[Cairo] Re: [xsvg] cairo_text_extents ?

[John Ellson]

Carl Worth wrote:

> > First, I'm uncomfortable with the need to multiply by the original fontsize
> > in xsvg.c.  I think it would be better if the units returned by the  
> > text_extents functions were those of the model.
>
>All of the values at the cairo interface are in user space
>coordinates. So, if you're dividing by font size after
>cairo_text_extents, then it's not returning the right thing yet.
>
Multiplying actually, but we agree that its not right.

> > The issue is that the scale from the font matrix includes two
> > factors: the fontsize from the model and the zooming factor from
> > the view.
>
>Within a cairo_font, there's a single matrix. For the sake of the font
>renderer, two scale values are extracted from the matrix and supplied
>as the font size (see _get_scale_factors). This is important to do so
>that font hints are applied properly.
>
>The other relevant transformation is gstate->ctm which maps from user
>space to device space. Its inverse is also available.
>
>So I think we do have all of the necessary information.
>

How do I get to gstate->ctm from the parameters available to 
_cairo_ft_font_font_extents()
and _cairo_ft_font_glyph_extents() ?


>
> > Second, the freetype code is able to support vertical text strings (e.g. 
> > Chinese).
> > 
> > I'd like to propose that cairo_gstate maintain a flag for vertical text 
> > so that the
> > text_extents code can compute just the appropriate vertical or 
> > horizontal extents.
>
>Keith and I just chatted about this issue. The idea he came up with is
>to require an FcPattern argument to cairo_ft_font_create_for_ft_face.
>This pattern would contain only font rendering options (including
>FC_VERTICAL_LAYOUT). Any face-specifying options would be ignored.
>
>With that change in place, all cairo_ft_font objects will have an
>FcPattern, and we can simply query that for the value of the
>FC_VERTICAL_LAYOUT property to return the right metrics.
>

Sounds good.

> > If these sound reasonable then I would be willing to prepare a 
> > subsequent patch for
> > them.
>
>I'm working on this now. If you're interested in helping out in
>realtime, I'll be in the #cairo channel on irc.freenode.net.
>  
>

I'm not a practised irc user, and we have to go to my stepson's college
basketball game this evening, so perhaps I'll join you on IRC another time.

Thanks anyway.

John