WIP: Outline font support

I don't think that we'll be looking to support multiple hershey fonts without a clear path to internationalization.

Adding TTF, OTF or Type1 support might be useful if you would like to implement support for multiple fonts.

I'll see what I can do. This was a low hanging fruit.

The reason we don't do this is because we are a multi-lingual system, so implementing ASCII-only fonts is a non-starter.

Also, the current system of embedding fonts is at its limit. This currently takes much longer to initialize than we would like. External fonts using established type libraries instead of our own implementation will resolve this. Adding more built-in fonts will be problematic from a loading perspective.

The loader I implemented works on demand. If the fonts (other than Newstroke) are not used, they are not loaded.

In fact there are 2 use cases:

Fonts for schematic: this is the most easy (famous words) case to solve: text sizes are not so critical, and to be able to use a given font is a very good enhancement.
Fonts for Boards: this is the hard case to solve: text sizes are critical, and texts must be compatible with Gerber constraints: clearance, min thickness ... OTOH, asthetic criterias are not a major constraint. And waht happens if a font is not availlable on a computer.

My opinion is first use TTF, OTF or any other type in Eeschema and solve all issues, and after all issues are solved (displaying and printing texts, missing fonts), try to solve specific issues in Pcbnew. The first points is already a very hard work.

My opinion is first use TTF, OTF or any other type in Eeschema and solve all issues, and after all issues are solved (displaying and printing texts, missing fonts), try to solve specific issues in Pcbnew.

After working with this quite a bit I have come to the conclusion that Eeschema outline font support is not possible without a major redesign of text item handling. Pcbnew on the other hand is doable with much less effort. A lot of the work done on pcbnew can of course be used in eeschema as well, but there are many issues that are specific to eeschema.

added 21 commits

8093ca32...cf2dd0bd - 18 commits from branch kicad/code:master
bb47b833 - Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/master'
0d29f876 - Merge branch 'master' into strokefont
7b0738cb - Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/master' into strokefont

Compare with previous version

With Altium, fonts are embedded into the pcb file. This is necessary as soon as users can use their own fonts, and it cannot be expected they exist on every system.

I would be hesitant to embed fonts in KiCad files unless they are our own fonts or known open fonts. AFAIK, not all fonts can be freely distributed which is a legal issue that I will not subject the project to.

And waht happens if a font is not availlable on a computer.

Presumably exactly the same thing as when a MS Word file is passed around.

Font embedding is a higher-level issue than vector font support; I'll leave that one for others to ponder.

The reason we don't do this is because we are a multi-lingual system, so implementing ASCII-only fonts is a non-starter.

There are many (especially non-Latin, eg. Arabic) scripts that KiCAD does not support.

Looks like it will not be insurmountably difficult to add support for TrueType etc. - including the aforementioned Arabic script. More work remains to be done, as you can see from the attached picture.

Presumably exactly the same thing as when a MS Word file is passed around.

No. The fonts that are included with MS Word have specific license exemptions that allow them to be included in the file, as certain conditions are met. (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/fonts/font-faq) These conditions cannot be met by KiCad and so we cannot support font embedding unless we can restrict the fonts to those with an open license.

This becomes a can of worms that may not be worth opening. We can distribute a set of open fonts with the appropriate licenses and we can discuss whether we would want to allow linking to system fonts.

And again, that's a much easier decision for Eeschema -- because if the linked font isn't available we can just fall back to our own. More difficult on the PCB where it may change copper clearances, etc.

Right. I could image us keeping the font text as a set of filled polygons that would allow the board to be opened on any computer. But if you edit the text, it would need to take a font from your machine.

That is a possible solution albeit an ugly one. This is why I haven't tackled this issue yet. I knew there are a lot of moving parts that have to be resolved before any implementation could be considered.

No. The fonts that are included with MS Word have specific license exemptions

I wasn't talking about included fonts, in fact I was talking specifically about fonts not distributed with Word, and then not choosing for one reason or another (like simply not knowing one can do such a thing) to embed them in the Word document (which in my experience is often the case). Sorry for not making that clear.

I could image us keeping the font text as a set of filled polygons that would allow the board to be opened on any computer. But if you edit the text, it would need to take a font from your machine.

PDF font subsetting works more or less like that, without the editing bit.

I suggest that fonts such as TTF/OTF can be set to a global font or a local font path.

Global font file: select the font file in the system.

Partial font file: add a fonts folder in the KiCad project to store users' own font files.

