Re: xfree fonts

[Roozbeh Pournader <roozbeh at sharif dot edu>]

On Thu, 20 Feb 2003, Nadim Shaikli wrote:

> Yeah, that sounds about right :-)  This is a very crucial point for all of
> us Presentation Form-B users, without their native inclusion - we'll always
> play catchup and do-this-do-that to get things working.  We need to keep 
> pressuring Mr. Kuhn about this for him to understand its importance to our
> communities and not let up - we want inclusion from the get-go.

You may not need pressuring Markus. I would recommend trying to do 
something in the fonts at xfree86 mailing list. Markus releases fonts 
completely, it is for XFree86 that he cuts them at U+3000.

Put the main emphasis of the email on something like "I have heard that
all the font system of XFree86 has been replaced, I was wondering if we
can now have the complete fonts of Markus Kuhn in XFree86 released with
XFree86". Try to look as innocent as possible. ;) Then in the followup,
tell that you can help in the coding if a specific document emerges.
Insist that you need to know the timing. (Well, I guess you are already
very good at Open Source politics and don't need a lesson from me.)

> Do you have a list of things that need to be done with regard to those
> two fonts -- they seem 90% there.  We had a couple of people that have
> in the past shown interest in font creation - maybe with a list in hand
> with regard to what needs to be done, we could finally give them direction
> and know what to expect :-)

No, I don't have any list. A good algorithm will be:

0. Download the latest copy of the fonts, the charts, and the font editor 
from:

	http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/download/ucs-fonts.tar.gz
	http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U40-0600.pdf
	http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U40-FB50.pdf
	http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/UFE70.pdf
	http://crl.nmsu.edu/~mleisher/xmbdfed-4.5-LINUX.tar.gz

1. Remove all Arabic-related glyphs from 9x15 and 9x15B. Arabic-related
glyphs means all Arabic characters in the ranges 0600..06FF, FB50..FDFF,
and FE70..FEFE. The already exisiting ones are awfully ugly.

2. Draw good-looking Arabic glyphs that fits in the box well and has the
same sense of the Latin fonts in the same font. Use Unicode reference
charts. The important glyphs are: 060C, 061B, 061F, 0640, 064B..066D,
0670, FB50, FB51, FB6A..FB6D, FBE8, FBE9, FD3E, FD3F, FDF2, and
FE80..FEFC. All other glyphs can be done later and by some copy and paste.

3. In case of any specific questions about a character, first try to
consult with the 10x20 fonts, and then contact me if the question
persisted.

4. Test the font (possibly after some glyph copying from the Presentation 
Forms Block to general Arabic block).

5. Pass the font to me for some review, also send a patch to Markus Kuhn.

roozbeh