[Fontconfig] Granular synthetic emboldening possible ?

[Werner LEMBERG]

>>> I 'd like all my fonts on the system to have increased weight.
>>> Embolden was the closes option I could find, but it boldens the
>>> fonts too much.  How can I get something in between ?
>
> That is out of the scope of fontconfig. that is the renderer's job.
> you better ask the freetype mailing list if you use it as rendering
> library.  or use a variable font that support multiple weights
> instead of emboldening.

Ha, he was there, and I sent him to this list :-)

If I understand everything correctly he wants to achieve the
following: Let's assume that normal shape is value 0 and fully
emboldened is value 100.  If he is asking for a font with bold
value N, he wants that fontconfig returns a font that is a bit bolder,
for example a font corresponding to bold value N + 5.

While FreeType can embolden fonts, it's a very limited operation
because it can cause ugly artifacts.  The only other thing FreeType
can offer is stem darkening at smaller sizes for CFF (and I told him
that already).


    Werner