Libre Graphics Magazine 1.1 [LWN.net]

The Libre Graphics Magazine has launched. "This is one purpose of a Libre Graphics Magazine: to serve as a catalyst for discussion, to build a home for the users of Libre Graphics software, standards and methods." The first issue is now available; it's 64 pages of CC-licensed content available either in PDF format or as a for-purchase printed version. This issue includes articles on free fonts, free software in the classroom, a "unicorn tutorial," and more.

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Libre Graphics Magazine 1.1

Posted Nov 17, 2010 19:53 UTC (Wed) by tzafrir (subscriber, #11501) [Link]

The license is specifically CC-BY-SA (Attribution - Share Alike).

Looks interesting.

Libre Graphics Magazine 1.1

Posted Nov 18, 2010 0:47 UTC (Thu) by remur_030 (guest, #70979) [Link]

From the Interview with Ben Laenen

So are there any secrets hiding in Deja Vu?
No. Unfortunately not. There's one nice glyph which tells you
the point size of the rendering. Say it's displaying the number
eight and you make the font bigger, it'll display ten or fifteen.
Hinting magic. It helps a lot in debugging. Everyone defines
their own point size. But their point size isn't the same as our
point size. So just pick that glyph and it tells us what number it
is. Then we know what we have to debug.

Wow, the hidden secrets of fonts, just try googling for 0xf000 and 0xf001, it is barely documented but an impressive feat.

Overall a very nice magazine and cool showcase for libre graphics, still Krita should have earned a spot in the resource list by now as well

Pixels-per-em hint debug symbol

Posted Nov 19, 2010 14:12 UTC (Fri) by sladen (subscriber, #27402) [Link]

This glyph ('' depending on what font your browser selects) has been one of the most useful debugging aids during the on-going development of the Ubuntu Font Family. Currently the magic DejaVu glyph is rendered by substitution as part of the "fonttest" online utility. There is a bug open for adding a similar feature to the Ubuntu Font Family directly because it has proved so useful (bug #615787). If the glyph above is working on your desktop, you should see one of the following:

88 Manual hints not in use, generally on Linux this means that the Freetype auto-hinter is in use.
15 Pixels-per-em read out, the relation between this and point-size depends on DPI, but the hint engine only cares about PPM (which is why it's so important to know when debugging).
HI Large sizes out of range of the dual seven-segment display.

It is a piece of technical genius and I only wish that the hint engine bytecode was even more flexible to provide many other forms of dynamic debugging output rendered right to the page! Thank you to the DejaVu team for inventing and publicising the possibility.

Libre Graphics Magazine 1.1

Posted Nov 18, 2010 11:09 UTC (Thu) by yosch (guest, #4675) [Link]

Very interesting to read among other things the colophons, the reationale for a dedicated font and the space given to font-related items: foundries, webfonts, font management, design workshops, etc. A great showcase of promising community work in that area indeed!

BTW the article was titled "freed fonts, stronger web" and is not about "free fonts" a rather loaded expression referring to freeware don't-modify-fonts and NOT the same as libre/open fonts.

Libre Graphics Magazine 1.1

Posted Nov 18, 2010 13:19 UTC (Thu) by Velmont (guest, #46433) [Link]

Cool! Been wanting to either do or read something like this a long time. As a creative only working with FOSS tools. :]

Will print out, and try to persuade my library to buy it monthly. And maybe when I actually start getting clients (like one of the interviewees in the magazine also really hadn't) I can get it myself as well ;]