[ft-devel] last bugs before 2.2 release

[David Turner]

Hello everyone,

I've been trying to get rid of the last annoying bugs before the 2.2 
release, and it's not
really an easy task. The bugs are the following:

A/ When RGB hinting mode is used, the advance of certain fonts is broken.
    For example, when selecting Vera Serif at 12 points / 96 dpi on my 
desktop,
    the word "at" appears with its two letters completely stuck

B/ When RGB hinting mode is also used, some fonts appear larger than usual
    (e.g. Vera Sans at 10 points / 96 dpi on my desktop)

I also discovered a new one:

C/ When selecting a size that corresponds to an embedded bitmap strike 
in a TrueType
    font, the rendering of hinted outlines is also different from what 
we had in previous
    releases.

It turns out that bug A/ is rather old, and is a consequence of the 
hinting algorithm that
we've not spotted yet. It is at least present in 2.1.9, and not 
something that can be easily
fixed at the moment. I guess we'll release 2.2 with it; trying to fix it 
for 2.2.1


Bugs B/ and C/ come from the changes to the code introduced with the new 
FT_Size_Request
functions. They come from subtle differences in the way some 
computations are performed
(especially in the TrueType driver). Basically, when libXft/Cairo asks 
for 10points/96 dpi though
FT_Set_Char_Size, this creates 'x_scale' and 'y_scale' values that are 
slightly different from the
ones computed in previous releases (which were all consistent), even 
though the 'x_ppem' and
'y_ppem' are the same

I don't know at the moment if I'll be able to correct this quickly. If 
not, I'll simply remove the
new FT_Size_Request functions and bring back the old implementation 
throughout the engine.

More news in a few days,

Regards,

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


***********************************************************************************
Information contained in this email message is confidential and may be 
privileged, and is intended only for use of the individual or entity named 
above. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or the 
employee or agent responsible to deliver it to the intended recipient, you are 
hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this 
communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication 
in error, please immediately notify the address@hidden and destroy the original 
message.
***********************************************************************************