[Fontconfig] Localizing font family and style names

Phil Race Phil.Race at Sun.COM
Tue Nov 30 10:42:51 EST 2004



Phil Race wrote:

>> Relevant here is the fact that the bulk of the fonts I've seen with 
>> multiple language names is that they simply add an English name 
>> alongside the existing "real" name, presumably so that English-only 
>> UIs (like Fontconfig today) can present something to the user.  
> 
> 
> The bulk perhaps but I've seen fonts with many localised names.
> Perhaps I've spent too long looking at windows fonts where they
> have names in Spanish, French, etc, etc, for Pan-European fonts
> like Arial.


A quick follow up on my specific comment about Arial
in this context where "name" is open to interpretation.

"Arial" doesn't happen to have localised family names
(truetype name id 1) - although it could.
But it does have localised style names (name id 2) and it does have
localised full face names (name id 4).

Having more than 2 localised family names is probably "rare".
So architecturally its important to support this but it also
means that its going to mean that guesswork won't often be
needed to decide which family name is preferred.

-phil.



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