Re: [Freetype] fonts handling in Java

[Antoine Leca]

Namaste,

Venu (mohan_bg) wrote:
> I am building an editor in java for sanskrit.

Nice project. Hope you will succeed.
<OFF-TOPIC>
If you did not know it, take a look at ICU,
<URL:http://oss.software.ibm.com/icu>
<OFF-TOPIC>

> In sanskrit for each character two glyphs have to be
> displayed.

Err, no. First, Sanskrit is not a script, it is a language. For example (see
above), I usually wrote Sanskrit in Latin script, and I certainly do not
need two glyphs for each character (unless I use Vedic accents).

Then, assuming Devanagari script, the number of glyphs is not directly
related with the number of characters. Some characters may need one glyph
(ka-kaara, ra-kaara, i-matra, for example), some might be shown with two
when using certains fonts (kha-kaara and many others), and then some
combinations will be handled with ligatures (jña, xa, repha, etc.)
The most general way of seeing it is to describe Devanagari as a "complex
script". The present state of affairs here is that "complex scripts" are not
correctly handled without pain by font engine like Freetype. And I am sorry
for this state of affairs. Partial solutions do exist, but they do not scale
well (i.e., they are particualr to one field of application). As a result,
you are presently restricted to the present solutions available within
your(s) target platforms. Regarding JVM, I do not know precisely how it is
really. You better should ask in a relevant forum (Freetype is C-based,
marginally Pascal or C++).

> Is there any classes available in java to handle
> glyphs like this

See above, look in ICU, particularly the layout component.
This has nothing to do with Freetype at all, by the way.


All the best.

Antoine