RE: [Freetype] Comments on quality

[Michael Jansson]

Hi,

I doubt that the use of the gasp table is covered by any patents.
Considering that the table is nothing but a bunch of integers. I can't see
how anyone can make such a patent. If you can use 'OS/2' than you can use
'gasp'. I do think it is up to the app using a TT rasterizer to us the table
though, i.e. this is not something that should be used automatically by FT.

There is a need for ensuring that fonts are rendered b/w at small sizes even
on WindowsXP where you have Cleartype, and you do get b/w text in some cases
even there. CJK fonts is a perfect example, where you have b/w embedded
bitmaps. There are also classes of Latin fonts that needs to be b/w at small
sizes (e.g. outline fonts, very light fonts, etc). You can re-hint some of
these fonts. However, this is a very costly and time consuming job, and it
may not be possible in all cases.

Fonts smoothing is nice, but it's not the solution to all hinting problems
(it gets pretty close though). 

Regards,
- Michael

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Turner [mailto:address@hidden
> Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2002 4:53 PM
> To: Michael Jansson
> Cc: address@hidden; 'address@hidden'
> Subject: Re: [Freetype] Comments on quality
> 
> 
> Hi Michael,
> 
> > 
> > Actually, there is nothing wrong with the MS core fonts. 
> They are typically
> > of much higher quality than most TT fonts, and this is true 
> for Vincent
> > Connare's Comic Sans Serif in particular. Also, they are 
> most certainly
> > hinted for grayscale usage. Note however that this fonts 
> contains a 'gasp'
> > table that says that it was designed to be rendered b/w 
> below 12pt/16px.
> > Showing the font with grayscales below this size would be a 
> serious mistake,
> > as you can see in the sample picture. The 'gasp' table is 
> there for a
> > reasons....
> > 
> > So, FreeType and the font itself are working just fine. You 
> could argue that
> > ftview should be smarter, but I think that would be beyond 
> the scope of such
> > a tool. However, a "real" application should use the 'gasp' 
> table (I am a
> > bit biased though, as I invented the table back in '96 ;-).
> >
> 
> Actually, the problem is that using the "gasp" table has been 
> patented by
> Microsoft (I don't recall the Patent number but I guarantee 
> you that I have
> read and analyzed it several times). There is no doubt that 
> "ftview" could
> use it (it is actually already loaded by FreeTyp, mind you), 
> I just don't
> want to enter another mined land :-)
>  
> 
> But there is hope nonetheless. Since the advent of ClearType, 
> Microsoft
> seems to have started re-hinting their core fonts in order to avoid
> rendering problems similar to the ones described by Artur. I 
> don't know
> if this will "fix" "Comic Sans" for anti-aliased rendering at 
> small pixel
> sizes, but I hope it will :o)
> 
> 
> > Writing an auto-hinter is a very complex task. I think that 
> Freetype 2.0.5
> > (I have not looked at 2.0.6 yet) does more than a decent 
> job. We should all
> > be grateful that there are people that invest so much time 
> and effort in
> > this project, and we should not expect the impossible.
> >
> Actually, I'm pretty certain that it's possible to do much better. The
> problem is that I lack the time to study this further because it will
> require lots of experimentation, and a couple strokes of genius (and
> believe me, these don't come too often ;-)
> 
> I'm also getting a bit bored about this whole hinting topic.. 
> it's time I
> switch to a few more interesting things. I mean, what a 
> _niche_ segment of
> Computer Science !! ;o)
> 
> 
> Regards,
> 
> - David
>