On 3/25/25 08:19, Bald Eagle wrote:
> Now that you're neck-deep in the font code, can you ramble on about what you've
> discovered / know about?

I'll soon post the first draft of the yuqk text{} documentation to:

   https://news.povray.org/povray.pov4.discussion.general/

> 
> How difficult would it be to access the fundamental Bezier spline control points
> for ttf fonts?

Easy-ish to hack something. To do well, I don't know. Plus, I have 
serious doubts that such font features fit well within POV-Ray. The font 
(and font application) game as a whole is big and messy.

So, it's ttfdump, and similar external tooling for now.

> 
> Can you make text render a tight spline rather than a thick outline?  A
> "center-line" font?
> 
> Are these things dependent on how the font is defined in the file? 

They are. Creating center line / offset splines automatically is not 
easy (or even always possible) to do. IIRC, clipka mentioned 'stroke 
fonts' exist, but I've had no exposure to them.

Your questions touch on an interesting topic. Namely, additional ttf 
fonts designed specifically for POV-Ray use as building block shapes. 
I'd probably start with a square aspect ratio, box character font. 
Adding rounded corner shapes and the like to it too.

Thank you for the references in your follow-on post. I've stored them in 
my BillW directory for later use.

Bill P.


Aside: clipka created a FreeType fork some years back. It had issues 
when I tested it, but it's on my list to dig into that code someday. 
Perhaps, that work a reasonable path to extending the font formats 
POV-Ray supports.

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