Re: [ft-devel] Contribution to freetype

[Werner LEMBERG]

> I am thinking of some possible ways in providing multiple font
> support,

What exactly do you mean with `multiple font support'?

> first one can be to use the available converters for conversion of
> font formats, the second one can be to use the Freetype approach by
> modifying `FT_DRIVER_H`, `FT_OPEN_DRIVER` to support the tex font
> drivers as well, another can be the VFlib approach i.e to define a
> new font database file on the lines of vflibcap and then using the
> Kpathsea library for searching TEX fonts.
>
> I ruled out the first one as we must convert many font files in
> advance and also we don't have converters available for all types of
> fonts.

OK (but I don't know exactly to what it refers).

> I am currently more inclined towards the VFlib approach.

You mean something like `vflibcap'?  I think this is the wrong
approach.  Please bear in mind that FreeType is a font rendering
engine, working at the lowest level – actually, there is no other
font-related library on a lower level (in a font stack that uses
FreeType, that is).

`vflibcap', for example, provides a much higher-level access to fonts;
it handles kpathsea issues, encoding conversion files, etc., etc.  All
this stuff doesn't belong to FreeType.

FreeType takes a font file, opens it, selects a glyph, and rasterizes
it.  That's it!  And such low-level functions the GSoC project should
provide.  The exception is VF files, which probably needs a new
interface: For example, a new function could return a list of the
necessary `raw' fonts (in TeX speak).  An alternative could be a
callback function that receives a font name and returns a handle to
FreeType.  This is what a GSoC student should research.


    Werner