Thomas DeWeese wrote: > sunburned_surveyor wrote: > >> Can anyone recommend a good tutorial/article on this subject? > > Nothing comes to mind, in general a SVG font is just more geometry > with a funny coordinate system and stuff.
Wow, I like the precision of the answer, even more from an implementor of the spec. :-P >> Are there any open source repositories or libraries for SVG fonts. Is >> there any interest in creating one? > > The Batik toolkit now includes two SVG fonts (I won't claim > that they are anything great but they are there). You can also > take just about any existing open source TrueType font and > convert it to SVG using the Batik ttf2svg converter. > > I think that in general it makes the most sense to built an open > source repository of Fonts (SVG or otherwise) but there are already > projects for that. Then using tools like Batik or Font Forge > you can convert fonts into SVG (so you don't need your clients > to install them). > > The one exception to this would be to do something like a > really cool illuminated font. Unlike most font tech that is > limited to B&W with SVG you can use the full power of SVG for > each glyph (multiple colors, gradients, complex strokes, etc). > This would enable really elaborate fonts that couldn't be > created in most other font systems. Indeed. I wondered my most of the SVG fonts I saw (and I didn't saw much) are just made of outlines, while the spec. is much more permissive. You can, for example, make font shapes by juxtaposing basic shapes, like three rectangles for H or A, a circle and a rectangle for p d q b, etc. The simple answer is probably because most of them were converted from TTF. The other reason, beside the weight of tradition, is that it is much more restrictive: if you want to specify an outline (stroke) of different color from the fill, you see the constructs. Same for filters, etc. It would be less nice. Now, as Thomas suggests, such creativity (using colors, different strokes, even filters!) is great for fonts given "as is", ie. that you must use in the given colors, etc. That can be used in titles, big first paragraph letters (the name escapes me, like in Middle Age manuscripts), etc. Note that SVG 1.2 should allow much more flexibility, I think. For example, boolean geometry (union, intersection), if not rejected from the current draft, can be used to merge several shapes into one, easying the making of simple fonts suitable for outline. Or perhaps sXBL could be used to make complex font glyphs, eg. using several colors, yet allowing to set the "palette" of the font. Etc. -- Philippe Lhoste -- (near) Paris -- France -- http://Phi.Lho.free.fr -- For servers mangling my From and Reply-To fields, -- please send private answers to PhiLho(a)GMX.net -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ----- To unsubscribe send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -or- visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/svg-developers and click "edit my membership" ---- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/svg-developers/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
