[Fontconfig] Aliases

[Adam Sampson]

Keith Packard <keithp at keithp.com> writes:

> Fontconfig doesn't support that because those names are likely to be 
> registered trademarks,

I've wanted that feature in the past so that I can create an
"Interface" alias to use as the UI font in everything I use;
that way I can change fonts everywhere just by editing the
aliases. I'm pretty sure that's unlikely to infringe any trademarks.

In general, it would be nice to have a mechanism in fontconfig that
could be used to make the "Sans"/"Serif"/"Monospace" standard aliases
visible, along with others that the user or admin might like to
define; currently fontconfig users such as pango have these aliases
hardcoded into them. Given that "Sans" and "Serif" don't have any
sensible meaning in some of the world's writing systems, there are
probably users out there already for whom this is a problem.

It seems a shame to leave out a useful feature just because it *could*
be used maliciously; obviously fontconfig shouldn't be allowed to look
at ~/.fonts for fonts because it makes it easier for the user to
install unlicensed fonts without the sysadmin's permission. ;)

-- 
Adam Sampson <azz at us-lot.org>                        <http://offog.org/>