Fontmatrix

[Undertype-users] fontmatrix review (long)

Werner LEMBERG · 

[SVN revision 1207]


Folks,


I've just built and installed your fontmatrix program which has great
potential IMHO.  However, there are still maaaaaaaany rough edges.
I'll try to comment on all issues which I've noticed so far.

This sentence in the SVN log:

  Changed minor version to 9, so we are aiming a 1.0 release. 

is unfortunately not justified yet IMHO.


o At the very first startup, it takes a long time to scan all fonts.
  It would be nice if fontmatrix could display a rotating cursor, a
  counter, or something similar to indicate that the program doesn't
  hang.

o The idea to display the font name with the font's glyphs is nice,
  however, it has severe problems.  See

    http://groff.ffii.org/groff/temp/missing-glyphnames.png

  for an example.  In other words, fontmatrix should check whether the
  font actually contains ASCII glyphs, otherwise it should use a
  fallback font to display the font name.  Maybe it should even check
  whether the returned glyph images (a) contain black pixel at all and
  (b) aren't all equal in case the font is badly defined.

  In my opinion, this bug is a real showstopper.

o A very important filter is missing IMHO: The possibility to specify
  the covered Unicode ranges.

o The font sample text should be selected using the font's Unicode
  range information or the available OpenType scripts and language
  tags.  Otherwise you get results as shown in

    http://groff.ffii.org/groff/temp/wrong-sample-text.png

o If I click on a font, then selecting `Chart', I would like that this
  view mode stays for all future fonts.  Currently, clicking on a new
  font always starts with `Sample'.

o Similarly, if I select a block like `View all mapped glyphs', it
  should stay also.  It's tiresome to select this again and again.

o There is a lot of overlapping in some fonts within the chart, see

    http://groff.ffii.org/groff/temp/overlapping-glyph-info.png

  Maybe this is hard to circumvent; in that case it would be nice if
  the `big' image of a glyph (after clicking on it) displays those
  overlapping info too.

o In the previous image you can also see

    Block (318%)

  which is funny, but irritating: Block data is useless IMHO for
  unmapped glyphs.

o If I scroll down the font chart a bit, and the currently displayed
  upper left glyph is, say, `acute', it would be nice if selecting a
  different shape doesn't change this upper left glyph, and I still
  see `acute'.  Currently, the font chart is reset so that the scroll
  bar is at the top again.

o The function mode of the `Browse Directories' button is nice but
  very irritating.  I've never seen a program before which behaves
  like that.  At least, after pressing the button, the text should
  change to `Return' or something.

o What the heck is sample `C'?  I see Russian text...

o I'm missing a font cascade mode.

o The sample texts should contain digits also.

o The layout for the sample text is buggy: There must be a minimal
  spacing between words, see

    http://groff.ffii.org/groff/temp/buggy-sample-layout.png

  It's quite hard to read

    IchwarHerrimHaus.IchhättmeineTochtermehrcoramnehmen

  in the middle of the image.

o I'm missing an `English' sample text.

o Doing

    <click on a font> -> Samples -> Add

  immediately crashes fontmatrix on my GNU/Linux box.

o The menu

    Service -> Show TrueType tables

  should be greyed out at top level.


I can only repeat: fontmatrix will become a great application, but
currently it is far away from a 1.0 release.


  Hope this helps


    Werner

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