Re: [Devel] Developer questions on FreeType2

[David Turner]

Chris Foster wrote:

> All,
>  
> I am working on an embedded project for which we are exploring several 
> options for a font rendered.  FreeType1 and FreeType2 are our primary 
> consideration at the moment that we are going to take through a proof 
> a concept procedure.
>  
> We have a couple of questions though that will help us determine which 
> FreeType is right for us.
>  
> 1.  Heard rumors that FreeType2 is slower than FreeType1.  Is this 
> true.  If so is it due to the bytecode interpreter that is turned of 
> in FreeType2 due to patent issues and replaced by the 'auto-hinter'?
>  

Rumors ??

FT2 is faster than FT1 when performing native TrueType hinting.
The automatic hinter is probably a tad slower, but not by an order of 
magnitude.

Meanwhile, any decent library that needs to render text extensively will 
need a cache that will completely
mask these differences in common patterns. FT2 comes with a cache 
sub-system that has been highly tuned
for performance.

> 2.  We have a major concern for using Asian fonts.  We of course do 
> not want to store the large number of Asian fonts on our small 
> embedded environment with true type Asian fonts.  Does FreeType2 
> support any type of stroke based font rendering?
>  

This is not yet supported in FT2, though it may come in the future. I 
won't comment further on this topic though.

Regards,

- David Turner
- The FreeType Project  (www.freetype.org)