Re: [ft-devel] New FreeType release within a week

[Werner LEMBERG]

> I think this may be a result of an implementation choice for
> combining T1 and CFF.  There is no limit to the number of hints that
> can occur in a Type1 charstring.  Each time there is a hint
> substitution, previously used hints are discarded.  On the other
> hand, CFF requires that all hints be declared at the beginning of
> the charstring and imposes a limit so they can be easily stored in a
> common structure.

So it basically makes sense to proceed as Ewald suggested.

> I looked at the example that Ewald gave, ztm-Reg.pfb gid 479
> 'shade'.  While the [hv]stem operators are used 344 times in this
> charstring, the hints are not all unique.  There are just 10 unique
> hstems and 10 unique vstems.  When converted to CFF, this font would
> therefore declare just 20 hints, easily within the limit.

This is a very good point.  It seems that T1 support could be improved
by adding one additional step, namely to make hints unique.  However,
such an extra step costs time.  If an arbitrary number of hints is
allowed (using dynamic allocation) – which we eventually have to
support anyway – this extra step might not be necessary.


    Werner