[Fontconfig] Two questions for too many fonts and Fontypython

[Donn Ingle]

If one uses apps like Inkscape, there are font-choosers (I guess that's my
name for them) - dialogues that let you choose a font - which are very
cluttered by dozens of fonts that have nothing to do with one's task at
hand.

For example, in Inkscape on my current machine, I see:
  mry_KacstQurn
  ..
  STIXGeneral
  STIXIntegralsD
  ..
  Tlwg Mono
  ..
  Umpush
  ..
And it goes on and on .. (Libre Office shows all the same fonts.)

As a designer, I'd like to have a filtered view of those fonts. At least!
Some way to hide all the system-installed stuff.

I presume fontconfig is being used under the hood and that all the many
packages in a modern distro are bringing various fonts along as they
require. This is fine: each app gets what it needs to work.

Hello list,
The problem is when a human wants to select certain fonts they are
overwhelmed by this noise.

For my sins I wrote and (glacially) maintain Fonty Python which is based on
the idea of sets of fonts on-demand. It let's users group fonts (from paths
on their drive) into named sets which are then installed or removed
on-demand.

Nutshell: Fonty links or removes links to fonts paths in "~/.fonts"

This means a person can prepare a little for a job. Install the desired
fonts and then start work, say in Inkscape or Blender.

The problem is that with every single font on the entire system listed in
the Inkscape font-chooser, it's almost hopeless to find the few that you
want to use.

I don't suppose this is a fontconfig problem, per se, but more one for the
gui people in GTK-etc-land.

However: Q: Is there some mechanism in fontconfig that could allow me (as a
normal user, on the command line) to filter or suppress the population of
fonts that applications are going to offer me when they run?
(I'm picturing some temporary measure that I can reverse when I'm done.)

Q2: How should I proceed with Fonty's basic mechanism? i.e. Should I
continue to use "~/.fonts", or switch to "~/.local/share/fonts" or what?

Apologies if these are dumb questions, or OT, or I've asked them before. My
memory is not reliable. I mean no disrespect.

Thanks,
/d
https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/fontypython/

(Fonty is very old now and more than a little creaky. I am working on a new
release, but I am also old and creaky.)
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