[Freetype] At what stage is auto-hinting applied

[Baldor, Kevin]

Hello,

  I am using Freetype 2 to read the outlines of true-type fonts for use in a
vector graphics system (similar in graphics capability to Macromedia Flash).
Toward this end, I am loading the glyph from the font file and converting
the contents of the contour and tags arrays into our native path
descriptions.  I am running into problems with some of my fonts especially
at small sizes.

  My question is this:  At what stage is auto-hinting applied?  Is it
immediately after the glyph is loaded from the font file, or is it just
before rendering?

Thank you,

Kevin Baldor