Re: [sinhala-technical] LKLUG Font Update and Packaging Abhaya for Linux

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

Hi Pathum,

On 23/09/15 02:08, Pathum Egodawatta wrote:
> CC Randika, a friend at Mooniak, working on opentype and build system
> for fonts.
>
> On Tue, Sep 22, 2015 at 4:27 PM Harshula <har...@gm...
> <mailto:har...@gm...>> wrote:
>
>     Hi Pathum,
>
>     1) I think I added you to the sinhala-technical mailing list a few
>     months ago. Feel free to request feedback on your font on that list.
>
> Will do.
>
>     2) LKLUG font is deprecated and not recommended.
>
> Yes,  But there is not other Sinhala Font Family for GNU/Linux at the
> moment.

There are other FOSS fonts available that you can drop in ~/.fonts/ to 
make them available to applications. Furthermore, GNU Free Font and Noto 
contains a Sinhala range and is also packaged for Debian and Fedora.

> All the GNU/Linux distors depend on LKLUG for Sinhala support
> from what I've seen.

That's a historical artefact because it used to be the only one 
available. There was hope that Bhashitha would replace LKLUG as the 
default Sinhala font but the license is messy and there are issues with 
Bhashitha on Linux. I've been a big supporter of Bhashitha since 2006, 
but until the issues are resolved, it is unsuitable to be the default.

> Packaging Abhaya Libre would be the immediate solution.

It can be packaged. However, before it becomes the default font, it 
needs to be more legible than LKLUG, GNU Free Font and Bhashitha. It's 
vertical height seems insufficient. It's also a bit heavy visually.

I'm happy to do the packaging for Debian, if Abhaya is more legible than 
the existing fonts. Noto is very legible at small font sizes.

What are you thoughts on the Noto Sinhala font?

> Dhanishka has offered to do this for Fedora. Im not familiear
> with how to do this (Im a designer :) But Ideal solution would be to do
> a custom GPL/OFL licensed font for GNU/linux UI. We could do a Sinhala
> version for Fedora's Lohit family, or GNOME's Cantrell font family.

Before spending time on it, you may want to discuss that idea with the 
Lohit & Cantrell maintainers.

>     3) The glyphs in your Abhaya font look remarkably familiar? Can you tell
>     me a bit about its origins?
>
> Its the FM Abhaya font, refactored and optimised for web and screen.
> http://mooniak.com/abhaya-libre-font/tests/
>
> We expanded it into 5 weights and now it has its own custom Latin glyph
> set as well.  You can see a comprehensive description here:
> https://github.com/mooniak/abhaya-libre-font

Thanks. Ideally, the default Sinhala font for GNU/Linux distros should 
only have Sinhala glyphs.

cya,
#