Opened 20 years ago

Closed 20 years ago

#694 closed defect (fixed)

truetype font for mapserver test data

Reported by: sgillies@… Owned by: sgillies@…
Priority: high Milestone:
Component: MapScript Test Data Version: 4.3
Severity: normal Keywords:
Cc: warnock@…, nsavard@…

Description

Testing may be made easier by including a freetype font with the test data.

However, consider this: since we have to have an absolute path to a font
file specified in fonts.txt, there's no way to escape having to edit that
file unless we require testers to build mapserver in the same location.
That's too strong a requirement.

For testing with Python, I would probably do a re-write so that the test
script writes its own fonts.txt with a dynamically generated font path.

If you have a font in mind to use for testing, please attach it to this bug.
I'm too busy, and I *really* like fonts so I might get distracted and waste
time.  Try to find one that is lightweight and is licensed so that we can
distribute it with Mapserver.  Attach the license if there is one.

Change History (6)

comment:1 by dmorissette, 20 years ago

Cc: warnock@… morissette@… added
I believe relative paths should work in fontset files, we use relative paths in
the apps that we distribute. I remember a bug with font paths a while ago but I
thought it had been resolved... if not we would need a specific testcase to
reproduce and fix.

Norm, I'll letyou get back to Sean with the details about Fred's open source font.

comment:2 by nsavard@…, 20 years ago

I used relative paths in the fonts.txt and Python tests ran correctly (see below).


-----------------
snipper of fonts.txt:

fritqat                         ./etc/fritqat.ttf

comment:3 by nsavard@…, 20 years ago

In comment number two, you should read "snippet" instead of "snipper".

comment:4 by dmorissette, 20 years ago

That's not the "real" open source font that Fred found.

Fred, can you please comment.

comment:5 by warnock@…, 20 years ago

Gnome Foundation and Bitstream Inc. announced a long-term agreement to
bring high quality fonts to free software.  Ten fonts will be released
for use under a special open license agreement, giving advanced font
capabilities to all free and open source software developers and users

So goodbye Fritquat hello Vera.  Vera is a very nice font that will
serve us very well in making maps.  Check out the details and download
this beauty at the gnome site below.

http://www.gnome.org/fonts/

you can read the press release at the bitstream website

http://www.bitstream.com/categories/news/press/2003_bitstream/012203_gnome.htm

you can see a preview of the fonts here

http://www.bitstream.com/categories/products/fonts/vera/index.html

This is a solution to a problem we've had for a long time.  Most fonts
cannot be redristibuted and used in publishing because it contravenes
copyrights.  Vera on the other hand is free, and the license is open to
redistribution, derivative works, and more.  And it's a high quality
font (actually 10 fonts) as well, and should suite our mapping needs
very well.

comment:6 by sgillies@…, 20 years ago

Resolution: fixed
Status: newclosed
Excellent!  I committed Vera.ttf and VeraBd.ttf to tests/vera, changed the
fonts.txt file and test.map, and made a change to one tests in the Python
tests to validate that it works.  I like Vera's similarity to Verdana.

Committed to the CVS main (4.3).  Thanks for the help and for encouraging
me to fix this, it certainly makes testing easier for users.
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