[ft] Font rasterization

[Victor]

Hello!

I apologize in advance if this is not the place to ask this question, but freetype doesn't seem to have a forum anywhere, so...

I have recently come across a great article about font rendering, http://www.antigrain.com/research/font_rasterization/

It basically states (and very convincingly illustrates) that the secret to very good font rendering is to use only vertical pixel alignment, which I take means to apply hinting only vertically. Horizontally, the article suggests to use subpixel rendering -- that would mean very good scalability and shapes. I have tried many configurations in an attempt to produce the same result (http://www.antigrain.com/research/font_rasterization/text_ft_antigrain.png is a handcrafted example of what that would achieve), but horizontal pixel alignment seems to kick in even when disabling hinting completely. This is evidenced by characters having the same width with diffrent sizes. For example, if you scale the line lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll, its length will increase unevenly: at first it would change very little and then suddenly make a great leap. Either that, or that line would seem to have unevenly distributed spaces between the characters.

I'm wondering if I just can't figure out how to configure it all correctly, or if the pixel alignment is built in without the ability to turn it off somehow. Or if maybe it's the creators of web browsers, office suites or desktops environments don't know how to achieve such an effect.

So, let me reiterate my main inquiry: is it possible (with freetype) to use vertical hinting and pixel alignment only, leaving subpixel rendering to take care of the horizontal aspect?

Regards,

Victor