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List:       koffice-devel
Subject:    Re: KWord and bitmap fonts
From:       Thomas Zander <zander () planescape ! com>
Date:       2002-07-21 22:19:57
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On Sunday 21 July 2002 23:22, Nicolas Goutte wrote:
> I would really like to know why we cannot support bitmap fonts in KWord.
>
> When at the end of 2001, I reported display problems with bitmap fonts, I
> was told it was because they were bitmap fonts. However in the meantime all
> these bugs were fixed.

Ehh, we disallowed bitmapped fonts then, that is why they are fixed.

its quite simple; a bitmapped font will have its outline rendered before 
distribution and have an exact number of pixels at all times. If I take a 
font for my monitor (72dpi) and print it on paper then I will get a font that 
is 600/72 = 8 times as small font on paper.
For this and other reasons Postscript does not allow bitmapped fonts, so we 
can't print them anyway.

If we try to scale that font the results will not be pretty. For that reason 
there is an option in the X config that disallows X to scale bitmapped fonts. 
For many distros that option is default.
This means that we can't have bitmapped fonts that scale, since only a small 
percentage of people will be able to use them, and the results for these 
people will not look good.

Furthermore; scaling fonts will give rounding errors. Different rounding 
errors for different X versions, different font foundries etc. This makes 
WYSIWYG a pain to get right.

Also using bitmapped fonts in WYSIWYG means using a resolution considerably 
higher then the one on screen. Using scaled bitmapped fonts (if available in 
the first place) means that those fonts have to be scaled first. This is slow 
and memory consuming. Consider what the implications would be of using 300pt 
fonts _all_ the time :)

> I thought that the display was already made as print and as I do not see
> any problem with bitmap fonts (not even when printing or at higher zooms) I
> really do not understand.

Printing at higher zooms?  Can you zoom your paper?
Anyway; KWord is suppost to do font substitution (well Qt is :) at print time, 
for the simple reason that bitmap fonts are not possible in Postscript. But 
if you print a Helvetica or other common font chances are high that 
ghostscript or the postcript printer will have that font in vector form so it 
looks good for you.

> In any case, it is not by forbidding bitmap fonts in KWord's GUI that you
> are gettting rid fo them:
> - the import filters still uses them.
> - if the KDE's default font is a bitmap font, KWord default font becomes a
> bitmap font too.
> - on system with bitmap fonts, there is the font "Clearlyu" who makes the
> whole Unicode range. So even with another font, you get a bitmap font
> indirectly.

If so; please fix. I doubt it though.

> If this problem was *so* important, it would have needed to be treated
> accordingly. And why are the other KOffice programs still allowing bitmaps
> fonts then?

All WYSIWYG applications are not. What is your point here?

Please read the explanations I gave almost a year ago on this list as well.

Thank you.
- -- 
Thomas Zander                                           zander@planescape.com
                                                 We are what we pretend to be
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