Re: gnome and GDK_USE_XFT

[Vlad Harchev <hvv hippo ru>]

On Fri, 9 Aug 2002, Owen Taylor wrote:

 Hi,

> 
> 
> Allin Cottrell <cottrell wfu edu> writes:
> 
> > I've been experimenting with gnome 2.0 with and without GDK_USE_XFT
> > defined.  I'm wondering if there's any way to get the best of both
> > worlds.
> > 
> > I have a strong preference for bitmap fonts (well optimized ones, as
> > supplied with XFree for Helvetica, e.g.) in the everyday reading range
> > of, say, 8 to 11 point.  But it's nice to have anti-aliasing for
> > larger fonts, and perhaps tiny ones too.
> > 
> > If I leave GDK_USE_XFT undefined I can access the traditional bitmap
> > fonts OK, but of course get no anti-aliasing.
> > 
> > With GDK_USE_XFT defined, I know how to turn off anti-aliasing for a
> > specified range of font sizes (in XftConfig), but in that case
> > gnome/GTK offers me non-anti-aliased (aliased?) versions of the
> > outline fonts -- which do not look good at all -- and the traditional
> > optimized X bitmaps are not on the menu.
> > 
> > Is it impossible for GTK to use the optimized bitmaps when in XFT
> > mode?
> 
> Someone could create a TTF font that consisted only of the embedded
> bitmaps with no outlines, and then that could be used with Xft. You
> could, I suppose, even create a font that with Nimbus Sans outlines
> and the Helvetica bitmaps, but that could get shaky legally.
> 
> (Xft2 can also handle pcf fonts, but there is a fair bit of
> inefficiency there ... TTF with embedded bitmaps is almost certainly a
> better format choice.)
> 
> I wrote the code to be able to handle mixed core and Xft fonts at one
> point, but decided it was a bad idea before ever turning it on.... all
> the awfulness of the core X font API would appear and contaminate the
> nice Xft environment. (Look at how confusing Qt font dialogs are by
> default, and you'll see what I mean).

 Just curious - do you have that code somewhere available?

 But I agree that it would be better to create fonts with embedded bitmaps for
some sizes since this would be useful for all toolkits that use Xft..

 Best regards,
  -Vlad