Re: A DVI viewer with freetype2

[Hirotsugu Kakugawa]

Hi.

sx0005> There never will be a `CJK module' for freetype2.  VFlib provides an
sx0005> additional layer to support CJK subfonts as needed by TeX.

For example, 'font metric adjuster font driver'.
It obtains a glyph from another font driver and modifies font metrics. 
It is very important for handling Japanese Kanji characters...
(In VFlib, 'a font' does not mean a font file...)

If you want to develop a DVI driver with FT2,
you need to obtain design size of a font from TFM font (TrueType and Type1
format do not contain such information).
Then obtain a bitmap of a chracter accoring to design size, device 
resolution, and maginification factor in DVI file.
It is not a difficult task.

But your DVI driver is very limited: only TrueType and Type 1 are
supported.  Unfortunately, some fonts do not offered in Type1 format... 
So, that will be a problem for you.
To solve the problem, I believe you must write a code like VFlib.


sx0005> As said above VFlib provides some more functionality, especially for
sx0005> CJK fonts) which should not be in FT2.  

Some CJK character fonts are in special bitmap format (not PK, not GF)
and we need a mechaism (like VFlib) to use such fonts in TeX. 
In addition, character code conversion is also important for CJK fonts...


VFlib is designed not for a simple set of multiple font drivers;
its higher layer is imprtant point.

-- h.kakugawa
(a developer of VFlib)