[Fontconfig] Variable fonts redux

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

On Wed, 27 Sep 2017 18:58:41 -0400, Behdad Esfahbod wrote:

>   - Expose slant & italic standard axes as well, but Fontconfig
> shoves FC_SLANT_ITALIC and FC_SLANT_OBLIQUE in the same element,
> with these values:
>
> #define FC_SLANT_ROMAN              0
> #define FC_SLANT_ITALIC             100
> #define FC_SLANT_OBLIQUE            110
>
> The varfonts axis for italic has a 0..1 range, 1 meaning italic.
> And the slant axis uses slant angle.  We can:
>
>   - Deprecate FC_SLANT element and add two new ones, eg FC_ITALIC
> and FC_SLANT_ANGLE.  I don't like this particularly,
>
>   - Repurpose FC_SLANT for *italic*, since the 0..1 range maps
> nicely to FC_SLANT_ITALIC=100, and add FC_SLANT_ANGLE for the
> slant.  I don't particularly like to confusing names here either.
> So I'm open to suggestions.

Do you want alternative noun forms? How about “italicity” and
“obliquity”? Or even “lean”?

There’s also the technical terms for the linear transformation:
“skew” or “shear”.