Do you think this is okay?

mentioned in issue #2441 (closed)

added 330 commits

7b0738cb...07d4a280 - 258 commits from branch kicad/code:master
d54b4e9d - start of Truetype support
00c52bec - further work on ttf support; added Freetype/HarfBuzz libs
7b69e6cc - add OpenType (otf), more HarfBuzz code
37a6296a - Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/master' into strokettf
f3f4e7ec - piecewise linear approximation for Bezier curves; renamed...
61100690 - piecewise linear approximation for Bezier curves; renamed...
f3ff2e6f - renamed class TRUETYPE_FONT -> OUTLINE_FONT
d633c1f7 - renamed truetype->outline
ab21d514 - contour approximation a bit more accurate, seems to give poor results on eg. Comic Sans
730e73ac - all outline code moved to outline_font.cpp
bbf06218 - some typedefs to make life a bit easier/saner
67fb64e5 - fixes to private fn signatures
ece51871 - typedefs moved to superclass
3cc0a8ad - convenience function; avoids code duplication in addShapeWithClearance() for PCB_TEXT
d7482d8f - started work on outline text rendering, added new callback for complete...
c6ac9132 - added FillPolyline() and outline callback (see create_3dgraphic_brd_items.cpp)...
f6845bb4 - dummy GAL is now a subclass of GAL (which now has a pure virtual fn)
22e735c9 - fn renamed in BASIC_GAL
65ab06ee - font caching moved here; fn to query font stroke/outline type
677cad5b - font caching moved to FONT
f894d32f - dummy implementation of FillPolyline (pure virtual in GAL) which just calls...
82cf6ea9 - quadratic Beziers converted to cubic and further to straight segments with...
3d8162bd - Draw() is now not a constant function (here would be OK but outline fonts get cached)
415b60e3 - outline callbacks set up here
edb153aa - support for outline fonts; text only drawn if not empty
0d1edc5f - FillPolyline implementation
305364c6 - FillPolyline implementation (just calls drawPolyline)
7a7802e0 - Draw() no longer const because of caching
b168bfad - Draw() no longer const because of caching
121a9ca5 - outline callback
94ff335d - outline font support
8fe64fea - fixes for merge conflict
4d60d226 - Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/master' into strokettf
8c0504bf - git fix-format
6e0c4bb3 - Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/master' into strokettf
6ed46f97 - still merging
2800102e - still merging
453639c2 - typedef'd outline callback for readability
2fdb323f - typedef'd outline callback for readability
77970420 - PCB text items in outline fonts now converted to 2d triangles for 3d viewer in outline callback
6e8f3de6 - fix for mirrored pcb text
b33c7213 - drawPolyline methods rearranged
ed4a8a9f - drawPolyline for std::vector<VECTOR2D>
6efdc75d - removed debug printouts
5ae91a3e - removed debug printouts
f7dee400 - FillPolyline not actually needed but DrawPolyline for std::vector<VECTOR2D> is
f053216d - FillPolyline not actually needed but DrawPolyline for std::vector<VECTOR2D> is
9efeb00a - FillPolyline not actually needed but DrawPolyline for std::vector<VECTOR2D> is
b1873c4d - FillPolyline not actually needed but DrawPolyline for std::vector<VECTOR2D> is
5a14d220 - FillPolyline not actually needed but DrawPolyline for std::vector<VECTOR2D> is
7f5f2b25 - Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/master' into strokettf
b98a4955 - format changes caused by merge
86640347 - no longer need to explicitly turn fill on as this has to be handled at caller anyway
8186245c - for each contour of a glyph, figure out whether it is part of the glyph outline, or a hole
e634185d - for each contour of a glyph, figure out whether it is part of the glyph outline, or a hole
4a4ff085 - Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/master' into strokettf
2bed2c83 - merge from upstream/master finalized
cb59fac7 - pcbnew main display and gerber output work with freetype, 3d viewer does not;...
d71f26df - fixed typo in global fn name
fa4f60c0 - winding now correct for all contours
67e45f39 - checkpoint: pcbnew & Gerber output more or less working, 3d viewer does not...
25bced1d - multi-outline (eg. aumlaut) glyphs displayed but still without holes
5cf11201 - 3d viewer shows outline fonts correctly - does not show Newstroke at the...
53001eb9 - untouched copy from https://github.com/mapbox/earcut.hpp
08b7610e - outstanding issues with outline font processing; Gerber output seems to have problems
a5e91bff - Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/master' into strokettf-merge
51cb3800 - finalized merge
cc53ac90 - moved to font/ subdir
4cd680b6 - font stuff moved to font/ subdir
790a21c5 - removed unused code, added back stroke font PCB text items
95f8fb81 - font stuff moved to font/ subdir
3d0f810d - updated to current + merged branch outlinefont

