Font system discussion

[ZincAlloy]

there's this proposal, but I think it wasn't discussed much.. http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/FontSystemProposal

[MarcGuay]

There's something related to this happening here:

http://rbthemes.com/fonts/

though I can't find a specific "anti-alias font" patch mentionned. 

[ZincAlloy]

neither can I find one on the tracker

[ZincAlloy]

Well, antialiasing can be done in advance and simply use pre-rendered translucency. If fonts moved from 1bpp to 2bpp you could then use the two "gray" shades as levels of translucency and have some very basic antialiasing. If you increased the depth further you'd get more levels of translucency. Limited (all existing BDF fonts wouldn't be antialiased, but my best guess is that's more or less waht's being done in that Fonts link.

another thing that would really improve looks and readability are semi-translucent drop shadows (like on windows or osx desktops). a white font with a black drop shadow can be read on any kind of background picture.

[karashata]

Well, antialiasing can be done in advance and simply use pre-rendered translucency. If fonts moved from 1bpp to 2bpp you could then use the two "gray" shades as levels of translucency and have some very basic antialiasing. If you increased the depth further you'd get more levels of translucency. Limited (all existing BDF fonts wouldn't be antialiased, but my best guess is that's more or less waht's being done in that Fonts link.

another thing that would really improve looks and readability are semi-translucent drop shadows (like on windows or osx desktops). a white font with a black drop shadow can be read on any kind of background picture.

That would be pretty nice, but I think it would take a decent amount of work to get it working, and to a point where it's not lagging the interface while the fonts are being drawn.  Also, both of these would require getting translucency into Rockbox, something I'm fairly certain isn't there currently.

By the way, has anyone else noticed how off-topic this thread has gotten..?

[ZincAlloy]

That would be pretty nice, but I think it would take a decent amount of work to get it working, and to a point where it's not lagging the interface while the fonts are being drawn.  Also, both of these would require getting translucency into Rockbox, something I'm fairly certain isn't there currently.

By the way, has anyone else noticed how off-topic this thread has gotten..?

Yes, it sure would make it even harder to implement translucency smoothly, but I think it should be considered if the font system gets an overhaul anyway.

and yes.. this is pretty off-topic. could a moderator split this thread into two, please?

[karashata]

Just to get another word in...

What would be nice, in my opinion, would be if the font system could be made to use .ttf and .otf fonts rather than a specific format.  I suspect, though, that *that* particular wish may be difficult to implement well...

...I have never wished more that I knew how to code better than I do...  That would actually be a fun challange, to impliment .ttf and .otf fonts in a reasonable system that makes choosing a font and a size relatively painless...

[Chronon]

I split the topic as neatly as I could.  Hopefully the two discussions still make sense.



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[karashata]

Nice one, Chronon!

I think everything here makes enough sense, and I'm sure once discussion picks up, what little lack of sense someone might have shouldn't be an issue anymore anyway.

[ZincAlloy]

thanks a lot, Chronon!

[chrisjs169]

There's something related to this happening here:

http://rbthemes.com/fonts/

though I can't find a specific "anti-alias font" patch mentionned. 

The reason you can't find the AA font patch is because it isn't on the tracker.  It's used in mine and kugel's custom builds (for the e200 series) since j0tt gave us permission, but there seems to be a possible issue with whether or not it's completely GPL'd (from what I understand from the logs) - http://www.rockbox.org/irc/log-20080331#02:09:31

Mainly:
02:17:59   saratoga   assuming he was aware you were using GPL code, and he gave you permission, you're probably ok
02:18:07   kugel   http://sse2.net/rb/
02:18:07   saratoga   but we certainly can't do that for SVN
02:18:22   saratoga   we need to be black and white

I talked to j0tt a while back, and while I seem to remember him giving me permission to add it to the tracker, I don't have a copy of that log.  In addition, if for some reason it wasn't completely GPL'd, I don't want to cause any problems by putting it on the tracker.

[kugel.]

I'd assume it is GPL'd, since the font converter he made for it (you can find it on that page too) is certainly GPL (i.e. it stands in the header).

€dit: I see, the site isn't available anymore. I have copies of the files though, and chrisjs too.

[Llorean]

If it's not GPLed, or 100% GPL compatible, it's illegal (and violating his copyright and our license) for you to be using it in your builds. Period.

[scorche]

As a note, I was able to speak with jott who confirmed that his anti-aliasing code is placed under the GPL v2 or later license.

[NicolasP]

Could someone who has the patch maybe add it to the tracker?