Re: [Devel] Re: TrueType Embedded Bitmap

[Keith Packard]

Around 10 o'clock on May 28, "Mike A. Harris" wrote:

> I'm a bit confused...  We're currently contemplating complete 
> removal of the XFree86 libfont bitmap font scaling code.  Why 
> would one want scaled bitmap font code somewhere else?

Brian Stell (of clan Mozilla) has discovered a significant population 
which prefers to use anti-aliased versions of scaled bitmaps instead of 
outlines for Han glyphs.  With so many details in each glyph, the careful 
hand-tuning of the bitmaps has generated more readable results than
the outlines do.  

I suspect this is almost entirely because the TrueType fonts haven't had
the necessary care taken to tune the hints, but that shouldn't be all that
surprising given the expense of that operation.

Keith Packard        XFree86 Core Team        HP Cambridge Research Lab