does anyone know of a commandline tool (or simple function call in any
popular language) which would render a string into a pretty (cropped,
transparent background) PNG file, using a specified anti-aliased font
and size? usage such as
texttopng --font "Times" --size "16" "Hello World!" --output hello.png
would be perfect!
surely someone has created such a program in the past for testing
purposes using the FT2 libraries. it would be perfect for asking people
to submit buggy renderings instead of having to rely on screenshots
which go through so many levels of window handling. you'd quickly see
if it's the library install or the implementation which is buggy. it'd
also be damn good example code for anyone starting a project using FT2.
from the FT2 website, i discovered GD but i am finding it hard to
understand how the CL tool works (it seems to only take input from
horribly complicated .gd files). additionally, i know The GIMP can use
FT2 to render text, but the scripting abilites have always been beyond
me. even a pointer to some good docs on how to use GD/The GIMP for this
sort of thing would be useful!