kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[jean-pierre charras - INPG <jean-pierre.charras@...>]

About system TTF fontes versus Hershey fonts keep in mind these 
different topics:

- Hershey fonts are not so beautiful, but due to the manner they are 
drawn, they solve requirements for pcbnew:
exact control of size
exact control of pen size (or aperture size)

- For pcbnew, mainly for Gerber files, these parameters are more 
important than beauty.
We cannot set a decent minimum aperture size and keep the exact shape, 
and using a very small aperture could create problems with board 
manufacturers.
Note: gerber format accept polygons with no problems only if polygons 
have no hole - or negative layers.
otherwise some board manufacturers complains (DRC of Gerber files 
becomes tricky).
And obviously, text size can change for a given font from a system to an 
other system (said Windows/Linux/MacosX)
(Of course one can store the used font in board files, or in Kicad, but 
it is really very easy or a good idea?)
- However for Eeschema, exact size is not a requirement, and readability 
is more important.

Currently wxFonts are *not* scaled by wxDC (setting wxDC user scale has 
no effect on texts)
Just, one can set the font size, but this is *very* limited.

- wxGraphicContext is not compilable using Windows and mingw, at least 
for me and with a recent gcc compiler (gcc 4.2.1)
With mingw, we must install, patch and compile GDIplus, that is very 
tricky.

Jean-Pierre CHARRAS
Maître de conférences
Directeur d'études 2ieme année.
Génie Electrique et Informatique Industrielle 2
Institut Universitaire de Technologie 1 de Grenoble
BP 67, 38402 St Martin d'Heres Cedex

Recherche :
Grenoble Image Parole Signal Automatique (GIPSA - INPG)
Grenoble France