Jazz Fonts

[David A. Greene]

Recent convert to Lilypond - great work!

I see that questions about jazz or "ink pen" fonts have come up several
times over the years.  Responses seem to be one of the following forms:

- Theoretically, Lily can use other fonts but getting it to work is "a
  lot of effort."

- These fonts are not free so we can't test them.

The second point is addressed, I think, by some free jazz fonts that
are out there.  I haven't looked at the specific licensing yet, but
an alternative is of course to just design our own font.

I'd like to understand the first point better.  What's involved in
adding support for alternative fonts?  I may be able to do some work
in this area, as I have need for producing scores with jazz fonts.
What's the estimated learning curve for someone new to the codebase
to dive in?  I have many years of coding experience, especially
advanced C++.  Is there code documentation anywhere (doxygen, etc.)?

Such fonts really do make a difference in performance.  Someone
mentioned venue lighting a while back and that is a great example.
There is also an intangible "edginess" effect of the script which
encourages experimentation in the performer.

Thanks again for great software!

                               -Dave