RE: [Freetype] Can I use True Type korean Fonts in the Microwindow ?

[Pedriana, Paul]

See here for a list of Microsoft fonts and their supported languages,
see this:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/xpreski
t/html/inte03.asp 

While investigating Asian fonts for use in my most recent app, I found
that many (all?) of these Microsoft fonts actually seem to be based on
fonts from other vendors. The difference is that Microsoft has taken
these and added a great deal of hinting. For example, Microsoft has a
Korean font called Gulim that is a very good Korean TrueType font. It
turns out that Gulim is identical to another font called "HYR Gothic"
originally made by HanYang Systems back around 1995. Identical except
that Gulim has good hinting added to it, whereas HYR Gothic doesn't. I
wonder if Microsoft bought the rights to HYR Gothic and simply hinted
it. I have seen this for other Asian fonts that Microsoft distributes as
well.

FYI, we've had a hard time coming up with fonts for use in game
software. This has been particularly true for Asian fonts because there
are so few selections. The problem is that we would like to use slightly
decorative fonts but need them to show well at smallish sizes on CRT/LCD
displays. Very few fonts are hinted enough for this. For "The Sims", we
use a bitmapped rip-off of Microsoft's "Comic Sans" font. People like to
hate this font, but it is well hinted for low resolutions and has just
the lighthearted look that we need. The only well-hinted Asian fonts I
have seen are those from Microsoft, and we can't distribute those with
our app. So what we do (for Korean) is check on startup for the presence
of Gulim on the user's computer and use it if present. If it is not
present, we use a distributable backup that comes with the app. Luckily,
virtually every Korean Windows computer has Gulim on it. The difference
in quality between Gulim and other fonts is so great that all other
fonts we showed the Korean QA team were deemed "unacceptable" for a
shipping Korean product. The world really needs open source well-hinted
Asian fonts. Every time somebody online reports that there is such a
thing, I investigate it and they are mistaken. :(

Paul






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