Re: [ft] changing the depth of gray for anti-aliasing

[Werner LEMBERG]

> Under GNU/Linux/X11 and current toolkits the choice of subpixel
> positioning is essentially impossible, so we might as well go for
> better (sharper) shapes, and that is my quest.

In a few years I presume that this problem is finally no longer of
great importance.  Due to iPhone and friends the display resolution
reaches 200dpi and higher, making hinting unnecessary.

However, the same has already been said 10 years ago, and surprisingly
high-DPI screens haven't appeared on the market.

> [...] it is a question whether this should be done withing Freetype2
> or the application using Freetype2.

IMHO, this is not the job of FreeType.  The LCD stuff we currently
have is partly patented and otherwise very simple.

> As to this I haven't yet reached a conclusion, because my previously
> reported 'ftview' tests have perplexed me as to the extreme
> differences I see in some and their erraticness (which may be due
> simply to bugs in 'ftview').

I'm still waiting for exact recipes to be able to repeat what you are
seeing...

> Also I keep having the impression that the hinter for the PostScript
> fonts is rather good (as in "shaper")

I don't think so.  Te PS hinter is unmaintained since a very long
time.

> and possibly better for anti-aliasing than the bytecode hints in
> TrueType (as AGG points out, they are designed for aliasing),

In another mail I've already answered that this is not true in
general.  Today, fonts can contain hints for B/W rendering, normal AA,
and ClearType.


    Werner