Notices

Fontforge is a Linux app for creating fonts with its own idiosyncratic -- er, unique -- UI.

Myself, I use it on WinXP, either under Cygwin or andLinux.

Since the interface can't really be Hildonized, I'm wondering what the process would be to get Fontforge running on the N810.

The reason? To use the tablet/stylus interface for moving control points on any glyph, instead of relying on a mouse.

There are a whole slew of dependencies listed at http://packages.debian.org/unstable/graphics/fontforge (and fewer in the considerably older version at http://packages.debian.org/stable/graphics/fontforge ).

Guidance, please, O! ye venerated Linux gurus!

Easiest thing, since it seems all you want is using a stylus-on-screen for input, would be one of RDP, VNC, or X over the network...

I am not sure how useful it is, but here's a compiled fontforge binary:

http://www.arava.co.il/matan/770/fontforge

download it to /usr/bin, make sure it is executable, and run from an xterm or ssh.

Well, if it works on an IT, I reckon it's worthwhile. :-)

Getting to work on font design and getting away from my desk (and/or laptop) are usually mutually exclusive pleasures.

So I am very grateful for this.

I'll install and test this evening.

Roger

Work on font design, eh? <nod>One of those.</nod> Explains your need to switch fonts in microb.

Well, I got it there and I got it running and, for sure, it behaves kind of funny.

I got a font opened and changed and saved, and indeed I am able to drag the Bezier control points directly on the screen as imagined (and otherwise unimaginably expensive on a drawing tablet).

But Fontforge and Maemo aren't talking to each other about windows; I can't switch from the main window to the an individual character window. (What I can do is double-click on the character in the main window to get the outline window for one glyph, edit it, save the file, then close the outline window, which returns me to the main window.)

Well, I'm sure it's the same sort of "if you don't Hildonize, you can't do complex UI things" behavior exhibited by all kinds of apps.

I won't be making this my main app, but it will enable me to interact with font design in a very different way than I've been able to so far.

For that, I am very grateful.

Thanks,

Roger

Added later —

Plus every time the N810 blanks the screen, something in fontforge says, "Oh, no, you don't!" and forces the brightly lit display back on a second later.

Outed!

Usually I only tire reading webpages in the same font after three or four months, but you're right, I do switch fonts whose design I'm testing in and out all the time.

That's probably why the example came to mind. But I think of it more as a personalization issue than a change-the-look-on-a-whimsy need.

As I said before (I never tire of repeating myself), we live in the browser. It ought to reflect our subtlest need.

Live in the browser, eh? Then why aren't you using a Flash or AJAX font tool?
j/k

Your statement is probably true of the Internet Tablets' target audience -- for my part, I live in a terminal or VNC/rdesktop session.

Here are some screenshots of Fontforge running on the Nokia N810:

This is a outline glyph window, where you edit/trace/create the outline:



This is a zoomed-in version of the outline glyph window. Note that the palettes can be made part of this window, which is helpful because you can't access them as separate windows (or palettes).



This is the fontview, showing KhmerOS Siemreap