuzz doesn't support bitmap fonts or Adobe
Type 1 fonts.
> In gnome-terminal, the bitmap fonts can't be used.
>   
> In order to use the bitmap fonts with pango 1.44,
> we propose to provide some additional popular bitmap fonts in
> OpenType format by using fonttosfnt tool.

Just to be clear: the Fonts packaging guidelines that FPC has been
reviewing since last year mandates the conversion and forbids the
packaging of deprecated formats.

And, user feedback since then has shown making the deprecated formats
available in addition to OpenType, not only creates the usual rendering
mess when apps choose different glyphs sources in slightly different
conditions, but also triggers app bugs. The old files are not
"harmless".

>  As it stands, having more than *.otb causes the weird hex number
>  rectangle glyph "Terminus Italic", 

Regards,

-- 
Nicolas Mailhot

[Akira TAGOH]

On Fri, Jan 10, 2020 at 3:34 AM Nicolas Mailhot via devel
<devel(a)lists.fedoraproject.org&gt; wrote:
>  Just to be clear: the Fonts packaging guidelines that FPC has been
>  reviewing since last year mandates the conversion and forbids the
>  packaging of deprecated formats. 
Yes. we need to take some steps to move forward on it. as we've
already seen some issues on Pango, there might be similar on others
that can still use with the legacy formats. we should have a chance to
test on it but don't want to break as far as possible. so making both
formats available would be a good idea.
I personally think that we should have done it in a release though,
there seems to be some human resource issue to work on all the font
packages converting. so trying to experiment it for limited packages
this time.

>  And, user feedback since then has shown making the deprecated formats
>  available in addition to OpenType, not only creates the usual rendering
>  mess when apps choose different glyphs sources in slightly different
>  conditions, but also triggers app bugs. The old files are not
>  "harmless". 
Good point.  actually that happens when mixing up both formats in the
same place or where renderer can look over. replacement would be
harmless for Pango since it has already been broken. but it isn't true
for non-Pango. thus, providing them as a sub-package and both
sub-packages for legacy and OpenType may need to have Conflicts line
each other to avoid such a situation.

>  > As it stands, having more than *.otb causes the weird hex number
>  > rectangle glyph "Terminus Italic",
>
>
>  Regards,
>
>  --
>  Nicolas Mailhot
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-- 
Akira TAGOH