Hi Ron,
> Still, from your feedback AA text without expansion should have been
> possible for Java2D and Swing (like Microsoft TT). If Java2D was going to
> alter text length, the Swing team should have been prepared a long time ago.
One difference that you aren't taking into account with this comment is
that many of the systems you are citing allow the user to *globally* turn
on AA. If AA is a global option then all metrics calculations will simply
reflect that global setting and there will be no problem.
But, the AA hint on a Graphics2D is a render-time choice. You can't make
the choice at render-time alone. You have to cover both the metrics
fetching as well as the glyph rendering with that choice. With a global
switch that happens naturally since both stages will be affected by the
global switch. With your hack, you were only affecting the rendering
choice, not Swing's metrics-querying choice.
If we provided a global (per-app or per-install) choice for AA, then
you could use that and there would (probably) not be a problem. If we
provided a way to set AA as a property of the font, then you could ask
the JComponent to use the AA-ified version of the font for rendering and
things would probably be OK too. We may choose to offer such options in
the future, but they have their drawbacks as I outline below.
But, when you interpose on the rendering without hooking into the metrics
calculations as you have done, then you are painting apples on canvases
designed for oranges.
Also, note that AA as a global option has its own problems. If an
application is not aware of the use of AA then it could misrender its
text. Consider rendering "A" then "AB" then "ABC" as a user types a
string using non-AA text. The second rendering would render an
entirely opaque A on top of an identical A and there would be no
problem. But, if AA were turned on without that applications knowledge
then the second time the string was rendered, the fuzzy edges of the
first antialiased A would get a little darker. Then on the third pass,
they would get darker still until you finally ended up with a rather
badly rendered glyph. *Most* applications won't be bit by this either
because they don't render the same thing twice in a row in practice,
but that is the risk you take when you implement or choose a global
AA option.
Hopefully this helps you understand the problem a little better...
...jim
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