Re: [Freetype] Comments on quality

[Vadim Plessky]

On Tuesday 08 January 2002 15:30, Michael Jansson wrote:
|   >
|   > 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

I found that Linotype Palatino has much higher quality than Microsoft fonts.

| 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....

yes, this is pretty valid on MS systems (Windows in all its versions)
But I use anti-aliasing for *all* font sizes, and have no problem with it 
either with Linotype Palatino or Verdana.
Other fonts look like too much buggy for me (especially Arial and Times New 
Roman)
But I agree with David Turner : Georgia is also more-less ok, better than 
Arial.

|
|   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 ;-).

See my arguments above.
I hope we can avoid unnecessary coding on Linux/UNIX'es, as FreeType does 
pretty good job with anti-aliased rendering of glyphs.
So far, I am much more happy with my Linux (KDE+QT+XFree86) than with any 
version of Windows I used.

|
|   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

Cheers,
-- 

Vadim Plessky
http://kde2.newmail.ru  (English)
33 Window Decorations and 6 Widget Styles for KDE
http://kde2.newmail.ru/kde_themes.html
KDE mini-Themes
http://kde2.newmail.ru/themes/