Re: Getting Involved With Freetype

[Werner LEMBERG]

Sorry for the late response.

> Over the past few days I was successfully able to clone/make both
> the freetype and freetype-demo libraries.  I've also read through
> the documentation on the site and feel I have a rudimentary
> understanding of fonts, glyphs, and other font rendering concepts.
> However, I don't feel ready to tackle any of the issues linked here.
> I do have experience with C, but it was relatively basic compared to
> what I've been looking at in the freetype repo.  In other words, I
> haven't worked with codebases this large or complex.  Would this
> present a major problem if I want to get involved with FreeType?  In
> other words, is there room for learning more about C and font
> rendering as I go?

This is hard to say.  A good foundation in writing C code is probably
a necessity.  On the other hand, I consider improving your knowledge
in font rendering as part of the project.

> Currently, I am most interested in the VFLib.

Good.  Do you have any experience with (classical) TeX or LaTeX?

> From my understanding, TFM stores font information, while the actual
> glyphs are stored in PK/GF as bitmaps/raster formats.

Correct.

> So is the overall goal of the VFLib project then to add TFM and
> PK/GF rendering capability directly into FreeType? (Ideally without
> using VFLib as a dependency)

Yes.  FreeType would load PK or GF fonts, and the TFM data would be
'attached', similar to the already existing mechanism to attach
AFM/PFM files to Type 1 fonts.

> In addition, is it possible to check if the original GSOC 2018
> contributor, Parth Wazurkar, is still following the mailing list (it
> seems that email addresses are hidden on the mailing list)?

I don't think so; otherwise he would probably have already answered.

> If not, is there an alternate way to get into contact with them?

Try <parthwazurkar@gmail.com>.


    Werner