Regarding selection of alternate fonts (with untagged text)

[Georgi Georgiev <chutz gg3 net>]

Hello list,

I have a question/problem which was partially answered at
http://www.pango.org/font-selection.shtml (I hope this is the right list to
post my question to).

My question is related to language auto-tagging and the selection of an
alternate font that Pango makes in different locales. My problem is that
basically, it chooses different fonts for Cyrillic text when LC_ALL is set to
bg_BG or ja_JP.

There were a few interesting posts I found in the mailing list archive, but the
talk being too broad, I had trouble understanding if this problem is being
tackled or not. Here goes a more detailed description of what I mean.

What happens is that I for example have my locale set to ja_JP. Actually it is
only

LC_CTYPE=ja_JP
LC_COLLATE=ja_JP
LC_MONETARY=ja_JP

and the rest LC_*=C (LC_ALL is unset).

I need the few ja_JP because I want to be able to properly display Japanese in
all applications, but I prefer to read messages in English. I also need it for
Japanese input.

However, I sometimes also work with Cyrillic (actually pretty often). What
happens when Pango is asked for a font that does not have the Cyrillic
characters is that it of course does that auto-tagging and substitution (I guess)
and hands me a different font that has the characters that I need. In my
/etc/fonts/fonts.conf I have the following:

        <alias>
                <family>sans-serif</family>
                <prefer>
                        <family>Bitstream Vera Sans</family>
                        <family>Arial</family>
                        <family>Verdana</family>
                        <family>Nimbus Sans L</family>
                        <family>Luxi Sans</family>
                        <family>Helvetica</family>
                        <family>Kochi Gothic</family>
                        <family>AR PL KaitiM GB</family>
                        <family>AR PL KaitiM Big5</family>
                        <family>Baekmuk Dotum</family>
                        <family>SimSun</family>
                </prefer>
        </alias>

When I run a program with LC_ALL=bg_BG, Cyrillic is displayed in Arial.
However, when I run it with LC_ALL=ja_JP I see Cyrillic displayed in Kochi
Gothic (meaning ugly, square letters). I am also attaching two small
screenshots to illustrate what I mean.

So my question is, how do I make Pango "prefer" Arial over Kochi when my locale
is ja_JP (short of specifying Arial explicitly, which works).

I don't know if it is possible, but I just wanted to state my problem.

-- 
 /^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^\/^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^\
/ Georgi Georgiev    (-<     / A pencil with no point needs no  \
\ chutz chubaka net  /\   .o)\ eraser.                          /
/ +81(90)6266-1163  V_/_ |(/)/                                  \
\___________________________/\__________________________________/

Attachment: bg_BG.png
Description: PNG image

Attachment: ja_JP.png
Description: PNG image