RE: [Freetype] Comments on quality

[Michael Jansson]

> > After recompiling with TrueType bytecode interpreter 
> enabled, everything
> > looks perfect (wow!), but there are exceptions :-(.
> > The second attachment shows letter X (comic.ttf, 10pt, 
> 100dpi, ftview),
> > which partially dissappeared.
> > When increasing and decreasing font size in ftview, I 
> noticed that the
> > position of letter Y relative to the baseline changes 
> slightly from size
> > to size.
> > 
> Uf you're using the TrueType bytecode interpreter, the 
> problem could come
> from buggy fonts. Disappearing diagonals is actually pretty 
> common with
> the MS Core fonts, because they've been hinted for monochrome 
> rendering
> only and there is nothing we can do without the ability to change the
> font files themselves !!

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 ;-).

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.


Regards,
- Michael