Re: Unexpected font rendering with pango

[Keith Packard <keithp keithp com>]

Around 22 o'clock on Jun 27, Pablo Saratxaga wrote:

> I meant, if a char "X" is searched in first font, and not found there
> then found in the second font; then, when displaying the second char "Y",
> first look at the last used font (the second) instead of looking again
> at the first, then second.

And if the characters are in the opposite order, you'll still get 'ransom 
note' typography.

A particular counter example is a document which is largely in English but 
which happens to start with a Japanese glyph.  With a 'sticky font' 
mechanism, the whole document will be rendered with a Japanese font.

The current mechanism is also designed to be 'stable' so that the glyphs 
selected for any particular character don't change as the document is 
edited; this makes layout significantly easier.

The correct solution is to inform the font system what languages are in use
so that appropriate fonts can be selected.

-keith