Re: [Devel] Compressed PCF fonts

[Keith Packard]

Around 18 o'clock on Feb 4, Francesco Zappa Nardelli wrote:

> Hum... FreeType must keep the whole decompressed font file into the
> memory, because the PCF driver gets at random positions into the font
> file (and decompressing the font to a temporary file is not an
> option).  This will lead to a bigger memory footprint, even if it
> saves space on disk.

Alternatively, you can build an IO layer that allows for seeks within the 
compressed file -- forward seeks are easy, backwards seeks just force
a rescanning of the file from the start.  Add a simple block caching layer 
on top of that and even backwards seeks aren't horribly painful.

Keith Packard        XFree86 Core Team        Compaq Cambridge Research Lab