Bug 161760 - Can't set the width of character outline
Summary: Can't set the width of character outline
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: LibreOffice (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
Inherited From OOo
Hardware: All All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: filter:docx, needsDevAdvice
Depends on:
Blocks: Font-Effects Character-Dialog
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Reported: 2024-06-24 10:35 UTC by Eyal Rozenberg
Modified: 2024-09-16 08:39 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Screenshot (51.45 KB, image/png)
2024-07-01 10:46 UTC, Heiko Tietze
Details

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Description Eyal Rozenberg 2024-06-24 10:35:56 UTC
In shapes with borders, the border width is a critically important feature. Yet, when we write text and toggle "Outline" mode, we cannot control the width of this outline. The outline is, by default, thin, and with larger fonts (especially in presentations or posters) - this renders the feature almost useless.

So, we need to be able to specify the width somehow.
Comment 1 V Stuart Foote 2024-06-24 11:30:49 UTC
IIUC the VCL routines for font effects "Outline" as here, and "Shadow", draw effect layout from the font metrics. 

Guess it is possible, but suspect attempting to generate heavier outline stroke weights would just end up smearing the strokes.

And wouldn't this be more a graphics attribute needed in 'Font work' rather than simple shapetext or in text boxes?
Comment 2 Eyal Rozenberg 2024-06-24 12:13:42 UTC
(In reply to V Stuart Foote from comment #1)
> IIUC the VCL routines for font effects "Outline" as here, and "Shadow", draw
> effect layout from the font metrics. 

I'm not sure I understand what you mean exactly. Of course the path of the outline and shadow uses the information embedded in the font; but the path width/thickness, and the shadow distance and angle, aren't described by the "font metrics".

> Guess it is possible, but suspect attempting to generate heavier outline
> stroke weights would just end up smearing the strokes.

I'm not sure what you mean. How is this different from any vector shape for which you make the lines thicker?

> And wouldn't this be more a graphics attribute needed in 'Font work' rather
> than simple shapetext or in text boxes?

Once "outline" is recognized as important enough to be supported for non-font-work text, its width should be supported as well. IMNSHO.
Comment 3 Heiko Tietze 2024-07-01 10:46:17 UTC
Created attachment 195066 [details]
Screenshot

You can convert the shape into a polygon or a contour, and change the line width on this object. However, the same issue happens for shadow - you cannot modify the shadow color/distance/transparency/etc. of a character > font effect - and the converted object has not a real shadow.

Moreover, MSO allows to change the attributes, at least outline- even for running text in Word. Exported documents, whether docx or odt, are read in LibreOffice as plain text without any outline.
Comment 4 Heiko Tietze 2024-07-01 10:46:57 UTC
Regina, do you see any blocker from ODF to set the line width of text effects?
Comment 5 Eyal Rozenberg 2024-07-01 11:44:56 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #3)
> You can convert the shape into a polygon or a contour,

I'm not sure I follow; I'm talking about text irrespective of shapes (e.g. with no shape, as in Writer or in Calc cells). I know that in some vector graphics apps you can convert text into a vectorized/parametrized shape, but I don't see how that's relevant here...

> Moreover, MSO allows to change the attributes, at least outline- even for
> running text in Word. Exported documents, whether docx or odt, are read in
> LibreOffice as plain text without any outline.

Ouch.
Comment 6 Heiko Tietze 2024-07-04 14:18:49 UTC
Confirming that we miss this feature which exists in MSO. => New, pending input from developers.
Comment 7 Regina Henschel 2024-07-04 17:02:31 UTC
ODF has nothing suitable to describe outline (stroke) or fill of characters. It has only a boolean attribute to disable/enable an outline, but does not describe how such outline looks.

Related bugs are bug 99400 (set color of outline), bug 72567 (gradient fill for characters), and bug 136772. See also the duplicates mentioned there.

OOXML has nothing suitable. MS Office uses the extensions w14:textOutline and w14:textFill

CSS has nothing suitable in the standard, but all main browser support the prefixed properties -webkit-text-fill-color and -webkit-text-stroke.

An implementation in LibreOffice has to put the attributes in the loext namespace. And please do not forget to write a proposal to the ODF TC for extending the ODF standard, when you are going to implement such features.
Comment 8 Heiko Tietze 2024-07-05 06:43:16 UTC
(In reply to Regina Henschel from comment #7)
> ODF has nothing suitable to describe outline (stroke) or fill of characters.
> ...
> OOXML has nothing suitable.
In this case I vote for WONTFIX.
Comment 9 Eyal Rozenberg 2024-07-05 12:21:57 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #8)
> > OOXML has nothing suitable.
> In this case I vote for WONTFIX.

Why? The feature is merited. The fact that MS didn't properly standardize it just another failure by Microsoft.
Comment 10 Regina Henschel 2024-07-05 12:56:25 UTC
Microsoft has a lot a features that are not standardized in OOXML. We nevertheless try to support those features and get them to ODF. So I agree with Eyal, that being not in OOXML is no reason for a WONTFIX.