Re: [ft] freetype autohint versus ttfautohint

[Werner LEMBERG]

Hello Vern!


> What could be the differences between a font hinted with ttfautohint
> rendered with freetype, and a non-hinted font rendered with
> freetype's via it's built-in autohinter?
>
> As i understand it there should be no difference, as ttfautohint is
> based on freetype libs anyway.

There is a difference, since you can't switch off horizontal hinting
in the autohinter currently.  Patches are highly welcomed to add that
to FreeType :-)

> But what if a non-hinted font is rendered on a freetype system under
> 'full' hinting?  Will that font be autohinted and rendered exactly
> the same as a ttfautohint'd font?

You can find the following entry for version 2.4.5 in the CHANGES
file:

  - If autohinting is not explicitly disabled, FreeType now uses the
    autohinter if a TrueType based font doesn't contain native hints.

In other words, if you don't disable autohinting explicitly, FreeType
applies autohinting to a TrueType font which has no bytecode.


    Werner