[Fontconfig] Mozilla, Xft and (buggy?) fonts

[Anthony Fok]

Hello Keith,

Wow, immediate response again!  I'm really amazed!  Many thanks!  :-)

On Tue, Feb 11, 2003 at 11:04:26AM -0800, Keith Packard wrote:
> >    Would it be a good idea, if a font already contains a valid
> >    Unicode CMap (e.g. Format 4 and/or 12), that CMap 0 be ignored
> >    altogether?  There appears to be more buggy fonts out there on the
> >    market than we would like.  Anyhow, I have no preference either
> >    way, so, you make the call.  :-)
> 
> Fonts are also broken in the other direction -- they contain both Unicode 
> and Apple Roman mappings, but the Unicode mapping doesn't map Latin glyphs 
> while the Apple Roman mapping cannot cover the glyphs available in the 
> font.  Suggestions for how to figure out the right mapping are welcome...

I didn't know that.  Yikes!

Meanwhile, for my part, I have been exchanging e-mail messages with the
respective font vendors asking them to fix these bugs.  Fortunately,
they have been quite responsive.  Microsoft's Font Validator has been
helpful, and ftview, TTX/FontTools are lifesavers.

> > A visual check with ftview showed that the glyph indices are off by 26
> 
> I have a vague recollection of having fixed a bug like this.  Can you 
> report which versions of the X server, Xrender, Xft and fontconfig you are 
> using?

On Debian unstable, XFree86-4.2.1; Xft-2.1, fontconfig-2.1, probably without
updates from the CVS except:

  fontconfig (2.1-14) unstable; urgency=low
  
    * debian/patches/CVS-HEAD-subpixel-rendering-fix.patch:
      - New patch, should fix crashes when subpixel rendering is
      turned on (Closes: #175903).  Big thanks to
      Michael Guntsche <mike@it-loops.com> for extracting the relevant fix
      from CVS!
  
   -- Colin Walters <walters@debian.org>  Fri, 10 Jan 2003 13:30:28 -0500

BTW, how do I check the Xrender version?  :-)  (XFree86 says something
about "XFree86 Font Renderer : 0.3".  Is that the same thing?  :-)

By the way, where may I find the latest CVS of fontconfig and Xft? 
It seems that fontconfig in :pserver:anoncvs@keithp.com:/local/src/CVS
isn't the newest.

> > There are a few other Mozilla Xft issues as seen on Bugzilla.  The
> > "disappearing text when with switching fonts" happens on my Debian
> > sid/unstable system (XFree86 4.2.1, with XRender).
> > ...
> > However, everything looks and works okay on Red Hat 8.0 and Phoebe. 
> 
> I suspect RH has incorporated various fixes from current XFree86 CVS which 
> haven't made it into Debian unstable yet.  Please give current CVS a try 
> and see what happens there.

Good idea.  I should try that.

Thanks again for your help,

Anthony

-- 
Anthony Fok Tung-Ling
ThizLinux Laboratory   <anthony@thizlinux.com> http://www.thizlinux.com/
Debian Chinese Project <foka@debian.org>       http://www.debian.org/intl/zh/
Come visit Our Lady of Victory Camp!           http://www.olvc.ab.ca/