media-fonts/liberation-fonts-ttf should install an appropriate fontconfig xml file that replaces Times New Roman, Arial and Courier completely, when apps request the MS fonts. That way these font names, when used in places where these fonts are typically used (webpages in browsers, .doc files viewed in OpenOffice.org, and so on), will end up using liberation fonts instead, which are looking the same, but free. See http://uwstopia.nl/blog/2007/05/free-your-fonts and the link to http://uwstopia.nl/files/2007/05/fonts-conf-liberation-snippet.txt in it. This file could be installed into /etc/fonts/conf.avail and if not symlinked up by default in /etc/fonts/conf.d, then at least instructed to do so if the user wants that. If done by default, then maybe wine could optionally depend on liberation fonts instead of corefonts as per bug 179538
I'm out of town for the Memorial Day weekend...but I'll have a look when I get back. Thanks for the info! je_fro
The font replacement should be optional since the fonts merely have the same metrics, they don't look the same. Also see the ebuild provided in bug 177958, it seems to already handle this.
i would like to replace corefonts with liberation at some point, but i'd like to take some time to evaluate the move first to make sure we don't regress on anything like unicode coverage or font rendering quality.
that'd be useful. Meanwhile maybe we can have the file in conf.avail with some warnings about it in XML comments, then it's just about utilizing the reworked flexible fontconfig config file handling and most won't link this up to conf.d without having read about the implications. Of course if the coverage checking and such is going to happen soon, I don't mind waiting a bit :)
right, i think i completely misinterpreted this bug. this sounds like a good idea to me. je_fro: you can install the fontconfig file from http://uwstopia.nl/files/2007/05/fonts-conf-liberation-snippet.txt into /etc/fonts/conf.avail as 60-liberation.conf. Ed's ebuild in bug #177958 looks like the best example.
Well, I had hoped we can hook something up by default to conf.d too, but if the things are different and such, then just having it available in conf.avail is great too. Might want to add XML comments in the conf file commenting on the implications of using this conf and so on
Ryan...fixed as per your suggestion...feel free to ping me about anything further...
