[Debian-in-workers] [g-i] Indic scripts

[Davide Viti]

Hi,
while the Arabic / Persian issue is hopefully getting to an end, With
the support of Attilio, I've started playing with Indic scripts;
learning from the past experience with fonts, I'd like to experiment a
new approach to the font issue, that will hopefully speed things up.

step1
-----
As a first step I will include screenshots (one per language) using
just the font specified in the wiki [1] for that language: to make an
example, I'll post a pic for Bengali taken in an environment
containing only MuktiNarrow. This way, native speakers can judge the
font alone, without potential problems with overlapping glyphs.

step2
-----
Once we're happy with the font file I'll try to integrate that font
file with the ones already used for the official iso (see [2]);
eventually we will fix problem with overlapping glyphs.

At this point we should be able to use the font file for g-i.

For the screenshots produced during step1 and 2, I will use Attilio's
"gtk_font_tester" application (sources in [3]): this way we can have quite a few
strings which should give a good idea of what the font look like.

Some notes on the pics (before I forget):
* [4] was taken using only MuktiNarrow_11-08-2005.ttf (and looking at the pic probably means that the ttf
file still contains its own latin glyphs)
* [5] was taken using only Saab.ttf which has no latin glyps (it explains the empty buttons / missing text)
* [6] was taken using only Gargi_1.7.ttf (note that FreeSans.ttf still has indic glyphs which need
 to be stripped). As for [4], Gargi_1.7.ttf still contains its own lating glyphs
* there seems to be some problem with loading certain characters; we're investigating and will let you know
as soon as we have more precise infos about this

Same question I asked for Arabic / Persian: do we have to use separate ttf files for each language or is it
possible to share the same font file for more than one language?

Ciao
Davide

[1] http://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/GUIFonts
[2] http://d-i.alioth.debian.org/gtk-frontend/
[3] svn://svn.debian.org/svn/d-i/scripts/g-i/gtk_font_tester.c

[4] http://www.webalice.it/zinosat/shots/bn_step1.jpg
[5] http://www.webalice.it/zinosat/shots/pa_in_step1.jpg
[6] http://www.webalice.it/zinosat/shots/in_step1.jpg
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