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I am working on some research related to FreeType2 Driver modules. I started my study by reading the Windows font Driver module (Because of its simplicity compared to TrueType and Type1). This Driver module works when a file with format .FNT or .FON is requested from client application.

So, as a first step i want to install some windows font of extension .FNT or .FON. After searching for quite a long time i figured out that .FNT is not used any more in windows so i cant download it. P.S. .FON format is used in windows 10 its a raster type font. So i decided to copy this file (From windows fonts folder) to my usr/share/FON/ directory. It copied successfully and icon was like an executable file in Linux but when i used fontconfig for updating with fc-cache and than listing with fc-list i couldn't see that.

So, is there a way i can install them and test my Windows Driver module? P.S. i know how to install normal .ttf fonts and use them , iam asking about .FON, .FNT format of windows fonts in Linux.

Ammar Ul Hassan
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  • Why on earth are you trying to use `fnt`/`fon` fonts? It's 2017, not 1982... If you want a raster font, use a modern OpenType font with embedded bitmap data. – Mike 'Pomax' Kamermans Mar 14 '17 at 20:49
  • @Mike'Pomax'Kamermans how can i test a windows driver in FreeType it takes these 2 font parameters. – Ammar Ul Hassan Mar 15 '17 at 01:43
  • The first two answers to that question would be "you read the FreeType2 documentation and participate on the FreeType mailing list". As for the claim that "it takes these 2 font parameters": I don't see anything in your question that shows the code you're using, and FreeType is not a function, it's an entire library so please update your post if you have questions about specific code. – Mike 'Pomax' Kamermans Mar 15 '17 at 14:46
  • @Mike'Pomax'Kamermans may be u misunderstood what i said. I never said FreeType is a function. But to render some styled text we need some font. And there are some font formats FreeType supports like truetype type1 and windows font. I want to test driver modules windows font that only runs when .FON or .FNT format file is given from a client application. The flow could be like client application -> fontconfig -> FreeType (Xft can be used to render output on screen) – Ammar Ul Hassan Mar 17 '17 at 02:02
  • the real question is *why* you want to do that. It's 2017, there is literally no good reason to "want to go with .fon or .sfn", those are formats from the 1980s and horrendously out of date. – Mike 'Pomax' Kamermans Mar 17 '17 at 03:38
  • @Mike'Pomax'Kamermans as i mentioned i want to do some research on FreeType. May be i will need to create a new driver module for my own font so. As there is no document how to create a driver module , i have to study the most simplest driver which is windows driver with these extensions. I created a client application for that. – Ammar Ul Hassan Mar 17 '17 at 06:08
  • Okay, no, now we're just hitting an [XY Problem](https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/66378) - is there a *real reason* why you're doing this, or are you just curious about how to use FreeType? Because if it's the latter, my advice is "stop trying to use .fon and .sfn, they are not worth your time, focus on OpenType". If it's the first, i.e. you actually *need* to do this research, then please explain why so that we can understand that this isn't just you having decided to do something that just doesn't make sense in today's tech world. – Mike 'Pomax' Kamermans Mar 17 '17 at 17:22
  • @Mike'Pomax'Kamermans Actually we as a team are working on a research and we are going to make a new Font. this font will be created from the programmatic font METAFONT. So for our new Font language we need some environment in Operating system to deal with our language (Interpreter/Compiler). For this sake i am studying about the Font environment of Linux Operating system which involves Fontconfig, FreeType. I hope its bit clear now.. – Ammar Ul Hassan Mar 20 '17 at 01:57
  • It is, and please put that information in the question because it allows people to go "oh wait this person actually has a reason to do this thing that is normally completely ridiculous and not worth my time to look at". That said, this still doesn't make a lot of sense: if you want to make a new font, make a new OpenType font. Using METAFONT in 2017 is really weird, and rely on font formats that existed in the 1970's and haven't existed for decades now. – Mike 'Pomax' Kamermans Mar 20 '17 at 16:03
  • @Mike'Pomax'Kamermans Lets make it very simple. The advantages of METAFONT is its ability to show variety of font styles by changing the values of the parameters that represent the font characteristics right? Although its programming language but if we create a driver module module for METAFONT in FreeType that can deal with .mf files for font rendering than METAFONT can reduce the development time and cost for production of a font family. (It will also be able to support CJK characters easily) – Ammar Ul Hassan Mar 21 '17 at 02:26
  • Not really, no: it's a pixel coloring based system, horrendously out of date for a world with high dpi screens, fluid screen sizes, and modern printers. If you want modern fonts with variable typeface identity, have a look at https://medium.com/@tiro/https-medium-com-tiro-introducing-opentype-variable-fonts-12ba6cd2369#.102nd9rqk - You're looking into FreeType, a modern OpenType library, for a late 1970's, early 80's technology that the typesetting community wisely left in the past: it *was* useful, 30 to 20 years ago, but not anymore. Dev time today is "good tools" like FontLab, TTX, etc. – Mike 'Pomax' Kamermans Mar 21 '17 at 03:45

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