[sinhala-technical] GNU FreeFont & Sinhala update

[Harshula <har...@gm...>]

Hi guys,

I wanted to update you all on the progress of the Sinhala glyphs/tables
in the GNU FreeFont (https://www.gnu.org/software/freefont/).

GNU/Linux has started using HarfBuzz
(http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/HarfBuzz) for i18n text layout
in GNOME and is anticipated to be adopted widely for other desktops and
applications. One significant implication of this change is that
HarfBuzz aims to be 'bug compatible' with Uniscribe. This means that a
Unicode Sinhala font for Windows should 'just work' on GNU/Linux and
vice versa.

Steve, the maintainer of GNU FreeFont, has put in a lot of effort to
make the Sinhala glyphs/tables work correctly with HarfBuzz [1]. He is
targeting Level 2 compliance and there's still a bit of work to do. It
would be great if folks on the this list could test the FreeSerif font
(http://sinhala.sourceforge.net/files/FreeSerif.ttf) on both GNU/Linux
and Windows and provide some feedback. At the moment, this is the only
FOSS font with Sinhala glyph/tables that works on both GNU/Linux and
Windows [2].

cya,
#

[1]
http://svn.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/trunk/freefont/sfd/FreeSerif.sfd?root=freefont&view=log

[2] During the ICTA LLWG meeting on the 16th of December 2011, it was
decided that Bhashitha would adopt a FOSS compatible license. However,
when I last checked the license change had not been made yet.