[Fontconfig] Tutorial or guidance for using fontconfig

[Behdad Esfahbod]

Staffan Gimåker wrote:
> On Wednesday 07 January 2009 23:55:45 Behdad Esfahbod wrote:
>> If you still decide to use fontconfig directly, I always reply to messages
>> that are to the point.  True, there is no good guide to read.  But if you
>> ask smart questions (like, "I have a family name, how do I find the best
>> font file to use?"), you get smart answers.  If you ask stupid questions
>> ("how do I use fontconfig?"), you probably don't get any answers.
> 
> So, if I have a family name (say, Times), how *do I* find the best font file to 
> use (as in, the path to the font)?

Check the man pages for exact parameters and error handling, but something
like this:

  FcPattern *pat, *match;
  FcResult result;
  char *file;
  int index;

  pat = FcPatternCreate ();
  FcPatternAddString (pat, FC_FAMILY, "Times");
  FcConfigSubstitute (NULL, pat, FcMatchPattern);
  FcDefaultSubstitute (pat);
  match = FcFontMatch (NULL, pat, &result);

  FcPatternGetString (match, FC_FILE, 0, (FcChar8 **) &file);
  FcPatternGetInteger (match, FC_INDEX, 0, &index);

If you use FreeType, at this point you can do:

  FT_New_Face (ftlib, file, id, &face);

to get your face.  Then you can clean up:

  FcPatternDestroy (match);
  FcPatternDestroy (pat);

> (We use OpenGL to render (polygonal) text in 3D so, AFAICT, going through 
> Pango seems a bit redundant for our usage.)

Going through Pango gets you internationalization.  That is, correct rendering
of Arabic, Hebrew, Indic, Thai, etc etc etc.  There are a few projects using
Pango with OpenGL.  Search the net.

Cheers,
behdad

> Cheers,
> Staffan