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List:       koffice
Subject:    Re: Task for people wanting better printing
From:       Thomas Zander <zander () kde ! org>
Date:       2003-12-02 10:37:06
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On Wednesday 05 November 2003 21:24, Tomasz Grobelny wrote:
> On Wednesday 05 of November 2003 12:48, Thomas Zander wrote:
> > On Wednesday 05 November 2003 12:44, Joao S. O. Bueno wrote:
> > > Hmmm,
> > >
> > > Maybe we will have to pick up the "let's generate our own postscript"
> > > thread again.
> > >
> > > I wish I could have said purely as a joke, but I mean it seriously.
> > > A rough postscript printing with western fonts + vector graphics  +
> > > raster images, that would account for a lot of Kofffice
> > > functionalities would not be _that_  hard to do. And even somewhat
> > > crude support could look better than current QT printing, if
> > > trolltech will continue to behave as all Troll, no Tech on this
> > > issue.
> >
> > If you do; then I suggest to do so inside of Qt; after a discussion
> > with them on where and how..
> > I doubt they will say no to a good Qt Printing facility...
>
> Integrating new Postscript generator with Qt is not that easy. Basically
> there are two concepts:
> 1. Print what is shown on screen. That means good screen output as a
> result of using screen font metrics. But in this case metrics are not
> precise. This method is implemented in Qt.
> 2. Render image device independent and then map it to the output device.
> This means using font metrics that are not pixel aligned and thus text at
> small sizes will not look that good. This method _should_ be implemented
> in KOffice.

I think the problem we have with koffice is a bit different, and so this 
solution is not what you describe.

I have seen various APIs for creating PDFs recently and they tackled the 
same problems by moving the part of positioning to the Painter object.
If you write a word the painter will then return the device-independent 
position where that word stopped; in such a way that if you use that 
position for your next word it will be correctly positioned.

The whole font sizing/metrics etc etc is removed from the applications and 
moved to the painter, since the painter can then use the fonts to calculate 
device independent stuff and at the same time render it at the correct size 
and position on screen or paper.

- -- 
Thomas Zander
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