Compared to Liberation Sans, I think that π could be improved for mathematical purposes.
Created attachment 11214 [details] Demonstration of π rendered by freetype 2, compared to Liberation Sans and Freefont
"π could be improved for mathematical purposes" Could you be more descriptive? Being improved can mean many things, even ones that will make the glyph worse for you. Cheers
Sorry for sounding too vague! To be more specific... I think that π could easily be confused for n. I think the Liberation Sans π looks better than the DejaVu Sans π. I think the left leg needs to curve out to the left, rather than being straight down.
Created attachment 11217 [details] Specific use-case of using π for the horizontal axis of a 2D plot
Now, one thing we have to make sure here: the pi should fit in in a Greek text, it's not only there for mathematics. I'll try some things out once and see what other Greek users think of it. It should also fit in with the DejaVu style of course. As a side note, I would suggest using the bytecode interpreter in Freetype instead of the autohinter. That will make the glyph also look less like an 'n'.
Created attachment 11227 [details] Looks good with freetype bytecode interpreter We'll take a closer look at the Apple patent issues with the freetype bytecode interpreter - for commercial purposes we may not be able to use it - although I do think the text looks better overall.
Incidentally, I notice that in Serif the π looks more like a small-cap than like a miniscule. κ and ο share that, but that is of course the norm for them. For π it is quite unexpected.
I sought the opinion of my a friend of mine - an Australian born to Greek parents and grew up in a Greek speaking household. In Melbourne Australia there is a significant Greek community including a Greek language newspaper. He had the following comments: (Screenshot of freetype auto-hinted π at various sizes) https://bugs.freedesktop.org/attachment.cgi?id=11214 The DejaVu π looks better than Liberation Sans or Serif at 12pt (72 DPI). However, the FreeSans π looks more natural than the corresponding DejaVu π. Overall, I think Dejavu π is fine at sizes 8, 10, 14 and 20. However, 12 and 16 don't sit well with me. (Screenshots of freetype π with auto-hinting and bytecode interpretation) https://bugs.freedesktop.org/attachment.cgi?id=11217 https://bugs.freedesktop.org/attachment.cgi?id=11227 Dejavu π looks too squarish to me in both of these examples.
Use of freedesktop.org services, including Bugzilla, is subject to our Code of Conduct. How we collect and use information is described in our Privacy Policy.