Re: GNUstep nfont support

[Eric Heintzmann]

On 2004-03-23 05:58:05 +0100 Angus Lees <gus@debian.org> wrote:

> At Tue, 23 Mar 2004 01:43:41 +0100, Gürkan Sengün wrote:
>> A font to work with GNUstep needs this:
>> On Debian in the directory:
>> To be able to use a TrueType font additionally to copying it into
>> /usr/share/fonts/truetype one needs to do in (Let's assume the font is 
>> Aharoni_Bold.ttf)
>> /usr/lib/GNUstep/System/Library/Fonts/
>> mkdir Aharoni.nfont
>> and type the following into Aharoni.nfont/FontInfo.plist
>> {
>>     Faces = (
>>        {
>>           Files = (
>>              "../../../../../../../usr/share/fonts/truetype/Aharoni_Bold.ttf"
>>           );
>>           Name = Bold;
>>           PostScriptName = Aharoni;
>>        }
>>     );
>> }
>> That's it, for every font.
> 
> This is very easy with Defoma.  Its not really fontconfig's role,
> unless you want to modify GNUstep to use fontconfig rather than this
> nfont mechanism (probably not easy).
> 
>> There is a proper tool here:
>> http://wiki.gnustep.org/index.php/nfont%20packages
>> 
>> And a hack I made to try out things:
>> http://www.linuks.mine.nu/nfont/
> 
> Apparently the .nfont "spec" is described here:
> http://w1.423.telia.com/~u42308495/alex/GNUspec/nfont_packages.txt
> 
>> If you are willing to give me a large hand on adding this
>> support, I will be glad to finish my debian package on the
>> proper tool and help in whatever way I can.
> 
> Certainly.  If you can answer a few questions I can probably write an
> initial Defoma script for you fairly easily..
> 
> 
> For Defoma, it'll be slightly easier (and more robust) if I can add a
> (symlink to a) subdirectory to /usr/lib/GNUstep/System/Library/Fonts/,
> rather than work in that directory directly.
> 
> Is this possible? (ie: does GNUstep recurse into subdirectories?)

I think it s possible to use a debian.nfont symlink to a subdir and use only 
one FontInfo.plist for all fonts provided by defoma.
I think all the defoma related job should be done in the debian gnustep-back 
package.

> 
> Alternatively, nfont_packages.txt mentions a search order of various
> "domains", can this be added to? (I have no idea about GNUstep)
> 
> 
> I notice you used (an inconvenient) relative path in your example -
> Does the path have to be relative?
> 
It seems not possible to use absolute path, but you can use symlinks.
> 
> Does GNUstep need to be told about possible transforms (such as
> mechanical slanting, etc)?
> 
> 
> How are font aliases (eg "Helvetica") handled?
> 
> 
> Should the Name always be Bold/Italic/etc or should it be the
> PostScriptName or family or something more unique?
> 
> 
> What are the various Traits? (nfont_packages.txt doesn't describe them
> at all)
> 
> 
> What other font formats does GNUstep accept? (eg type1, CID, pcf, etc)
> Just the freetype formats, or does this mechanism also apply to X
> server-side fonts?  How about printer-only fonts (ie: no glyphs available at 
> all)?
>