Re: Using the FreeType 2.0 Polygon Rasterizer in a GraphicsPackage

[David Turner]

Hi Federico,

Federico Mena Quintero a écrit :
> 
> >  I've been using the FT rasterizer as a standalone unit in an experimental
> >  setup. It works really well.
> >
> >  However it only draws filled shapes: so if your graphics package needs
> >  stroked polygons/bezigons, you still need to roll your own converter.
> >  Still: it would be very cool for FT2 to have a stroke renderer! I've been
> >  meaning to look into writing a very simple one, which would only do 1-pixel
> >  strokes. No time...
> 
> You can use Libart for this.  Libart essentially provides a subset of
> the PostScript imaging model, and it adds antialiasing and alpha
> channel transparency.
> 
Thanks for the tip. I must say that I know a lot about LibArt, actually I'm
pretty looking forwards to seeing Raph Levien again at Guadec in a few days :-)

LibArt is an excellent graphics library, but it's probably unsuitable to use
it just to stroke FreeType outlines.. Main reasons are:

  - LGPL license, thus incompatible with the FreeType one

  - there is no easy way to use its path stroker independently from
    the rest of LibArt, which means linking a 50 Kb lib to do just that..

  - ideally, the path stroker should be used to embolden fonts too (because
    this is basically the same process). As far as I know, this is not
    possible with the LibArt stroker..

I would say that for all those interested in a high-performance/small foot-print
graphics library, LibArt is an excellent choice. It is also dual-licensed for
commercial usage at reasonable price. No I don't have any interest in this ... 
;-)

Best Regards,

- David