Re: Fonts for console/fb for various locales: a proposal

[Michael <macallan%netbsd.org@localhost>]

Hello,

On Sun, 29 Sep 2019 18:02:14 -0400
Thor Lancelot Simon <tls%panix.com@localhost> wrote:

> On Sat, Sep 28, 2019 at 02:39:19PM +0200, tlaronde%polynum.com@localhost wrote:
> > 
> > 4. Rasterizing (c). This is the whole purpose of METAFONT. METAFONT is a
> > rasterizer.  
> 
> Rasterization of vector fonts by privileged code has been a major source
> of security holes in other operating systems.  Does the very limited
> benefit really justify the risk?

We already have support for alpha fonts, which are rasterized vector
fonts. On most supported hardware you can take a truetype font, feed it
to a utility found in xsrc/local/programs/ttf2wsfont to generate a
rendering in whatever size you specify, and load that into a wsdisplay.
There's also something to directly load BDF fonts.
Caveat: it's the user's responsibility to make sure the font is
suitable for console use, as in, monospace or at least not excessively
proportional.

have fun
Michael

PS: please discard if irrelevant, I somehow missed the original mail.