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1                  FreeType font driver for BDF fonts
2
3                       Francesco Zappa Nardelli
4                  <francesco.zappa.nardelli@ens.fr>
5
6
7Introduction
8************
9
10BDF (Bitmap Distribution Format) is a bitmap font format defined by Adobe,
11which is intended to be easily understood by both humans and computers.
12This code implements a BDF driver for the FreeType library, following the
13Adobe Specification V 2.2.  The specification of the BDF font format is
14available from Adobe's web site:
15
16  https://adobe-type-tools.github.io/font-tech-notes/pdfs/5005.BDF_Spec.pdf
17
18Many good bitmap fonts in bdf format come with XFree86 (www.XFree86.org).
19They do not define vertical metrics, because the X Consortium BDF
20specification has removed them.
21
22
23Encodings
24*********
25
26[This section is out of date, retained for historical reasons.  BDF
27 properties can be retrieved with `FT_Get_BDF_Property`, character set ID
28 values with `FT_Get_BDF_Charset_ID`.]
29
30The variety of encodings that accompanies bdf fonts appears to encompass the
31small set defined in freetype.h.  On the other hand, two properties that
32specify encoding and registry are usually defined in bdf fonts.
33
34I decided to make these two properties directly accessible, leaving to the
35client application the work of interpreting them.  For instance:
36
37
38  #include FT_INTERNAL_BDF_TYPES_H
39
40  FT_Face          face;
41  BDF_Public_Face  bdfface;
42
43
44  FT_New_Face( library, ..., &face );
45
46  bdfface = (BDF_Public_Face)face;
47
48  if ( ( bdfface->charset_registry == "ISO10646" ) &&
49       ( bdfface->charset_encoding == "1" )        )
50    [..]
51
52
53Thus the driver always exports `ft_encoding_none' as face->charmap.encoding.
54FT_Get_Char_Index's behavior is unmodified, that is, it converts the ULong
55value given as argument into the corresponding glyph number.
56
57If the two properties are not available, Adobe Standard Encoding should be
58assumed.
59
60
61Anti-Aliased Bitmaps
62********************
63
64The driver supports an extension to the BDF format as used in Mark Leisher's
65xmbdfed bitmap font editor.  Microsoft's SBIT tool expects bitmap fonts in
66that format for adding anti-aliased them to TrueType fonts.  It introduces a
67fourth field to the `SIZE' keyword which gives the bpp value (bits per
68pixel) of the glyph data in the font.  Possible values are 1 (the default),
692 (four gray levels), 4 (16 gray levels), and 8 (256 gray levels).  The
70driver returns either a bitmap with 1 bit per pixel or a pixmap with 8bits
71per pixel (using 4, 16, and 256 gray levels, respectively).
72
73
74Known problems
75**************
76
77- A font is entirely loaded into memory.  Obviously, this is not the Right
78  Thing(TM).  If you have big fonts I suggest you convert them into PCF
79  format (using the bdftopcf utility): the PCF font drive of FreeType can
80  perform incremental glyph loading.
81
82When I have some time, I will implement on-demand glyph parsing.
83
84- Except for encodings properties, client applications have no visibility of
85  the PCF_Face object.  This means that applications cannot directly access
86  font tables and must trust FreeType.
87
88- Currently, glyph names are ignored.
89
90  I plan to give full visibility of the BDF_Face object in an upcoming
91  revision of the driver, thus implementing also glyph names.
92
93- As I have never seen a BDF font that defines vertical metrics, vertical
94  metrics are (parsed and) discarded.  If you own a BDF font that defines
95  vertical metrics, please let me know (I will implement them in 5-10
96  minutes).
97
98
99License
100*******
101
102Copyright (C) 2001-2002 by Francesco Zappa Nardelli
103
104Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
105a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
106"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
107without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
108distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
109permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
110the following conditions:
111
112The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
113included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
114
115THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
116EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
117MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
118IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
119CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
120TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
121SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
122
123*** Portions of the driver (that is, bdflib.c and bdf.h):
124
125Copyright 2000 Computing Research Labs, New Mexico State University
126Copyright 2001-2002, 2011 Francesco Zappa Nardelli
127
128Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
129copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
130to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
131the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
132and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
133Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
134
135The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
136all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
137
138THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
139IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
140FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.  IN NO EVENT SHALL
141THE COMPUTING RESEARCH LAB OR NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY BE LIABLE FOR ANY
142CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT
143OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR
144THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
145
146
147Credits
148*******
149
150This driver is based on excellent Mark Leisher's bdf library.  If you
151find something good in this driver you should probably thank him, not
152me.
153