Font rendering for Japanese (Was: Re: [m17n] New uim.spec...)

Hi Mike,

--- Mike FABIAN <[email protected]> wrote:
> The easiest way to disable embedded bitmaps for Japanese would be
> to remove the line
> 
>                             <string>ja</string>
> 
> in /etc/fonts/suse-pre-user.conf.

ok. (but does it disable hinting? Hinting is not good for CJK [or square] characters)

> But from the feedback I got until now, most users seemed to like the
> embedded bitmaps, therefore I enabled them by default.  But not many
> users gave feedback at all about this subject.

hm.
 
> Personally I think that the embedded bitmaps are usually less
> beautiful but better readable. 

right.

> And I guess that a font designer who
> includes embedded bitmaps in his fonts does this because he believes
> they give better results than the outlines. If the font designer
> doesn't think so, why include embedded bitmaps at all?

MS Windows 9x can't show antialiased outlines, so MS fonts/IPA fonts include 
embedded bitmaps to show small characters clearly. But freetype2 shows 
outlines beautifully, so I think outlines are better than bitmaps.

Sazanami fonts also include bitmaps, but they are originally created for
console. Someone merged them into Sazanami fonts.

> But if most users like the outlines better, we could of course change
> the default. The problem is that it seems to be highly subjective
> which rendering style is best. 

We can't choose the most beautiful girl for everyone.
But he can choose the best girl for himself. :-)

> I want to disable embedded bitmaps for
> Japanese by default only if we are *sure* that the majority of users
> prefers the outlines. How to find out? 

suse-linux-ja?

Fedora and Mandriva don't use embedded bitmaps for Japanese.
Japanese fedora developers chose outlines.

Thanks.
Hirosi


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