Re: [Freefont-bugs] Adding Malayalam to Freefont

[Steve White]

Hello, Hiran,

I would be glad to work with you on this.

If the Rachana version you have is just a newer version, I wouldn't
anticipate a problem.
However, let me go through some technical issues with you.

1)  I have made many changes to FreeFont since the 20080323 version.
I should soon make a new release.  If you want to work directly with
the FreeFont .sfd files, that is OK, but you should get the most
recent versions from me.

2) The main point of having multiple scripts in a Unicode font is for
them to look good together.
That is, Latin and Malayalam text in the font should look good side-by
side.  The weight and somehow the level of decoration should be
similar.

3) All characters in FreeSerif should lie within a box from -300 to 900 EM.

4) I have since moved all the ligatures (akhands, etc) of Malayalam
into the "Private Use"
   range (specifically, E970-ECAC) instead of where they were
previously, above FFFF.

5) I am requiring that all FontForge's tests pass, on FreeFont, that
is, all the tests under
   the menu item "Find Problems..."

Regarding FontForge
_________________
I am using a build from 20080309.  More recent versions should be OK.
Older versions will certainly fail to open the .sfd files: the format
has changed.

Also, I'm aware of an old problem with some versions of FontForge not
opening one of the .ttf files.  Maybe this is what you are seeing.

Instead of the .ttf files, use the .sfd files (in the sources).

Let me know what you think!



On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 4:01 PM, H <address@hidden> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am Hiran Venugopalan, of Swathanthra Malayalam Computing, the Free
> software l10n team for Malayalam language. I am interested in working with
> ttf-freefonts and wish to add malayalam glyphs to the exisiting font set.
> From the font I downloaded from from
> [http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/freefont/freefont-20080323.zip] I came to know that
> the Rachana font is there inside the font. Unluckly the Serif verion of
> Freefont makes my fontforge to crash while opening.
>
> Let me inform you the fact that the font Rachana is now having a latest
> version named as Rachana_04. The font shows the best result GNU/Linux with
> fine rendering, ever Malayalam had. The font is GNU GPL. And I wish to add
> that set of glyphs to TTF-FF. Before I am starting the work let me tell you.
>
> * The license is GNU GPL v2+, no change in that.
> * The font supports Unicode 5.0, we are not ready to move to 5.0.1 Unicode,
> the community is still under discussion
> * It should be added with the font _sooner_!
> and
> * The TTF file is not getting opened in my fontforge - help me!
>
> Also there is another font of Sans type named Meera. If its possible we can
> add that too along with FF-Sans, but the acent decent proportion is
> different its 600:400 for emsize of 100.
>
> I am putting these cases as I had a bitter experience while working along
> with another so-called-free-software-font work. Please dont consider this as
> my stupiidity.
>
> Help me, help my language.
> --
> H
>
> WARNING :The opinions expressed above are yours. They are not necessarily
> those of my employer or myself.
> hiraneffects.blogspot.com | 91.9846951870 | IRC Nick/ Freenode :HFactor [ c
> u @ #smc-project | #sugar | #python]
>
>