[Bug 436505] condensed Nimbus fonts inaccessible to applications

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Summary: condensed Nimbus fonts inaccessible to applications


https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=436505





------- Additional Comments From rdtennent at hotmail.com  2008-03-07 14:08 EST -------
Nicolas and I have argued on the fontconfig list about this:

http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/fontconfig/2008-March/date.html

so I don't expect to convince him, but here are my responses.

> 1. the problem is not in the font file but application-side

But until all the applications are fixed, why not fix the font? 

> 2. we don't do it for the distro default fonts, why should we do it for Nimbus?

The urw fonts are installed in the 'default' sub-directory of /usr/share/fonts.
ghostscript depends on them.  


> 3. those applications hit the very same problem for many other fonts. A single
fontconfig alias is not going to solve it, alaiasing all the fonts that trigger
the problem is unrealistic

Until the applications are fixed, no font should be distributed that can't be
accessed by all applications. 

> 4. grouping different faces under a single family name is an explicit objective
of modern font formats and pushed as best practice by heavyweights like the
Microsoft Typography group, so this patch is backwards and tries to stop the tide

I'm not trying to stop the tide.  But pretending the tide has already come in is
unrealistic. I see you as King Kanute exhorting the tide to come in when it is a
mile away.

> 5. GTK already proves supporting this kind of face without hacks can be done

Good for them.  What applications can take advantage of this?  I've looked for
the "gtk2 font selector" you've claimed has been fixed and can't find it. Of
course it can be done and I support this kind of fix.  LaTeX2e has had this kind
of flexibility for years.

> 6. OO.o is getting fixed right now

Good. How does that help a web author?

> 7. bugs are opened @QT & @KDE to get them fixed too

Good.  Perhaps konqueror will allow access to the condensed fonts.  Why does
that preclude making the fonts accessible to all browsers?

> 8. applying it now will only create confusion between users with aliased fonts
and users of previous releases

Finally being able to access fonts previously inaccessible will create
confusion? Should bugs not be fixed because that will only create confusion?

> 9. and anyway this kind of change belongs upstream

And where is "upstream" for the urw-fonts?

I wasn't aware there was a fedora-fonts mail list.  

Bob T.


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