Re: [ft] Existence of Autohinter in the Future ?

[Werner LEMBERG]

>> No.  Metrics and glyph shapes have no direct relation.  Normally,
>> TrueType fonts contain special bytecode which controls the glyph
>> width.  To make Times New Roman and Liberation Serif have the same
>> width, the bytecode for controlling the width must do the same.
>> The autohinter doesn't access this bytecode.
> 
> Would it be possible to accomplish the same width and height without
> using the Bytecode Interpreter somehow?

Simply use the unhinted font metrics.

> Not all people want to install the M$ fonts and the Liberation Fonts
> are a good alternative, but some people use the BCI and some use the
> Autohinter and different sizes in text documents can really be a
> killer, when you swap text documents with other people.

Uh, oh, you are mixing up things.  The metrics used by a word
processor are *not* the autohinted metrics.  It would be completely
crazy to do so since you get a dependency on the font size and
screen/printer resolution.  Autohinted metrics are good for screen
menus and the like only.  The same is true for the bytecode
interpreter, BTW.

In case the unhinted metrics for Times New Roman and Liberation Serif
are identical, they will stay identically on paper, regardless whether
you use the autohinter or the bytecode interpreter for rendering
glyphs on screen.  In case you get different results, something is
severely broken in your word processing application.


    Werner