[tex-k] ttf2pk and freetype (-lttf)

[Werner LEMBERG]

> I recently got involved in teTeX/LeX live (mainly modernizing the
> build system).  In doing so, I noticed that the only package in that
> tree (in fact the only package installed on our systems) still using
> freetype1 (-lttf) is ttf2pk.
> 
> We would certainly like to get rid of libttf, and since you two are
> ttf2pk's authors

Well, I no longer maintain ttf2pk due to time constraints.  And
Frédéric's email address is invalid since years...

> I have some questions:
> 
> (1) was ttf2pk ever converted to freetype2 and if so where could one
> get it.

Yes, there have been some efforts to do that:

  http://chem.skku.ac.kr/~wkpark/project/ktug/ttf2pk-freetype2_20030314.tgz

I've never used it, nor do I know the status of it.

> (2) if not, I would like to convert it (unless you prefer to do
> that), but I'd need some assistence. Is there a document covering
> this conversion (e.g.  how to translate TT_* names into equivalent
> FT_* ones)?

It's not a trivial job.  Reason: FreeType 2 no longer contains
OpenType support.  The special case of handling vertical
representation forms for CJK characters had to be implemented directly
in ttf2pk (this is, parsing the `vert' feature in the `GSUB' table).
Alternatively, the ICU library (as used by XeTeX) might be used for
it, but I'm not sure whether this is the right solution since it is
such a large library for such a small problem.


    Werner