Hey there Fonts SIG!
I'm interested mainly in packaging fonts. I'm new to Fedora, both as a user and as a contributor, so it might be a bumpy ride ;-).
I'm consuming as much documentation as I can about the whole font stack. I've got a few questions:
1. What's the consenus about bitmap fonts? On http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Font_rendering_and_text_layouting I found this:
"Nowadays Fedora converges on OpenType (TTF/OTF) fonts in Unicode encoding, and no efforts should be wasted on legacy formats. "
Does this mean bitmap fonts should be converted (possibly by hand), or are BDF/PCF fine? (I ask this because some of my favorite fonts are bitmap)
2. What are the most common pitfalls / What should I be aware of as I depart on this journey?
3. Are the fonts listed on http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Category:Font_wishlist purely in want of a packeger (i.e. I can get cracking)?
On 24 March 2012 12:52, Corey Richardson corey@octayn.net wrote:
- Are the fonts listed on
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Category:Font_wishlist purely in want of a packeger (i.e. I can get cracking)?
This is a job I've also been neglecting for a long time :-)
I'm not sure if that list is fully up to date. There is also the huge repository of Google Web Fonts - http://code.google.com/p/googlefontdirectory/ - which are almost all in need of packaging.
Since its a big job, I wonder if a simple tool/script could help ease the process. Do you know any Python?
Le Sam 24 mars 2012 21:52, Corey Richardson a écrit :
"Nowadays Fedora converges on OpenType (TTF/OTF) fonts in Unicode encoding, and no efforts should be wasted on legacy formats. "
Does this mean bitmap fonts should be converted (possibly by hand), or are BDF/PCF fine? (I ask this because some of my favorite fonts are bitmap)
You don't have to convert them, but I'm quite certain that packaging anything not in OpenType format will be an exercise in frustration. If you rally want bitmap fonts there are Opentype bitmap containers IIRC.
- What are the most common pitfalls / What should I be aware of as I
depart on this journey?
The technical part itself will be simple. For clean opentype fonts you only need to get the current font package template, write a description, and insert the font file names.
A special case if fonts built from sources which may be a bit harder depending on the robustness of upstream's build process.
For most fonts, the bulk of the work will be in identifying the font sources and licensing, and getting the naming right (a lot of old fonts are a legal tangle, their metadata lies about licensing, their naming is atrocious). No script will do that for you.
It's a lot easier if you start from an already curated font library with clean licensing (SIL was nice but I think we've almost full coverage, I started http://arkandis.tuxfamily.org/adffonts.html but I don't have the time to finish it, and there are probably many nice fonts in the google font library that need packaging.
Some high profile fonts that need packaging are Google's new roboto font and the ubuntu font (have its license oked by spot but I don't think it would be a problem)
When in doubt about a font license (if it's not oked on the wiki) always ask spot.