I have finally got Abiword to display imported and help text properly

hazel · 03-23-2016, 01:55 PM

Abiword was designed for compatibility with MSOffice. It has Times New Roman hard-coded into it all over the place. It's not just the templates, which can be edited; it's in the actual program code.

In Dragora, this font doesn't display properly; you just get weird blotches. You can use a different font for newly created text, but all imported ascii text is affected, whether read in from a file or pasted. Worse still, the help files (which are in html) are imported rather than being read by the system's default browser, and they are in Times New Roman too!

I got so sick of this that in the end I downloaded the source code and the build script and bulk-edited the source to replace TNR throughout by Luxi Serif, a font that displays properly. I built and installed the edited version and now I can read imported text files and help files.

Of course this is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. I shall now need to cautiously reintroduce TNR into the code bit by bit, until I find just which mentions of it are causing the problem. Then I can create a more selective patch, which hopefully will be of use to the Dragora community.

offgridguy · 03-23-2016, 03:01 PM

I admire your determination.

selkfoster · 03-25-2016, 11:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel

Abiword was designed for compatibility with MSOffice. It has Times New Roman hard-coded into it all over the place. It's not just the templates, which can be edited; it's in the actual program code.

In Dragora, this font doesn't display properly; you just get weird blotches. You can use a different font for newly created text, but all imported ascii text is affected, whether read in from a file or pasted. Worse still, the help files (which are in html) are imported rather than being read by the system's default browser, and they are in Times New Roman too!

I got so sick of this that in the end I downloaded the source code and the build script and bulk-edited the source to replace TNR throughout by Luxi Serif, a font that displays properly. I built and installed the edited version and now I can read imported text files and help files.

Of course this is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. I shall now need to cautiously reintroduce TNR into the code bit by bit, until I find just which mentions of it are causing the problem. Then I can create a more selective patch, which hopefully will be of use to the Dragora community.

We'll glad to have your suggestions, patch or instructions to have a better Abiword at Dragora. :-)

hazel · 03-28-2016, 10:45 AM

OK. There are two files that are causing the problem.

src/text/ptbl/xp/pp_Property.cpp pastes ASCII text in Times New`Roman.
src/text/ptbl/xp/pt_PT_Styles.cpp imports ASCII and HTML text.

And here is the patch that I made:

Code:

diff -aur abiword-2.8.6/src/text/ptbl/xp/pp_Property.cpp abiword-2.8.6-new/src/text/ptbl/xp/pp_Property.cpp
--- abiword-2.8.6/src/text/ptbl/xp/pp_Property.cpp	2009-05-19 03:33:18.000000000 +0100
+++ abiword-2.8.6-new/src/text/ptbl/xp/pp_Property.cpp	2016-03-28 15:57:19.853194723 +0100
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@
 
 	{ "field-color",           "dcdcdc",          true,  NULL, PP_LEVEL_FIELD},
 	{ "field-font",	           "NULL",	          true,  NULL, PP_LEVEL_FIELD},
-	{ "font-family",           "Times New Roman", true,  NULL, PP_LEVEL_CHAR},
+	{ "font-family",           "Luxi Serif", true,  NULL, PP_LEVEL_CHAR},
 	{ "font-size",	           "12pt",	          true,  NULL, PP_LEVEL_CHAR},	// MS word defaults to 10pt, but it just seems too small
 	{ "font-stretch",          "normal",          true,  NULL, PP_LEVEL_CHAR},
 	{ "font-style",	           "normal",          true,  NULL, PP_LEVEL_CHAR},
diff -aur abiword-2.8.6/src/text/ptbl/xp/pt_PT_Styles.cpp abiword-2.8.6-new/src/text/ptbl/xp/pt_PT_Styles.cpp
--- abiword-2.8.6/src/text/ptbl/xp/pt_PT_Styles.cpp	2009-01-04 20:34:28.000000000 +0000
+++ abiword-2.8.6-new/src/text/ptbl/xp/pt_PT_Styles.cpp	2016-03-28 15:26:09.370578973 +0100
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@
 		s += pCountry;
 	}
 	
-	const char* pszFamily = XAP_App::findNearestFont("Times New Roman",
+	const char* pszFamily = XAP_App::findNearestFont("Luxi Serif",
 													 "normal", "",
 													 "normal", "", "12pt",
 													 s.utf8_str());
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@
 					  "text-indent:0in; text-position:normal; line-height:1.0; "
 					  "color:000000; bgcolor:transparent; widows:2", pszFamily);
 
-	pszFamily = XAP_App::findNearestFont("Arial", "normal", "",
+	pszFamily = XAP_App::findNearestFont("Luxi Sans", "normal", "",
 										 "normal", "", "12pt", s.utf8_str());

In addition, you might want to bulk-edit the normal.awt files in src/usr/templates.