[Pkg-fonts-devel] Font devs: source formats and software?

[Paul Wise]

Hi,

Is there anyone involved in developing/maintaining/creating fonts on
this list? What do you use as a source format? Is it binary or
text-based? What kind of limitations does it have? Does it have
comments? Can I put separate glyphs in separate files? Can it do the
fun OpenType stuff like this:

http://www.linuxlibertine.org/index.php?id=87&L=1

Let me start this off. I don't do any font development but I want to
change that eventually (probably by reviving MPH 2B Damase). I've been
involved in fonttools for a while, so I pick the source format
associated with it. It is a tool that transforms binary TTF/OTF/etc
files into an XML format that closely resembles the structure of the
binary files. As XML it has comments. As XML it should be possible to
use XInclude or something to split out glyphs, haven't tested that
though. As XML it isn't particularly nice for modifications with a
text editor. You can put hinting bytecode assembly instructions in it.
Not sure about the OpenType features.

Anyone got any links to font development related wiki pages?

When this thread is over I will collate the information on a
freedesktop.org or maybe OFLB wiki page.

-- 
bye,
pabs

http://wiki.debian.org/PaulWise