Public SourceMage Discussion List

["Bearcat M. Sandor" <Sorcerer AT TheDragonsEdge.com>]

Jeremy,


How can we tell if we have the bytecode interpreter enabled? How is it
normally done?

Bearcat

On Tue, 2002-11-19 at 17:31, Jeremy Kolb wrote:
> i thought i would pass this along, this is from the freetype2 2.1.3 faq 
> thingy at http://www.freetype.org/freetype2/2.1.3-explained.htm but i 
> thought i'd pass this on...
> 
>       Short answer: No for most people !!
> 
>       We now highly recommend you to *not enable the TrueType bytecode
>       interpreter* when installing FreeType. That's because we believe
>       that the FreeType auto-hinter now produces results that
>       out-perform native TrueType hinting when it comes to rendering AA
>       text.
> 
>       However, you might still need it in certain cases, as the one
>       described here:
> 
>           o
> 
>             *you're using TrueType fonts to render monochrome text.*
>             a very small number of popular TrueType fonts have very
>             high-quality hints that allow them to generate extremely
>             good-looking monochrome text at small character sizes.
>             FreeType is not capable to match their quality with
>             auto-hinting.
> 
>           o
> 
>             *you're using complex Asian TrueType fonts*
>             the current auto-hinter has been optimized for non-asian
>             fonts and may, in certain cases, produce unpleasant results
>             with CJK ideographs.
> 
>             Note also that a small number of asian fonts cannot be
>             rendered properly without a bytecode interpreter. That's
>             because they make "clever" use of certain features of the
>             bytecode interpreter to "build" correct glyph outlines at
>             runtime. FreeType cannot render these fonts correctly with
>             auto-hinting, and will produce instead text that looks like
>             garbage.
> 
>       Again, we invite you to experiment with a fully anti-aliased
>       desktop with FreeType 2.1.3 and no bytecode interpreter. Only if
>       this doesn't suit your needs should you consider downgrading.
> 
> 
> Jeremy
>