Re: fonts

[sun <as387 yfn ysu edu>]

hi, nelson...

Nelson Minar wrote:
> 
> Does GNOME have any plans for dealing with X fonts? What X gives is an
> unholy mess, it would be nice if Gnome could help out.

> The first problem with X fonts is the naming system; it's a
> classification that only a serioius geek could love. Has anyone ever
> seen a good tool for dealing with X font selection? Both Gimp and
> xfontsel basically leave it up to the user to figure out what the hell
> "Spacing" or "Set width" mean. Gimp does at least get rid of some of
> the more obscure settings but it's still hard to use. It'd be nice if
> we could somehow hide the complexity of X's font naming system.
> Family, type (bold/italic), and size are about the only things most
> users want to know about.

the other side of this is that some people (myself especially) really
like the flexibility of fonts in x. as postscript fonts are often
distributed with entirely separate font files to distinguish minor
variations in weight, spacing, etc. i think the way x groups and
distinguishes them (in xfontsel, anyway) is about right.

however, i agree that most of the current "methods" of choosing and
managing fonts are pretty mysterious at times. gimp could be more clear
about what each of the options means, as you stated, and i'm sure the
inordinate options are intimidating to those who aren't familiar with
publishing and typography and will never need the flexibility that x
provides.

if somebody is working on a font selection widget or font management
program, please feel free to email me. i have a few ideas of the sort of
layout and options that might be easy and sensible for new users while
still providing all the flexibility professional typesetters and layout
artists would need.

> The second problem with X fonts is that there aren't enough nice ones,
> in particular not enough attractive and readble fixed width fonts that
> come with XFree86. 10x20 and good ol' 6x13 (the usual fixed) are good,
> but most of the other fonts designed to be screen fonts don't look
> very good. Are there ready sources of screen fonts beyond what comes
> with XFree?

since xfree86 renders type 1 fonts directly to the screen, x has an
advantage no other gui (even macintosh!) provides to the publishing
industry. i suggest picking up a bitstream font catalog, an adobe demo
cd, or grabbing a publishing magazine from the local newsstand and
checking out the typeface scene. in my opinion, the wide acceptance of
type 1 fonts and xfree's ability to interpret them directly means that
even without native truetype support, we have the perfect basis on which
to build a gui that will steal the publishing market from apple. gimp
made the first step in pursuing those ends; let's go all the way.
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety." --Benjamin Franklin