Compare with previous version

Some of the many outstanding issues:

fonts with glyphs that are self-intersecting are not handled properly
no work has been done on eeschema
font sizing needs more attention (but different fonts will always appear to be of different sizes even if the glyphs are the same size in mm)
bold/italic/etc. does not work for outline fonts

Can Hershey_fonts display Chinese completely? What's the effect of the display?

added 5 commits

3d0f810d...82ecb0f7 - 2 commits from branch kicad/code:master
7b4ff3c8 - fonts with cubic splines now supported; moved outline decomposition to class...
319f7847 - deleted unused code
ee805e9d - Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/master' into strokefont

Compare with previous version

Hello. I compiled the AUR package using the PR you submitted.

There is no TTF/OTF font option after installation.

Error message

ASSERT INFO:
./src/common/wincmn.cpp(3270): assert "!wxMouseCapture::IsInCaptureStack(this)" failed in CaptureMouse(): Recapturing the mouse in the same window?

BACKTRACE:
[1] wxWindowBase::CaptureMouse()
[2] make_fcontext

Version information：

Application: Pcbnew

Version: (5.99.0-8620-g3d0f810d3b), debug build

Libraries:
	wxWidgets 3.0.5
	libcurl/7.74.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1i zlib/1.2.11 zstd/1.4.8 libidn2/2.3.0 libpsl/0.21.1 (+libidn2/2.3.0) libssh2/1.9.0 nghttp2/1.41.0

Platform: Linux 5.4.91-1-lts x86_64, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK, KDE, x11

Build Info:
	Date: Jan 23 2021 06:17:28
	wxWidgets: 3.0.5 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8) GTK+ 3.24
	Boost: 1.75.0
	OCC: 7.5.0
	Curl: 7.74.0
	ngspice: 33
	Compiler: GCC 10.2.0 with C++ ABI 1014

Build settings:
	KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=ON
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=ON
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
	KICAD_USE_OCC=ON
	KICAD_SPICE=ON
	KICAD_STDLIB_DEBUG=OFF
	KICAD_STDLIB_LIGHT_DEBUG=ON
	KICAD_SANITIZE=OFF

Compiled AUR package：

https://github.com/taotieren/kicad_arch/actions/runs/505239223

PKGBUILD info：

# https://github.com/taotieren/kicad_arch/blob/main/PKGBUILD

# Maintainer: Edward Pacman <edward at edward-p dot xyz>
# Contributer: Nick Østergaard <oe.nick at gmail dot com>

pkgname=kicad-test
_langpack=kicad-i18n-test
replaces=(${_langpack})
pkgver=r20075.2d1d16d7a2
pkgrel=1
pkgdesc="Electronic schematic and printed circuit board (PCB) design tools"
arch=('i686' 'x86_64')
url="http://kicad-pcb.org/"
license=('GPL')
depends=('wxgtk3' 'python' 'boost-libs' 'glew' 'curl' 'ngspice' 'opencascade' 'python-wxpython')
makedepends=('git' 'cmake' 'glm' 'zlib' 'mesa' 'boost' 'swig')
optdepends=('kicad-library: for footprints and symbols'
            'kicad-library-3d: for 3d models of components')
conflicts=('kicad' 'kicad-bzr')
provides=('kicad')
source=("${pkgname}"'::git+https://gitlab.com/rockola/kicad.git')
md5sums=('SKIP')

pkgver() {
  cd "${srcdir}/${pkgname}"
  printf "r%s.%s" "$(git rev-list HEAD --count --first-parent)" "$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)"
}

build() {
  cd "${srcdir}/${pkgname}"
  git switch -c test ee805e9d 
  mkdir -p build
  cd build
  
#  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
  cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug \
    -DKICAD_STDLIB_LIGHT_DEBUG=ON \
    -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr \
    -DCMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR=lib \
    -DKICAD_USE_OCE=OFF \
    -DKICAD_USE_OCC=ON \
    -DKICAD_BUILD_I18N=ON \
    -DBUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON \
    -DKICAD_SCRIPTING=ON \
    -DKICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON \
    -DKICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON \
    -DKICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=ON \
    -DKICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON \
    -DwxWidgets_CONFIG_EXECUTABLE=/usr/bin/wx-config-gtk3 \
    -DKICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=ON

  make

#  cd "${srcdir}/${pkgname}/translation"
#  mkdir -p build
#  cd build
#  cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr

