Re: [ft] Can Freetype process a glyph file directly

[Ammar ul hassan]

Considering what you said in this thread.



>However, there exists the old VFlib library (from KAKUGAWA Hirotsugu)

>that comes with support for .gf, .pk, and some other TeX-related

formats.



I have read about VFlib and got to know that it is also a font library that
handles many font types and can make glyphs as bitmaps from these different
font formats like .ttf, .pfb, .gf, .pk etc.

As .gf and .pk files are actually bitmap font formats (the later is the
more compressed file of .gf file which can be obtained by using programs
like GFToPK), my question is:


How does this VFlib library actually support .gf and .pk formats?

What is the main task of this library if a .gf or .pk file is input?

If a helping module is created in FreeType that is linked with Vflib for
any processing of .gf and .pk files, what we can achieve as the end product
(getting bitmap information, used for previewing in X windows etc. )?


I know these questions are not directly linked with FreeType but any
feedback will help in contributing for FreeType.



On Thu, Jan 4, 2018 at 4:26 PM, Ammar ul hassan <address@hidden
> wrote:

> >  so feel free to contribute
> some new FreeType modules for GF, PK, and probably VF also based on
> this code :-)
>
> I am looking forward to it now :)
>
> Thanks for your quick response
>
> On Thu, Jan 4, 2018 at 4:14 PM, Werner LEMBERG <address@hidden> wrote:
>
>>
>> > Now what i want is to use, MF program instead of Mftrace to process
>> > METAFONT using FreeType. MF program takes a .mf file as input and
>> > returns a .tfm and .gf file. This .gf file is then converted using
>> > GFtoPK or GFtoDVI into .pk or .dvi files respectively and then can
>> > be used for displaying.
>> >
>> > So, my question is if i have a .GF or .glif file is it possible to
>> > process it using FreeType?  Can i use FT_Load_Glyph() or any other
>> > function to directly input such information.
>>
>> FreeType does neither support .gf nor .pk files.  Similarly, it
>> doesn't support the .glif format.
>>
>> However, there exists the old VFlib library (from KAKUGAWA Hirotsugu)
>>
>>   http://www-masu.ist.osaka-u.ac.jp/~kakugawa/TeX-Guy/dl.html
>>
>> that comes with support for .gf, .pk, and some other TeX-related
>> formats.  Recently, its author has updated the license statements (on
>> request) to be compatible with FreeType, so feel free to contribute
>> some new FreeType modules for GF, PK, and probably VF also based on
>> this code :-)
>>
>> Adding support for .glif is more complicated – you need an XML parser.
>> I certainly won't add code to FreeType to parse XML files.  Instead, I
>> would like to *link* to a suitable XML parsing library – eventually it
>> is planned to support the `SVG' OpenType table, and SVG files are in
>> XML format also.  Ideas how to do so are highly welcomed.
>>
>>
>>     Werner
>>
>
>