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07/08 — 2019
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<h1>
Bye Bye BDFs
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<p>Glyph Bitmap Distribution Format is no more, as the creators of <a
href="https://pango.org">Pango</a>, one of the most widely used text
rendering libraries, <a
href="https://blogs.gnome.org/mclasen/2019/05/25/pango-future-directions/">announced</a>
their plans for Pango 1.44.</p>
<p>Until recently, Pango used FreeType to draw fonts. They will be
moving over to <a href="https://harfbuzz.org">Harfbuzz</a>, an evolution
of FreeType.</p>
<p><em>Why?</em></p>
<p>In short, FreeType was hard to work with. It required complex logic,
and provided no advantage over Harfbuzz (other than being able to fetch
opentype metrics with ease).</p>
<p>Upgrading to Pango v1.44 will break your GTK applications (if you use
a <code>bdf</code>/<code>pcf</code> bitmap font). Harfbuzz <em>does</em>
support bitmap-only OpenType fonts, <code>otb</code>s. Convert your
existing fonts over to <code>otb</code>s using <a
href="https://fontforge.github.io">FontForge</a>. It is to be noted that
applications such as <code>xterm</code> and <code>rxvt</code> use
<code>xft</code> (X FreeType) to render fonts, and will remain
unaffected by the update.</p>
<p>Both <a
href="https://github.com/nerdypepper/scientifica">scientifica</a> and <a
href="https://github.com/nerdypepper/curie">curie</a> will soon ship
with bitmap-only OpenType font formats.</p>
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<p>I'm Akshay, I go by nerd or nerdypepper on the internet.</p>
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I am a compsci undergrad, Rust programmer and an enthusiastic Vimmer.
I write <a href="https://git.peppe.rs">open-source stuff</a> to pass time.
I also design fonts:
<a href="https://git.peppe.rs/fonts/scientifica">scientifica</a>,
<a href="https://git.peppe.rs/fonts/curie">curie</a>.
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<p>Send me a mail at [email protected] or a message at [email protected].</p>
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