but as an aside, the whole typeface generation engine is still very much in development, and i'd venture to say that a stable/usable version will not be out before August. I have been working on an Inkscape plugin for testing it, so maybe that would be a better way to introduce this type design interface into Inkscape - then we can talk ;)

I can't help with that unfortunately, I have no idea what you'd be trying to achieve UI-wise.

On the bright side, I've thought up a possible interface for the toolbar. However, I'd suggest the option to revert to "simple" mode for those who aren't used to it.

The fontface choices would basically be done in a drop-down:

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/7818/textstylesmk2.png

(rough drawing for now, I'll do the nicer looking version later)

Mouse-over the values will also reveal their names (bold, ultra-bold, heavy etc)

Now it would still be cumbersome no matter what you do because there are just that many options. However, Mouse-over to Each field Must reveal the shortcuts, which would get the users to quickly get used to them and thus minimize their usage of the drop-down.

Shortcuts: - Ctrl+I: toggle between italic modes (normal, oblique, italic) - Ctrl+B: make bolder. - Ctrl+Shift-B and Ctrl+L: make lighter. - Ctrl+E: expand. - Ctrl+Shift+E: contract

If gravity is added in there, then sure.

As for "weight," it'd go like this: if for a style (say, Italic), there is no font for that weight, they the implicit weight value stays the same, but Italic takes on the next closest value. The explanation to the user is that "Italic with Bold" and Italic with Ultrabold" look the same. And that's about it.

A possible alternate interface is that Italic gets drop-down value boxes and Bold next to it gets a drop-down horizontal slider. The other options still get stuffed into a drop-down.