Re: [smc-devel] Malayalam Font doubts.

[Baiju M]

> I am trying to know what tools are available (free, of course) for the
> development of TrueType/Open Type fonts? How are you guys (whoever is
> working on fonts) adding new glyphs to existing fonts?

PfaEdit (http://pfaedit.sf.net) can use for developing TrueType fonts,
(It can handle all basic TrueType tables)

>
> I found it a bit difficult to use VOLT(which requires MS Win32) or any
> other tools  to hack on OTF. Instead a text based tool which can be
> edited using a normal editor will be the most wonderful thing to have.

For editing/adding advanced OpenType tables, first you can dump the TTF
font into XML by using TTX (http://sf.net/projects/fonttools)
Then you can use any text editor to edit tables (I think emacs has
a special mode for XML editing).


>
> I understand that there is no standardisation on the glyphs to be added
> and their positions and other details.

Ministry of IT (govt. of India) has suggested a list of glyphs required for
Malayalam font (http://tdil.mit.gov.in) No problem if we are adding more
glyps.

BTW, I started working on a new typeface for Malayalam
I am designing the outlines by using kiconedit :)
Then I will vectorise this outlines by using autotrace
(http://autotrace.sf.net) in PfaEdit.
then manualy edit the outlines, then will dump into XML after that
will start editing GSUB,GPOS,GDEF and JSTF tables.
I named the typeface as Maveli now only Maveli-Normal is doing
later other variants will add. In between this I will convert Akruti
fonts to OTF (Malayalam only).
If anyone interested please contact me, I will use our CVS at savannah.


Regards,
Baiju M