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On Thu, 2003-10-09 at 16:09, dams@×××.fr wrote: |
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> If I see correctly, the things that makes ugly fonts : |
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> |
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> - bad looking fonts |
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> - missing fonts (so it uses not suited ones) |
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> - badly configured xft*/fontconfig |
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> - software not using last freetype/xft ... |
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> |
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> ( feel free to add reasons if I missed som) |
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> |
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> So, to clarify, we could : |
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> - run some test to see if fonts are ugly in common use in different languages |
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> (I'll do some test cause I have a fresh gentoo) |
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Here you already have a problem, the perception of font quality differs |
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per-person and language. Some people really dislike AA (requires |
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different fonts to be good), others use different types of displays, |
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etc. And not latin language users usually know that they need extra |
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packs to have decent support, don't expect anything non-latin to look |
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good by default atm. |
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|
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> - go through default available fonts (after having emerged kde and gnome), and |
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> list the ugliest ones |
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Again this is mostly a personal thing and it currently also depends on |
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how you install xfree (this is in flux). |
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> - check the fontconfig, xft configurations |
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> - list known software that doesn't use the good font systems. |
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That is not something up to us really, i don't feel it is our duty to |
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make legacy applications look good, what matters to me is to get a |
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current desktop (KDE/GNOME/XFCE4) reasonably ok/consistent looking |
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fontwise (for as far as it isn't). |
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> Whith that done we'll be able to see where the problems are, wnd decide if we |
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> want to : |
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> - wait |
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> - try to get new fonts (many additional set of fonts by default) |
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> - change font configuration |
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> - change software so that they use latest technology (I have seen in the past |
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> some patchs to make this and that use freetype2, I think OpenOffice had such a |
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> patch, but I thougt it was in the main now) |
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It uses freetype2 allright, but it's own copy. |
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> In addition, we can think of making font managment easy for the user. (I wrote |
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> the font managment tool for mandrakeLinux, he had some working features, but |
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> uses old font tools). |
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Ehm, no please. Config defaults should be good enough, users should not |
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be exposed to this via another GUI. Gnome already has a sufficient font |
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settings panel and ways to install fonts, so does KDE to my knowledge. I |
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don't like more ways to set the same thing on the same level (in this |
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case on GUI level), it is confusing. |
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> btw do we have i18n/fonts gurus @ gentoo? |
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a few i18n wannabees.. but they're not the most active devs. I'm |
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supposed to be the font guru cause i've handled bugs/updates in these |
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things for some time and did most of the xft2 move coordination/work. |
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Although they are connected, setting up fonts has little to do with |
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i18n. |
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- foser |
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-- |
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