Cross platform fonts question

[Cubist at aol.com]

sez mdswindell at charter.net:
>It seems like the xplat font mess ought to be a high priority for 
>Revolution.  The only solution I saw that seems foolproof is the free 
>Bitstream Vera idea or the fellow who hired his own fontographer and 
>required user installation.
   That reminds me: If anyone out there wishes to pursue the "hire a font 
designer" option... I can do it, and I'm available.

>I really don't get why this issue is insurmountable.
   One: How do you know whether or not [insert arbitrary font here] is 
installed on J. Random User's machine?
   Two: Even if by some miracle you *do* know the *names* of the fonts on J. 
Random User's machine (which, in general, you *won't*), how do you know the 
character widths, X-height, leading, etc etc etc, of those fonts?
   Three: Even if by some other miracle you *do* know the character widths, 
X-height, leading, etc, that are associated with the font-names that are 
installed on J. Random User's machine, how do you know that *his* installed version 
of [insert arbitrary font-name here] has the same character widths, X-height, 
leading, etc, as the version of [insert arbitrary font-name here] that *you* 
know about?
   None of these questions are trivial. If you truly do not perceive the 
difficulty, I'd say that you either (a) are not well-informed on the issue, or (b) 
haven't invested sufficient thought in the issue, or (c) a combination of 
both.

>It seems like the
>kind of thing that leads to bad PR for any creation made with RR that 
>displays poorly on different systems.  Perhaps there needs to be a font
>development effort for inclusion with RR that would ensure xplat 
>compatibility and not cause copyright infringement.  If a program 
>displays like &^#%#g it is perceived as same, and in the final analysis
>that hurts RR and those who develop with it.
   I don't think anyone would disagree that this sort of thing is Not Good; 
the question is, what the heck do you *do* about it? As I pointed out above, it 
is *not* a trivial problem! You *may* be able to count on certain specific 
fonts being universally available on one particular OS (see also: 
Chicago/Charcoal for MacOS), but if you're tryna go xplat...

>Last question showing my ignorance:  Can fonts ever exist and be called
>from within an application itself, or must they reside at the system 
>level and be called from there?
   Yes, they can. While I am blissfully ignorant of the gritty details of How 
To Make It Happen, I know it's possible because there are a number of 
different apps which *do* it (mostly font-type utilities; cataloguers & etc). Perhaps 
someone with actual knowledge of the Gritty Details could chime in with an 
explanation of why this would or wouldn't be a good thing to incorporate into 
the Rev engine?
    _ _ _
  /\_\_\_\   Quentin 'Cubist' Long
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