On Sun, Feb 09, 2014 at 09:08:43AM +0100, Werner LEMBERG wrote: > > > ttfautohint only generates hints affecting vertical coordinates / > > snapping horizontal stems closer to pixel boundaries. 'G' has the > > same vertical resolution as 'g' and 'D' but a smaller effective > > horizontal resolution. > > [g = grayscaling, G = GDI ClearType, D = DW ClearType] > > This is not correct. Regarding effective horizontal resolution, we > have > > res(horz): g < G == D
Here my understanding was correct; but my summary of it was wrong. > due to the horizontal colour filtering of ClearType. Note that GDI > ClearType doesn't use sub-pixel hinting, contrary to DW ClearType. > > Regarding effective vertical resolution, however, we have > > res(vert): G < D == g > > since GDI ClearType essentially uses B/W hinting along the vertical > axis. This distinction I wasn't aware of. It also explains the default setting. I was under the impression that the effective vertical resolution was the same for all targets. > > As a novice font-designer my opinion is that the current default > > produces and encourages broken fonts. > > I don't understand why you consider this `broken'. Please explain. I decided to illustrate with screenshots; but my system is no longer producing the broken behavior. When I was testing earlier; it seemed like chromium used the 'GDI ClearType' hints - which distorted the glyphs shapes more than neccesary. I was trying to change things different places in my stack. Now the same hints are being used in firefox/chromium no matter how I tune the --strong-stem-width= option. Either one of the changes I attempted to my system has affected it, or upgrading to the newest ttfautohint I am able to build from git (~0.95) fixed it. > I think it fits best: `G' means > > . full-pixel stem widths for GDI ClearType > . discrete, possibly non-integer stem widths for both DW ClearType > and grayscale hinting > > [..]. > In general, I consider smooth stem widths superior to strong stem widths > since the overall shape distortions are reduced, together with a better > grayness. The default setting makes it possible: strong stem widths only in > the GDI environment, where non-integer positioning leads to extremely ugly > results otherwise. I agree that smooth stem widths are better when possible. Striving for consistent and/or good behavior with different stacks (platforms, versions and configurations) is similar to cross browser struggles with HTML/CSS. /pippin _______________________________________________ Freetype mailing list [email protected] https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/freetype
