larrym@tekcrl.TEK.COM (Larry Morandi) (02/03/88)
There was a Font BOF at the X Conference that started a discussion on
what is really needed for reasonable usage of fonts by X clients. It
did not get very far, and in an attempt to continue the discussion, I
am starting a mailing list.
I see the function of this mailing list as: To work on a font
extension proposal for presentation to the X Consortium that will add
those features the members believe are necessary to write portable X
code which makes good use of fonts.
Currently, the font model is that the client can specify a font name (a
string), but nothing is stipulated about what that string means. A client
can inquire about what fonts exist in the server, but the returned
information only has info like drawing direction and bounding boxes and
minimum and maximum characters. It gives no information about what the
actual glyphs look like.
I believe that a client needs to know something about font families, and
faces and sizes and character sets. There should be a what to ask for
a "Geneva, Bold-Oblique, 12 pt. on this display", and some way to take
an intelligent action if that font doesn't exist.
It is entirely possible that the entire work of this group would be to
fill in some of the blanks in the font naming proposal put out by Jim
Flowers last September, if the group agrees with it. Unfortunately, no
one from DEC who knew anything about the proposal came to the Font BOF,
so I don't know the state of this proposal.
To start the discussion, I have included a list of references that
members of the list should probably be familiar with (or be willing to
become familiar with).
To join the mailing list, send a request to:
xfont-request@expo.lcs.mit.edu
To send mail to the members of the mailing list, send to:
xfont@expo.lcs.mit.edu
(To those who attended the BOF and left an email address: You are already
on the list. However, please notice the change of mailing addresses.)
Thank you very much,
Larry Morandi
E-Mail: larrym@tekcrl.TEK.COM
US Mail: Larry Morandi, Computer Research Lab, Tektronix, Inc.
Box 500 MS 50-662, Beaverton OR 97077
Phone: 503-627-6002
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
References for font information:
o The PostScript font model described in the Adobe books published
by Addison Wesley. Particularly, the PostScript Language
Reference Manual - ISBN 0-201-10174-2.
o A draft ISO standard, of which I only have a very preliminary
version, but have a set on order. It is ISO Draft Standard
DIS-9541 with the title "Information Processing - Font and
Character Information Interchange". (Information on this and other
draft standards is available from ANSI at 212-642-4995.)
o The Xerox Font Interchange Standard and associated documents of
the Xerox System Integration Standard that come with the Interpress
documents. (My copy of the XFIS is very old, version 1, dated Dec 1985.
The rest of my XSIS and Interpress documents are 1984. I suI suspect there
are newer much versions.)
o The following set of X documents from the X11, release 1 distribution:
+ X Font Naming Proposal (V11.0)
An IOC from Jim Flowers, DEC, dated 10 Sept 87
+ Definition of the Porting Layer for the X v11 Sample Server.
by Susan Angebranndt, Ramond Drewry, Philip Karlton and Todd Newman, DEC.
September 12, 1987.
4.5 - Fonts Support
4.5.1 - Fonts Support Data Structures
4.5.2 - Fonts Names and Filenames
4.5.3 - Fonts Files
5.2.8 - Fonts for Screens
5.2.8.1 - Server Natural Format
5.2.8.2 - Font Realization
+ Character Bitmap Distribution Format 2.1
Adobe Systems, Inc.
02 April 1987.
+ X Window System Protocol, Version 11
September 1987
OpenFont, CloseFont, QueryFont, QueryTextExtents, ListFonts,
ListFontsWithInfo, SetFontPath, GetFontPath.
+ X11 Server Extensions, 31 August 1987, DEC
+ Xlib - C Language X Interface, Protocol Version 11
by Jim Gettys, Ron Newman and Robert Scheifler, DEC and MIT
M.I.T. Release 5
6.5 Manipulating Fonts
6.5.1 Loading and Freeing Fonts
6.5.2 Obtaining and Freeing Fonts Names
6.5.3 Setting and Retrieving the Font Search Path
+ XLoadFont(3X) -- Man Page
XloadFont, XqueryFont, XListFontsWithInfo, XFreeFontInfo,
XLoadQueryFont, XFreeFont, XGetFontProperty, XUnloadFont,
XGContextFromGC - manipulate fonts