From: Joaquín Cuenca Abela (cuenca@pacaterie.u-psud.fr)
Date: Wed Jul 03 2002 - 15:00:39 EDT
I guess that this email was intended to the list. Just fwd'ing
On Wed, 2002-07-03 at 20:43, Randy Kramer wrote:
> Joaquín Cuenca Abela wrote:
> > I don't know how to implement a font substitution algorithm that makes
> > sense. The problem:
>
> I don't know either, but I'd like to try a proposal for discussion. It
> should be noted that Windows has to solve this problem as well, because
> not all fonts are available on all machines. My understanding of what
> they do is that they pick the best substitute fonts available from those
> on the machine, but do not tell the user anything about the fact that
> these substitutions have been made. IIUC, his combo box still lists the
> font as the originally specified font, and if he adds text, it is
> inserted as the originally specified font unless he makes an intentional
> change, like selecting a font that is available on this machine for new
> text to be entered.
>
> I suggest this (substituting the fonts but not changing the stored font
> names, and not telling the user anything about it) should be the default
> behavior. Maybe for advanced users we provide more information /
> additional behaviors. Maybe we provide a note when opening a file and
> we don't have exactly the specified fonts:
>
> "The fonts on this machine do not match the fonts originally specified
> in this document. From a list of substitutes, we have picked fonts that
> are, AFAWeCT, the closest substitutes available for these fonts. Unless
> you intentionally do something clever, any changes you make will be
> saved with the names of the originally specified fonts, and thus will
> look like the original text when moved back to the originating machine.
> If you want to make more changes to the fonts, please read the 1200 page
> book: "Dealing with Missing Fonts in Crossplatform Word Processors" ;-)"
>
> Maybe we need the concept of an originating machine. A document created
> on a machine maintains the originally specified font names unless a
> special translation mode is invoked called something like "change
> originating machine to this machine" in which case the stored font names
> are changed to the closest substitute font available on this machine.
> But, I don't know how often such a thing is really needed.
>
> Just my first $.02. No doubt, I will be one of the people eventually
> clamoring for more control, but this sounds like a reasonable first
> cut. My recollection of what Windows does is probably quite old. Does
> anybody know more about how they handle it?
>
> Randy Kramer
-- Joaquín Cuenca Abela cuenca@pacaterie.u-psud.fr
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