Re: man-pages PDF book: fonts

[Alejandro Colomar <alx@kernel.org>]

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Hi Brian,

On Tue, Mar 26, 2024 at 12:10:00PM -0600, Brian Inglis wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 24, 2024 at 11:19:54PM -0500, G. Branden Robinson wrote:
> > At 2024-03-22T18:35:02+0100, Alejandro Colomar wrote:
> 
> Hi Branden, Alex,

Sorry for answering so late.  I've been very frustrated by not
understanding most of what I was being told.  Now that I have something
working with the Tinos, and that I understand how it works, I feel able
to understand this email of yours.

> > > I see that Debian provides the Tinos font in some package:
> ...
> > > Can we similarly get the Unifont for zh_CN PDFs?
> 
> You can check what you have installed using fontconfig utilities e.g.
> `fc-list :lang=zh` or Unicode points `fc-list :charset=code,beg-end,...` and
> disregarding other "complete" fallback fonts like Unifont,
> UnicodeBMPFallback, LastResort, I find I have DroidSansFallBack which I can
> investigate further as shown below.
> 
> A condensed list of code point ranges can be shown on a single line with
> `fc-list -f, --format 'FORMAT'` below, but include the file name, as
> sometimes the font configuration matches fonts other than requested or
> expected.
> 
> Fontconfig `fc-query file` shows the same information for font files (which
> need not be installed), as shown at bottom.
> 
> The charset dump is in lines of 256 codes, 20 per word, in big-endian? order.
> 
> Using option `fc-query -b` and avoiding `fc-list -v` skip the charset dump,
> or specifying the charset element shows all ranges on a single line!
> 
> TeXlive otfinfo options allow selective dumping of info including -u,
> --unicode but appears only to handle the first 64K BMP U+0000..U+FFFF.
> 
> Python package fonttools ttx can show info including cmap table as XML .ttx
> files, but defaults output to the font directory, so if using installed font
> paths, add `-d .` or `-o font.ttx` to avoid accidents if root!
> 
> You can also view a font in the GUI `xfd -fa DroidSansFallback`: jump with
> the [+16] button, scroll with the [Next] button; these seem to skip missing
> code points, but the display shows boxes in missing positions in the
> displayed range.
> 
> Tinos is a Google replacement for Windows Times New Roman, and seems to be
> part of the Google Noto collection of font packages, which includes
> "compatible" noto-cjk packages, and that/they should include those shown at:
> 
> 	https://fonts.google.com/?query=chinese
> 
> where you can browse each individually to access the "Get Font" then
> "Download all" [weights/variants] buttons.
> 
> As Tinos is a serif style, Noto [NO TOfu] Serif Simplified Chinese may match
> the style and meet your needs.
> 
> Of course, you then have to groff_font-ize the downloaded and installed font.

Hmmm, and that font comes in the same texlive-fonts-extra and
texlive-fonts-extra-links Debian packages, which is nice.  That'll make
it easier to get working than the Unifont, with which I'm having
problems at the moment.

I'll get the Noto font working in a moment.

I still think I may need the Unifont (or something else) for a few rare
characters that have been giving me warnings, but this will definitely
help.

I'll also later report the problems I get with Unifont, since I suppose
I'm doing something wrong.

> 
> > As I understand it, GNU Unifont is a low-resolution bitmap font intended
> > for terminal emulators.[2] I expect it would look offensively bad when
> > typeset.
> 
> Unifoundry.com GNU Unifont by Paul Hardy, Roman Czyborra, et.al. is an
> OpenType font, without combination form glyphs, redrawn based on bitmaps and
> not too bad, compared to e.g. DroidSansFallback which has a lot of tofu,
> especially for those of us who do not know what the glyphs should look like,
> and just want fallbacks to display everything without mojibake,
> UnicodeBMPFallback hex, LastResort range glyphs, or .notdef tofu.

Have a lovely day!
Alex

-- 
<https://www.alejandro-colomar.es/>

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