Re: CSS fonts only?

[Gail Carmichael <gail banaszkiewicz gmail com>]

Hi Christopher (and others)!

Basically what I am saying is that the enumerations defined here 
<http://library.gnome.org/devel/pango/unstable/pango-Fonts.html>, like 
the variant, for example, have a specific subset of values.  I just 
happened to notice that the defined values are pretty much equivalent to 
allowable CSS text attributes.

In Inkscape, we use the PangoFontDescription pretty extensively.  It is 
how font information is stored in memory while the program is running, 
for example.  The problem is that some fonts have, say, a swash variant, 
which cannot be described with CSS text attributes, and also cannot be 
described with any of these enumerations in Pango in terms of the 
PangoFontDescription.  Instead, the regular face of a font family is 
used (as a default fall-back), and "fancy" fonts are thus not accessible 
in Inkscape.

Hope that clarifies what I am trying to say.  It would be cool to pretty 
much just add more values to the enumerations (and supporting code) so 
more varieties of fonts could be described.  I wanted to know what you 
guys thought of that possibility - is there some technical or 
philosophical reason, as can sometimes happen, for not doing so?

Thanks
Gail

Christopher Fynn wrote:
> Gail
>
> Please clarify, what exactly do you mean by "font faces that cannot
> described in CSS" and 'font faces which CSS cannot support'?
>
> Examples?
>
> - Chris
>
>
> Gail Carmichael wrote:
> > Hey all, I haven't heard back from anyone.  I would really like to 
> > discuss this issue with some developers.  Thanks!! :)
> >
> > Gail
> >
> > Gail Carmichael wrote:
> > > Hi everyone!
> > >
> > > I just joined this list because I've been working on text in 
> > > Inkscape for the last year or so (though mostly just during last 
> > > year's Summer of Code, what with being busy in school), which as you 
> > > probably know uses Pango for font management.
> > >
> > > One thing I would like to do in Inkscape is add support for font 
> > > faces that cannot described in CSS.  I started laying the foundation 
> > > for this last year, but cannot go further because Pango does not 
> > > support fonts beyond those which CSS can support (please correct me 
> > > if I have misunderstood this fact!).
> > >
> > > I would very much like to continue in this direction this summer, 
> > > but to do this, Pango would have to change.  The purpose of this 
> > > email is to find out from you guys whether this is possible.  Being 
> > > a newcomer, I am unsure whether there are some fundamental or 
> > > philosophical issues to be considered before adding to the 
> > > possibilities in the font weight and variant and style (etc) 
> > > structures.
> > >
> > > Having said all this, if it IS desirable to support more variety of 
> > > fonts, in the sense that the font structures can describe these 
> > > fonts fully, I am interested in contributing to Pango to make this 
> > > happen, likely as part of this year's Summer of Code (through 
> > > Inkscape).
> > >
> > > I'd love to hear your thoughts!
> > >
> > > Gail
> > > (http://gailcarmichael.com if you want to know more about me)
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