Re: [ft-devel] GSoC 2017 - CFF for Type 1

[Werner LEMBERG]

Hello Ewald,


thanks for your interest in FreeType!


> I have read through some parts of the code and have a rough idea of
> how things connect to one another.  I thought of two possible ways
> to add Type 1 support.  First, to rewrite the Type 1 decoder to
> translate Type 1 charstrings to Type 2, which the CFF driver can
> understand.  Second, to adapt the Type 1 decoder to produce hinting
> output that can be used by the CFF driver.  I ruled out the first
> option as it adds an additional layer of 'decoding' and does not
> seem efficient.  Hence, I am leaning towards the second method and
> am in process of figuring out the differences between the hinter
> output of CFF and Type 1 decoders.

What about a third solution, namely to extend (Adobe's) CFF driver to
understand Type 1 charstrings also?  I believe that this solution
would need the least work.  You might have a look how CFF2 support was
added.

> I am still trying to get a full picture of what this task would
> require and wonder if I am going in the right direction.

Right now, everything seems fine.

> I recognize that this is tagged as 'hard' and I fear I may have
> missed things that make it more difficult than I imagined.

Essentially, it's not difficult to write the code, I think.  The hard
part is to get acquainted with FreeType internals...

> I would really appreciate any guidance or comments.

It's quite simple: You have questions, I and other people will
answer :-)


    Werner