[XeTeX] Devanagari in FreeSerif

Zdenek Wagner zdenek.wagner at gmail.com
Fri Jan 6 23:17:06 CET 2012


2012/1/6 Zdenek Wagner <zdenek.wagner at gmail.com>:
> 2012/1/6 Steve White <stevan.white at googlemail.com>:
>> Hi Zdenek,
>>
>> On Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 6:57 PM, Zdenek Wagner <zdenek.wagner at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 2012/1/6 Zdenek Wagner <zdenek.wagner at gmail.com>:
>>>> 2012/1/6 Steve White <stevan.white at googlemail.com>:
>>>>>
>>>> I did not know that FreeSans and FreeSerif contain contain Devanagari.
>>>> The fonts were installed with my Linux distribution thus I will try to
>>>> make some tests.
>>>>
Now I see what was meant byt the problems with FreeSans. I found a few
more GPOS and GSUB bugs. I am preparing samples in order to write
useful bug reports. It'll take some time.
>>>
>>> FreeSans looks weli in my computer but FreeSerif is totally broken,
>>> probably all the GPOS tables for Devanagari are missing. However, my
>>> Linux is very old, I will try to find a new version of the fonts
>>>
>> I see it now.
>>
>> Please submit a bug report, explaining Devanagari in Serif has
>> inadequate look-ups, and compare it to FreeSans.
>> (They would be GSUB tables, by the way.)
>>
> In the meantime I found that the font came with TeX Live, not with
> Linux. Anyway, I have downloaded the latest version and will try it.
> As I see it now, I think that both GSUB and GPOS tables are missing.
>
>> It's amazing I missed this so long, but I don't have many tests for Devanagari/
>> There is a single lookup in Serif for that script with a single
>> ligature.  I remember wondering about that single glyph, but it had a
>> funny name, and maybe I never researched it.
>> I don't see any other glyphs for ligatures for the range.  It looks bad.
>>
>> It may be the lookups were inserted but somehow deleted.  I'll check.
>> Otherwise, I may have to delete the Devanagari range from FreeSerif.
>>
>> The story is: almost a decade ago, there was a period of enthusiastic
>> addition to FreeFont, unfortunately with limited guidelines.  Several
>> non-functional ranges were included.  We have since cleaned up most of
>> these problems, but clearly some remain.
>>
>> The only other possibility is that I find the source for this range,
>> and it includes the  ligated glyphs already.  Then it is just a matter
>> of a *couple of weeks* of work.  Otherwise I'll be forced to delete
>> the range in Serif.
>>
>>> Before reporting I would like to ask one question. In all Devanagari
>>> fonts I have ever seen the long independent A (U+0906) looks
>>> graphicaly as if short independent A (U+0905) was followed by long A
>>> matra (U+093E). In FrreSerif and FreeSans the vertical stems in the
>>> long independent A are too close to each other. When looking to the
>>> text it is not well readable. Is this just my feeling or should I
>>> report it as a bug?
>>>
>> Please report that as a separate bug.
>>
>> If you could provide me an image of text you judge to be better, with
>> the same text encoded in Unicode, that would be great!
>> I can easily fix such an individual problem if the range is otherwise working.
>>
> I have enough Hindi texts for testing it will be pleasure for me to help.
>
>> Thanks hugely!
>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 5:59 AM, bhutex <bhutex at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>> Following Unicode free fonts are available for Hindi/Devnagari :
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Akshar Unicode - not beautiful
>>>>>> Chandas - Full font, not only devnagari but all characters needed for
>>>>>> typesetting vedas etc.
>>>>>> Uttara - Probably a variant of Chandas
>>>>>> Nakula and Sahedava - Twin fonts
>>>>>> FreeSans - it has Devnagari but not fully working for example फ्र etc. are
>>>>>> not coming properly
>>>>>> Osha -
>>>>>> Guruma -
>>>>>> Siddhanta - It has variants like Siddhanta 1, Siddhanta 2, Chakravat,
>>>>>> Chakravat 2
>>>>>> Calcutta , Calcutta1, Calcutta 2, Vyakaran and Nepali
>>>>>> Sanskrit2003
>>>>>> AA-NagariShri
>>>>>>
>>>>>> In addition some fonts are available on the Govt. of India's Ministry of
>>>>>> Information Technology website (around 50 fonts (including Bold, Italic,
>>>>>> Bold Italic)) fromC-DAC etc. organizations. But these fonts also have some
>>>>>> problem Just like FreeSans.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The fonts mentioned above (for dictionary type work) are sufficient. C-DAC
>>>>>> fonts are mostly decorative fonts.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Happy TeXing
>>>>>> The BHU TeX Group
>>>>>> क्या आप यह देख पा रहें हैं।
>>>>>> इस का मतलब आप का कम्प्यूटर यूनीकोड
>>>>>> को समझती है। देर किस बात की हिन्दी मे
>>>>>> चिठ्ठियां लिखिये।
>>>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Zdeněk Wagner
>>> http://hroch486.icpf.cas.cz/wagner/
>>> http://icebearsoft.euweb.cz
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Zdeněk Wagner
> http://hroch486.icpf.cas.cz/wagner/
> http://icebearsoft.euweb.cz



-- 
Zdeněk Wagner
http://hroch486.icpf.cas.cz/wagner/
http://icebearsoft.euweb.cz



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