Fontmatrix

Re: [Undertype-users] Fontmatrix integration with Inkscape (or any other software)

Pajarico · 

2008/1/11, Plinnell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> On Friday 11 January 2008 19:19:33 Pajarico wrote:
> > The software, in its young stage, already does everything one might
> > expect from a font manager. I'm still a bit confused with the use of
> > Tag Sets, but that's another story.
> >
> > However, the activation of the fonts doesn't happen immediately. I was
> > working with Inkscape and needed to restart it for the newly-activated
> > fonts to appear.
> >
> > Steps to reproduce:
> > 1- Start Fontmatrix and import some fonts.
> > 2- Start inkscape.
> > 3- Activate a font.
> >
>
> The correct way:
>
> 1- Start Fontmatrix and import some fonts.
> 2- Activate a font.
> 3- Start inkscape.
>
I know that's the "correct" way, I just don't like it;) The steps I
wrote only to reproduce the case.
>
>
> > Results: Inkscape drop-down menu does not update the font list.
> > Expected results: Newly-activated fonts should appear.
> >
> > I'm not submitting a bug on your tracker because I'm not sure whether
> > this is a bug in Fontmatrix or not. For example, Quark and Suitcase
> > (another font manager quite similar to Fontmatrix) work together
> > sharing a Quark plugin, and whenever the active fonts are altered
> > Quark shows the changes immediately. Right now you have to restart the
> > software to make the changes appear and this is suboptimal.
>
> This is the way fonts work on Linux in general. Fontconfig caches available
> fonts (and rechecks about every 30-60 seconds IIRC). Then applications on
> startup query fontconfig for available fonts. In my experience with Macs,
> Windows (since Windows 2.x) and Linux, the Linux way is far far less trouble
> and fuss free than the others.
>
> Some further thoughts:
> http://rants.scribus.net/2007/12/07/a-real-linux-font-manager-for-designers/
I will read it when I have some spare time.
>
> >
> > Is this a request to be sent to the Inkscape guys, fontconfig or you?
> >
> Neither.
>
Well... one thing is that you don't find my suggestion useful and
another that you think no one might find it useful. I respect your
opinion because is your software, but maybe the Inkscape guys are
interested in this. For what I understand in the previous paragraph,
maybe the application could check fontconfig every X time instead of
only on startup (provided this is technically feasible). In such case
it would be a task for Inkscape devs.

> > Regards.
> >
>
> Suitcase and ATM were developed to work around the deficiencies with fonts on
> MacOS. It was a bonus that they could in fact detect and repair broken font
> resource forks on a Mac. ( A common occurance.), along with enabling certain
> apps to activate fonts on the fly. This was necessary on a Mac owing resource
> limitations including memory usage both in the OS and applications.
> (Pagemaker on Windows also comes to mind. )
>
> The second bonus was this sort of activation mechanism was developed to
> accomodate a few specific applications.
>
> Given the loading speed of inkscape on a modern machine and the far greater
> capacity for Linux to keep many fonts active I find the current way Linux
> handles fonts far more robust and trouble free.  There is a  caveat that
> Scribus, Inkscape and Fontmatrix will disable using broken fonts in self
> defense against crashing.
>
> So in other words, you need to "Think Differently" its Linux, not a Mac.
It's not about "thinking differently", I'm not even a regular MacOS
user. My main OS (by far) is Linux. Is about using what works best,
and as graphic designer of sorts, is not uncommon the scenarios were
one is unsure of what font will end up on the document. One can make
some ideas about the layout and typography but there is always the
possiblity of changing or adding fonts and in the current behaviour
this takes too much time.

BTW, the loading speed of inkscape is not *that* great in the next
version (0.46). 0.45 is (was) faster.

>
> The kind of intergration you are seeking is in some respects superflous as for
> example Scribus can handle loading fonts on the fly itself.
Well, I don't find this "superflous" at all as I'm talking about
on-the-fly activation for any program, that's why I introduced a broad
the question... Anyway, I haven't used Scribus that much so, how does
it work?

>
> Asking Fontmatrix to handle this for any and all applications is task beyond
> its remit in my opinion.
I'm not asking fontmatrix to do anything, I'm just asking ;) With no
aim. Because I don't know how the font management work in general so I
don't know with whom I should talk to.
>
> Peter
>
>
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>

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