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== Benefit to Fedora == | == Benefit to Fedora == | ||
Enhance the experience of Fedora for Malayalam users by improving font rendering quality, flawless OpenType shaping and improved glyph shapes, with Unicode 13.0 support. | Enhance the experience of Fedora for Malayalam users by improving font rendering quality, flawless OpenType shaping and improved glyph shapes, with Unicode 13.0 support. All fonts also contain supporting metadata such as AppStream metadata which provides preview of the font in software installers like GNOME Software and Discover. | ||
Major improvements brought by the new Malayalam fonts include: | |||
# Redrawn glyph shapes for better readability and font metrics.<ref>KH Hussain et al., Beyond Roman fonts: Extra dimensions in Malayalam fonts, https://tug.org/TUGboat/tb41-2/tb128hussain-beyond.pdf</ref> | |||
# Consistent, flawless OpenType text shaping: redesigned OTL rules fixes all longstanding shaping issues.<ref>KV Rajeesh, A new set of OpenType shaping rules for Malaylam, https://rajeeshknambiar.wordpress.com/2021/09/20/a-new-set-of-opentype-shaping-rules-for-malayalam-script/</ref> | |||
# Various fonts designed for different purposes of typesetting/publishing/design work. | |||
# Fonts containing more than 900 glyphs for ‘comprehensive character set’ for Malayalam script; and fonts with ‘limited character set’ having lesser conjuncts suited for title text. | |||
== Scope == | == Scope == | ||
Revision as of 11:55, 8 January 2022
Malayalam Default Fonts Update
Summary
This change will update existing default Malayalam fonts and also rename to new upstream source, which brings improved text shaping, better glyphs for readability, Unicode 13 support, Appstream data amongst other improvements.
Owner
- Name: Rajeesh K V
- Email: <rajeeshknambiar@fedoraproject.org>
- Name: Parag Nemade
- Email: <pnemade@redhat.com>
Current status
- Targeted release: Fedora 36
- Last updated: 2022-01-08
- FESCo issue:
- Tracker bug:
- Release notes tracker:
Detailed Description
Till Fedora 35, Meera (smc-meera-fonts) and Rachana (smc-rachana-fonts) fonts were default sans-serif and serif fonts for Malayalam script/language. From Fedora 36, these are obsolete by Meera New (rit-meera-new-fonts) and RIT Rachana (rit-rachana-fonts) respectively.
| Style | F35 Fontname | F36 Fontname |
|---|---|---|
| Sans-Serif | Meera | Meera New |
| Serif | Rachana | RIT Rachana |
A new collection of Malayalam fonts suited for various publishing work is also introduced.
| Fontname | Uasge |
|---|---|
| Sundar | Title font |
| TN Joy | Title font |
| Ezhuthu | Script/handwriting style font |
| Panmana | Body text font |
Benefit to Fedora
Enhance the experience of Fedora for Malayalam users by improving font rendering quality, flawless OpenType shaping and improved glyph shapes, with Unicode 13.0 support. All fonts also contain supporting metadata such as AppStream metadata which provides preview of the font in software installers like GNOME Software and Discover.
Major improvements brought by the new Malayalam fonts include:
- Redrawn glyph shapes for better readability and font metrics.[1]
- Consistent, flawless OpenType text shaping: redesigned OTL rules fixes all longstanding shaping issues.[2]
- Various fonts designed for different purposes of typesetting/publishing/design work.
- Fonts containing more than 900 glyphs for ‘comprehensive character set’ for Malayalam script; and fonts with ‘limited character set’ having lesser conjuncts suited for title text.
Scope
- Proposal owners:
- Add new packages rit-meera-new-fonts and rit-rachana-fonts
- update langpacks package for these font packages
- update fedora-comps to install these new Malayalam fonts by default
- Other developers: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
- Release engineering: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
- Policies and guidelines: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
- Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)
Upgrade/compatibility impact
N/A (not a System Wide Change)
How To Test
- Check Malayalam web sites which uses both Malayalam Sans and Serif fonts
- Use LibreOffice, use Sans and Serif fonts to see if it uses different fonts
- also check the output of following commands giving new package names
- LANG=ml_IN.UTF-8 fc-match sans-serif:lang=ml
- LANG=ml_IN.UTF-8 fc-match serif:lang=ml
User Experience
- With good quality Malayalam Sans and Serif fonts, the Desktop or Web Browser
will display with both Sans and Serif fonts.
- With different Sans and Serif fonts, the Workstation will have better
font rendering quality.
Dependencies
N/A (not a System Wide Change)
Contingency Plan
Revert to use older Malayalam fonts.
- Contingency mechanism: (What to do? Who will do it?) N/A (not a System Wide Change)
- Contingency deadline: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
- Blocks release? N/A (not a System Wide Change), No
- Blocks product? No
Documentation
Release Notes
By using both Malayalam Sans and Serif fonts, the Workstation will improve Malayalam fonts rendering quality and better OpenType shaping for users.
- ↑ KH Hussain et al., Beyond Roman fonts: Extra dimensions in Malayalam fonts, https://tug.org/TUGboat/tb41-2/tb128hussain-beyond.pdf
- ↑ KV Rajeesh, A new set of OpenType shaping rules for Malaylam, https://rajeeshknambiar.wordpress.com/2021/09/20/a-new-set-of-opentype-shaping-rules-for-malayalam-script/