#  make
}

package() {
  cd "${srcdir}/${pkgname}"
  cd build
  make DESTDIR="${pkgdir}" install
}

mentioned in merge request !645 (closed)

added 67 commits

ee805e9d...9f18fee1 - 58 commits from branch kicad/code:master
7def4661 - Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/master' into strokefont
5b16119d - earcut.hpp moved (included not only from 3dviewer); added triangulate.h which...
c2658707 - moved
6b892373 - font interface changed; instead of font name being passed around, EDA_TEXT...
266813b6 - Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/master' into strokefont
3b96625b - upstream/master merge finalized
49eb23bf - outline fonts work in eeschema (for some definition of 'work'); PDF plot from...
68312fb6 - Merge remote-tracking branch 'upstream/master' into strokefont
61ecfb1d - upstream/master merge finalized

Compare with previous version

Started looking at eeschema.

Schematic Chinese display exception：

PDF Chinese display exception：

PCB Chinese display is normal：

Gerber Chinese display is normal：

Application: Eeschema

Version: (5.99.0-8664-g49eb23bffd), debug build

Libraries:
	wxWidgets 3.0.5
	libcurl/7.74.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1i zlib/1.2.11 zstd/1.4.8 libidn2/2.3.0 libpsl/0.21.1 (+libidn2/2.3.0) libssh2/1.9.0 nghttp2/1.41.0

Platform: Linux 5.4.91-1-lts x86_64, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK, KDE, x11

Build Info:
	Date: Jan 25 2021 13:05:17
	wxWidgets: 3.0.5 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8) GTK+ 3.24
	Boost: 1.75.0
	OCC: 7.5.0
	Curl: 7.74.0
	ngspice: 33
	Compiler: GCC 10.2.0 with C++ ABI 1014

Build settings:
	KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=ON
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=ON
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
	KICAD_USE_OCC=ON
	KICAD_SPICE=ON
	KICAD_STDLIB_DEBUG=OFF
	KICAD_STDLIB_LIGHT_DEBUG=ON
	KICAD_SANITIZE=OFF

@taotieren can you paste the Chinese string you used here (or somewhere else I can access it if it can't be pasted here) so I can use it for testing?

OK, I'm using actions to compile it, and it will be tested after compiling. thanks.

2021年2月9日 00:48，Ola Rinta-Koski gitlab@mg.gitlab.com写道：

An exception is displayed when the text is placed for the first time in the schematic (the same as the schematic exception above).
Click the placed text content / adjust the height of the text again, and the Chinese content will display normally.

PDF Chinese display exception：

Application: Eeschema

Version: (5.99.0-8692-g61ecfb1d94), debug build

Libraries:
	wxWidgets 3.0.5
	libcurl/7.74.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1i zlib/1.2.11 zstd/1.4.8 libidn2/2.3.0 libpsl/0.21.1 (+libidn2/2.3.0) libssh2/1.9.0 nghttp2/1.41.0

Platform: Linux 5.4.91-1-lts x86_64, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK, KDE, x11

Build Info:
	Date: Jan 25 2021 13:12:31
	wxWidgets: 3.0.5 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8) GTK+ 3.24
	Boost: 1.75.0
	OCC: 7.5.0
	Curl: 7.74.0
	ngspice: 33
	Compiler: GCC 10.2.0 with C++ ABI 1014

Build settings:
	KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=ON
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=ON
	KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
	KICAD_USE_OCC=ON
	KICAD_SPICE=ON
	KICAD_STDLIB_DEBUG=OFF
	KICAD_STDLIB_LIGHT_DEBUG=ON
	KICAD_SANITIZE=OFF

@taotieren eeschema is nowhere near usable yet, I have only started looking into it. If you wish to give the current version a go, you should limit any testing to pcbnew and its outputs.

OK. I will do some Chinese display tests. Windows10 uses ttc font format, is there a plan to support it? Thanks!

FreeType supports TTC (which is just a collection of TTF fonts) so it will eventually be supported. For now the font has to be TTF or OTF.

Multi-line and justification currently doesn't work. I wonder if it would require some extra work to support.

WIP: Outline font support

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