Re: further notes on using Pango

From: Andrew Dunbar (hippietrail@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Apr 26 2002 - 11:57:51 EDT

  • Next message: Andrew Dunbar: "Re: further notes on using Pango"

     --- Tomas Frydrych <tomas@frydrych.uklinux.net>
    wrote: >
    > > But Pango already has a Win32 back end.
    > > Also I don't understand 100% how a FreeType back
    > end
    > > is different to a TrueType back end. Is FreeType
    > not
    > > compatible with TrueType on the level I thought?
    > I do not know about TrueType, but I think the
    > FreeType API is home-grown.

    I looked into it and TrueType specifies a file format
    and a bunch of structures but the APIs are up to the
    OS so Windows, Mac, and FreeType will have different
    but analagous APIs. I'm not familiar with any of them
    but I'm in favour of an open design even if we only
    aim for FreeType for now. I personally want to get
    familiar with the Windows APIs for the same things and
    intend to investigate them when I next have a machine.

    > > Having both TrueType and FreeType on an OS just
    > sounds
    > > ugly.
    > I see no problem with this.

    Bloat.

    > > > I am not worried about FT2 performance too much,
    > and
    > > > as for the patented algorithms, many people
    > could still use
    > > > them, since not all of us live in countries
    > where Apple holds the
    > > > patents :).
    > >
    > > Myself included but not too many church
    > secretaries
    > > are going to edit their FreeType makefile and
    > rebuild
    > > to get AbiWord to antialias like all their other
    > > software already does automatically.
    >
    > FreeType2 uses its own antialiasing algorithm, it
    > does not need the
    > Apple patented algorithm to do antialiasing, but you
    > can choose to
    > use the Apple code it if the patent is not an issue.

    Oops. I meant hinting.

    > > So it's equivalent to using Xft?
    > As far as I understand, it is pretty much identical
    > to Xft.
    >
    > > So are you suggesting using pangoft instead of
    > > pangowin32 even on Win32?
    > Yes.

    This just doesn't sit right with me. What do the
    Hubs and Doms around here think? (:

    Andrew Dunbar.

    > Tomas
    >
    > *********************************************
    > tomas@frydrych.net / www.frydrych.net
    > PGP keys: http://www.frydrych.net/contact.html

    =====
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