Re: [Fontforge-users] Merging or combining fonts query

[Roger S. <rsp...@gm...>]

On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 4:11 PM, Denis Jacquerye  wrote:

> Parts of DejaVu are under a license, Bitstream Vera License, not
> compatible with GPL, license of Khmer OS fonts. Merging the fonts or
> those parts cannot be redistributed with those licenses.
>

I will be careful to investigate the contradictory aspects of the licensing,
as obviously I would like to make it possible for others to use fonts that
give (a) access to Khmer characters, (b) a fuller Latin/Phonetic characer
set, and (c) an alternate design for non-Khmer characters than those used in
KhmerOS offerings.

>
> As far as hinting goes, hinting seems to have been automated for Latin
> characters, or at least partially, in Khmer OS fonts. Hinting was done
> manually in Bitstream Vera fonts and still is in DejaVu.
>

I can see the outlines of my font curriculum have extended into the future a
good while longer -- I won't have finished until I understand hinting.

>
> The line height of DejaVu fonts is the same as Bitstream Vera, and is
> therefore optimized for Western Latin script. Other scripts might not
> fit in that. In theory the solution would be to use the OpenType BASE
> table. But support for writing and reading that table is rather
> absent. That table allows to set different linheights per script or
> language.
>
>
When you say support for the BASE table is absent, do you mean in FontForge?
Or is it lacking in general in other font tools?

>From what little I know at this point, it does seem that being able to
identify separate bases for Khmer and Latin and to have separate min and max
extents are qualities that will be wanted as we build the set of electronic
tools for Khmer publishing.

But my enquiring at this time is more to keep things straight and understand
where I am in the production realim, and not to get in over my head too
quickly.

Thanks,

Roger Sperberg


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