Re: [ANNOUNCEMENT] Updated: mscgen-0.20-2

[Thomas Wolff <towo at towo dot net>]

On 26.02.2015 23:56, David Stacey wrote:
> On 26/02/2015 11:58, Thomas Wolff wrote:
> > On 25.02.2015 21:34, David Stacey wrote:
> > > On 25/02/2015 07:27, Thomas Wolff wrote:
> > > > Am 19.02.2015 um 00:05 schrieb David Stacey:
> > > > > The following package has been updated in the Cygwin distribution:
> > > > >
> > > > > * mscgen-0.20-2
> > > > >
> > > > > Mscgen is a small programme that parses Message Sequence Chart
> > > > > descriptions and produces PNG, SVG, EPS or server side image maps
> > > > > (ismaps) as the output.
> > > > >
> > > > > This release has been built with libgd3 and three patches from 
> > > > > Fedora.
> > > > Please rebuild the package with
> > > >         configure --with-freetype
> > > > so the font selection option -F can be used.
> > >
> > > I tried rebuilding with '--with-freetype'. mscgen builds but always 
> > > exits with an error code. This is because gdImageStringFT() always 
> > > returns the string 'Could not set character size'. By default, the 
> > > code is trying to use the 'helvetica' font. I have a goodly 
> > > selection of font packages installed. Any ideas?
> > I had similar problems until I found out how to configure fonts. This 
> > is very poorly documented.
> > With /etc/fonts/fonts.conf pointing to ~/.fonts, it is actually 
> > sufficient to link your font directory to ~/.fonts
> > and you can address all fonts contained therein (including 
> > subfolders) by their name like in
> > mscgen -T png -F "Droid Sans"
>
> I'm not sure you need to edit /etc/fonts/fonts.conf.
No, because it already lists ~/.fonts which gives a user an easy 
opportunity to make his/her favourite fonts available without digging 
into fontconfig (if only this option were documented...).

> By default, this includes /usr/share/fonts, so any font therein should 
> be accessible to mscgen. You would only need to do this if you wanted 
> to use fonts in non-standard locations - such as those from 
> texlive-collection-fontsextra.
>
> I wonder if this is a problem with font types? 'fc-match helvetica' 
> matches a PCF font, and that might explain the error, if libgd3 is 
> trying to scale a bitmap font. But a TrueType Font such as 'Luxi Sans' 
> works. Should I just patch mscgen so that the default font is a 
> TrueType font?
That might be a good idea.
Be sure to include a dependency to the font package you choose for default,
e.g. font-bh-ttf for Luxi Sans,
or font-bitstream-vera-ttf for Bitstream Vera Sans;
font-cantarell-otf for Cantarell is also a good choice.
(I'd suggest not to choose a default from a texlive font package because 
they are too big for a dependency.)
------
Thomas