Re: [Devel] Developing a Freetype application

[Vadim Plessky]

On Saturday 28 September 2002 6:20 pm, Ron Olson wrote:
|
|  I'm trying to integrate Freetype into my applications, but I don't know
|  how. What I mean to say is, I have been able to get Freetype-generated
|  glyphs on the screen, but the quality is always very poor, which comes,
|  of course, from my ignorance of how to use the library properly. Here is
|  an example of the code I've been working on (windows-mfc):
|

Hello Ron!

It seems to me you ignore _hinting_ (either automatic or pre-defined) in your 
code.
Check 'ftview' example from ft2demos.
It has all necessary code to test different hinting models. (AA, non-AA, 
automatics hinting, PS hinter/for PS Type1 fonts/, etc.)

[...]
|
|  While this does render the text, performance is always very poor in
|  redrawing (the library and the font face were initialized at the
|  beginning of the application).
|
|  While I believe the fact that the characters are all flush against the
|  top is because the coordinate system of Freetype assumes 0.0 is the
|  bottom left corner, instead of the top left corner, I guess I'm stuck in
|  terms of how to properly write code that would allow me to use Freetype
|  at small point sizes as the default text-render in my app.

I see (almost) no problem with it. 
What kind of font you are going to use?

|
|  So, while I'm not asking "how do you use Freetype" exactly, I guess I'm
|  asking, "how do you use Freetype well?" Clearly the KDE folks are doing
|  something right as all their text is rendered quite nicely at small
|  point sizes, but I'm basically lost in the woods here.
|

well, I can't say that text in KDE is rendered *very nicely* but indeed it's 
not so bad, comparing to MS Windows.
First of all, please download FreeType 2.1.3-rc2, or FreeType from CVS, as 
many bugs from previous versions were fixed in those versions. And build it 
from source.

Second, check that you have latest version of FT used by XFree86.
Some Linux versions (distributions) have FreeType installed at several 
locations, like:
address@hidden vad]$ locate libfreetype
/usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6
/usr/lib/libfreetype.la
/usr/lib/libfreetype.so
/usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6.3.2
/usr/X11R6/lib/libfreetype.so.6
/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/fonts/libfreetype.a
/usr/X11R6/lib/libfreetype.so
/usr/X11R6/lib/libfreetype.la
/usr/X11R6/lib/libfreetype.so.6.3.2

(I manually installed it in both locations; alternatively, you can create 
symlinks to version in /usr/lib )
Sorry I can't help you with excat install procedure for Windows - I do not run 
FreeType with it.

Wiuth latest FreeType, and well-hinted font, you will get quite good results 
in rednering text at small sizes.
Fo SanSerif fonts (Arial, Helvetica, Nimbus Sans, Luxi Sans, Lucida Sans, 
Verdana), you can use auto-hinter, it will do good job in hinting thos 
eoutlines.
For Serif fonts (Times, Times New Roman, Nimbus Roman, Luxi Roman, Georgia), 
you should use PostScript Type 1 versions of those fonts, or FT with Bytecode 
interpreter Enabled (check FT Patents page before doing it) and TrueType 
fonts.

Hope this helps a little bit!

Regards,

Vadim

|
|  Thanks for any information,
|
|  Ron

-- 

Vadim Plessky
http://kde2.newmail.ru  (English)
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