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The new TrueType interpreter in FreeType 2.7.0

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Re: The new TrueType interpreter in FreeType 2.7.0

#11

Post by ivank »

mrob wrote: post #3

"Switching to the new mode might take some getting used to though, so if you think your fonts are suddenly fat, fuzzy or weird, give your brain some time to adjust." This is true, and IMO it's the reason font rendering is much less important than people think. When I got a new pair of glasses I disabled font anti-aliasing to make the edges as sharp as possible. I did this so I could more quickly learn to focus my eye…

You might want to give a hidpi display a try (where vector fonts are pretty much essential). All standard ~96 DPI displays look blurry to me after using one.

Though beware of Windows' ClearType, which seems to do a bad job on hidpi: it renders very thin glyphs, and the glyph width discontinuously jumps from 1px to 2px when you change font size. It tries way too hard to snap to pixels. OS X and freetype (tested: 2.6) do a much better job on hidpi.

Re: The new TrueType interpreter in FreeType 2.7.0

#12

Post by mikekchar »

Longhanks wrote: post #10

What? As someone who hates Windows' Font rendering, why would you want this? The OS X font rendering is awesome, on Linux, Infinality can be tweaked to look even better, but windows? It's hideous, inconsistent and terrible to change...

I agree with that assessment (although I think OS X font render has problems as well). I'm a bit worried because now Infinality is removed from the code base by default, so I suspect I'm going to have to stick to customer builds to get the font rendering that I prefer.

I suffer from ocular migraines and as hard as it is to believe (even for me), the way fonts are rendered makes a difference. I will literally go blind looking at badly rendered fonts. I'm going to take a wait and see attitude, though. Not all fonts will be affected, so perhaps it will be OK.

Re: The new TrueType interpreter in FreeType 2.7.0

#14

Post by zbuf »

mrob wrote: post #3

"Switching to the new mode might take some getting used to though, so if you think your fonts are suddenly fat, fuzzy or weird, give your brain some time to adjust." This is true, and IMO it's the reason font rendering is much less important than people think. When I got a new pair of glasses I disabled font anti-aliasing to make the edges as sharp as possible. I did this so I could more quickly learn to focus my eye…

> The most legible font is the one you're used to.

Yes, and in my case on Linux I switched off hinting a long time ago (but retained anti-aliasing)

We even did it on our network at work by default as users liked the fonts when they were more "Mac like".

Personally I have never understood the whole font hinting thing. It seems rather unscientific and the result is that fonts look fundamentally different at slight size differences; seems hinting is part of the problem, not the solution.

Re: The new TrueType interpreter in FreeType 2.7.0

#15

Post by 1ris »

agumonkey wrote: post #13
supermatou wrote: post #2

Direct link to the announcement: http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/freetype-devel/2016-07/... (includes images with the old/new renderings)

Impressive. Serious kudos to all involved.

Pardon my ignorance, but for me these look different, of course, but i have no idea which one looks best.

Re: The new TrueType interpreter in FreeType 2.7.0

#16

Post by adambrod »

mikekchar wrote: post #12
Longhanks wrote: post #10

What? As someone who hates Windows' Font rendering, why would you want this? The OS X font rendering is awesome, on Linux, Infinality can be tweaked to look even better, but windows? It's hideous, inconsistent and terrible to change...

I agree with that assessment (although I think OS X font render has problems as well). I'm a bit worried because now Infinality is removed from the code base by default, so I suspect I'm going to have to stick to customer builds to get the font rendering that I prefer. I suffer from ocular migraines and as hard as it is to believe (even for me), the way fonts are rendered makes a difference. I will literally go blind…

Have you tried a retina display? I find that the higher DPI panel reduces my eye strain.

Re: The new TrueType interpreter in FreeType 2.7.0

#18

Post by microcolonel »

boondaburrah wrote: post #17

No. No stop. I install MacType, which hacks windows's font rendering and replaces it with freetype, SPECIFICALLY so I can /avoid/ cleartype's ugly rendering on windows. I don't want it to invade my linux/mac as well!

MacType ...something something retracted statement please add a delete button... icon?
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