[IMAGE-SIG] A Type1 Font Renderer for Python

[Fred L. Drake]

  Announcing a new Image-SIG project:  a Type1 Font Renderer for
Python!

  This new interface to a Type1 font rendering engine allows Python
programs access to a large number of fonts which have not been so
readily usable before.

  The interface provides access to the "t1lib" library by Rainer
Menzner. The rasterizer is based on the work which IBM contributed to
the X Consortium for inclusion in the X11 distribution. More
information on the detailed lineage of the rasterizer is included in
the t1lib manual. (X11 is not required to use the underlying C code or
the Python extensions.)

  Most aspects of the underlying t1lib have been exposed to the Python
layer. The exceptions are the functions which support the
rasterization of Type1 fonts directly into X11 bitmaps and pixmaps;
these are not needed from Python. An object-oriented layer written in
Python makes using the primitives a bit easier, and an additional
module supports the conversion of t1lib glyphs to Python Imaging
Library (PIL) Image objects, and allows for use of the fonts with
PIL's ImageDraw class.

  The project and preliminary implementation are discussed (and the
code is available) at http://www.python.org/sigs/image-sig/t1lib/.
Please take a look and send feedback to the Image-SIG mailing list or, 
if you're just incredibly shy, to me.


  -Fred

--
Fred L. Drake, Jr.
fdrake@cnri.reston.va.us
Corporation for National Research Initiatives
1895 Preston White Drive
Reston, VA    20191-5434

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