[42 mod] Hinting: Mono: 16 PPEM issues

[Paul Sladen]

Further to bug #861062 et al filed by other people, here's my own person notes from using the 'fonts-ubuntu-font-family-console' bitmap renderings on the console (Ctrl-Alt-F1). To reproduce:

  sudo apt-get install fonts-ubuntu-font-family-console
  while true ; do for f in /usr/share/consolefonts/UbuntuMono-{R,B}.ttf ; do setfont $f ; sleep 5 ; done ; done &

and work in the console. So far the following caught my eye:

  Not enough pixels to hint bold; try 2/1 (2 pixels horizontally, 1 pixel vertically) for bold at 16ppem

  9 top right
  <>-+= not aligned
  <>-+= (bold) not aligned
  - too low
  M too narrow
  M (bold) asymmetric
  5 (bold) top left
  b bottom left
  pq asymmetric
  e top left
  i tittle too small
  i (bold) tittle offset
  @ (bold) emphasises inner rather than outer
  . (bold) make square at small sizes rather than '+'
  w asymetric
  w (bold) asymetric
  0 (bold) centre dot is connected to outside (theta)
  R (bold) leg too short (move one pixel to right)
  0 could do with being more curved
  8 cross bar messed up
  m asymetric spacing. Make one pixel wider and centre stem
  U (bold) too narrow
  n (bold) add more curvature in top right
  db (bold) asymetric
  $ uneven
  sS ambiguity
  S (bold) diagonal too thick.
  <> (bold) lack of sharpness/angle/point (confusion with ())
  un too wide, reduce by one pixel (see also make 'm' one pixel wider)
  " too close together
  * bit tame/unclear
  & bottom right too heavy

For bold appears to have much more ink that the UbuntuBold; it's probably worth jumping up to 2-pixel grid fitting for horizontals a bit late; grid-fitting for 2-pixel fat vertical stems and 1-pixel high horizontals should probably give an overall weight/ink level closer to the true outline.