Stuart Jansen wrote: > On Mon, 2010-01-25 at 14:30 -0700, Jeff Moyes wrote: >> Is the following correct - the Adobe patents on type hinting have now >> officially run out and therefore we can now use the hinting features in >> FreeType 2. (such as described in >> http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/ubuntu/enable-smooth-fonts-on-ubuntu-linux/)? > > Go go gadget google! > > http://www.freetype.org/patents.html
So it looks like the problem patents were from Apple, not Adobe, so unless they have expired also, then no we cannot use the full byte-code interpreter hinting mechanism in freetype legally. That's fine because hinting sucks anyway. Currently I run all my linux machines with sub-pixel rendering enabled and *no* hinting. Hinting really distorts the fonts and after using OS X for several years I find I cannot stand hinted fonts, even at small point sizes. Oddly enough I love using GDI++ on windows to provide mac-like fonts (nice and smooth and dark) on XP, Vista, and Windows 7, which uses FreeType to do the rendering, but on Linux, even with hinting disabled I can't get OS X-style fonts. I think it has to do with the contrast settings used in anti-aliasing. Does anyone know how to make freetype on Linux produce more beautiful, OSX-style font output? /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
