Draining the font swamp

[Ming Hua]

On Mon, May 21, 2007 at 01:13:56AM +0100, Nicolas Spalinger wrote:
> 
> > - Whether we still need all these horrible bitmap fonts
> 
> You mean the fonts available in the x-fonts* packages?

I think the names are xfonts-*.

Last time I checked, X server won't start without the "fixed" bitmap
font from xfonts-base.

> I would suggest a poll on usage and possible demotion to universe or
> specific langpacks. Might be different for CJK fonts.

I believe the general consensus among Chinese users is that bitmap fonts
are preferred for small font size.

There is a technique called "embedded bitmap" that can put bitmap fonts
of different size into a TrueType font, and libfreetype handles this
correctly.  There are currently one set of fonts (with two typefaces) in
Debian/Ubuntu that has embedded bitmaps.

A sad thing, however, is that although there is a group actively working
on a set of Chinese bitmap fonts and has improved the quality quite a
bit, their work can't be embedded into the existent TrueType font due to
licensing restrictions.  So I am afraid in the short term stand-alone
bitmap fonts are still necessary for Chinese users who are picky about
font rendering.

Ming
2007.05.21