Hello, I have no experience in C/C++ coding and little with GTK - other than my small (insulated) experience via wxPython. So, please read in that light.
(This is part of my mini-crusade to reduce font clutter on Linux.)
1. I gather fontconfig makes it possible for apps to filter a list of fonts into their choosers. 2. The list of ALL fonts installed on a system should *not* (IMHO) be shown by default in a chooser. 3. I don't know if the Inkscape coders can control what appears in that font chooser, or if it's a stock GTK thing. Either way, I think you guys have the best chance of changing it. 4. There should be a *minimum* filter of the type: User OR System-wide fonts. I would rather see *my* fonts, as in $fc-list : file | grep ".fonts" than a list that is 700-odd fonts long and hellishly hard to use.
From a Linux-fonts pov, I am starting to see that an app like Fonty Python is
actually artificial to the fontconfig master-plan. Each high-end app that uses fonts should have access to a stock *font manager* built-into GTK/QT/Blah/Blah so that users can manage fonts and developers don't have to worry about it.
Am I on the right track here? Is it possible to make a minimum filter (sys vs user) in Inkscape?
Even through font-chooser clutter, Fonty Python can play a role and be useful for the time being -- I hope that new font manager due in KDE4 will be the incentive to do the same in GTK, but until then, an app that let's us control what fonts appear in the User's zone will be handy.
If the fonts can be filtered as suggested, then font management by an external app like Fonty Python really does become much easier.
Donn. Fonty Python.