Tech insights

   The Oval Editor is a feature which allows the user to combine text with advanced formatting and drawings seamlessly in Emacs. This is an amalgamation of several disparate features developed over a period of time . It is also available as a single package in my Emacs fork . Draw and Scribble Notes in GNU Emacs   Text inside a shape (uses librsvg fork ) Context menu   Variable fonts Faux Bold and Italics   Annotate Completion Candidates   Text wrap at fixed pixel width in edit mode (only available in my Emacs fork) Symbol selector     (require 'formula)    Use M-x formula-draw to start drawing in a buffer. Select rectangle shape by pressing r. You can use the grid lines to align the shapes. You may exit the drawing mode by pressing q. Double-click on the shape to start editing the text inside a shape. The editing area is restricted to the width of the enclosing shape. Use right-click context menu to apply formatting. The demo use...

Variable fonts are an evolution of the OpenType font specification that enables many different variations of a typeface to be incorporated into a single file, rather than having a separate font file for every width, weight, or style. Please note that the fonts are designed for readability. These are not simple geometric transformations. Hence, the fonts may or may not support full range of variations specified by the standards. Font weight ranges from 100 to 900 for variable fonts. For static fonts, this range is between 0 to 215. You can use FcWeightToOpenTypeDouble() for converting static font weight to variable font weight. Font width ranges from 50 to 200. This is a percentage value. For example, ultra-expanded is 200% of normal width. This is same for static font. In Emacs, use :weight and :width face attributes for setting the values. cairo_font_options_set_variations() Cairo API can be used to render these variations in Emacs. Please note that the sequence of axes - wght...