Around 23 o'clock on Nov 13, Raph Levien wrote:

> Note that in both cases, the LUT post-processing goes in the direction
> of making stroke widths heavier. The simple fact of the matter is
> that aa rendering sucks for stroke widths of less than one pixel.

Fortunately, this kind of post-processing can be done without change to 
the X server or the Render protocol.  We can experiment with hacks inside 
of Xft or even FreeType to see what kind of improvements can be made.  

We would still see differences between white/black and black/white 
rendering, but that can only be solved by extending the capabilities 
within the server and protocol.

> As an aside, Mac OS X generally ignores instructions (hints). The
> exception is when you explicitly request non-aa rendering. In this
> case, hint processing is quite buggy. The evil PMingLiU.ttf font is a
> good test case for this.

Which is quite comical given their ownership of TT related hinting 
patents...

> Because the hinting is so much less heavyhanded than typical TT
> instructions, letterforms look good, but the contrast is better than the
> completely unhinted case.

After using only heavily hinted TT fonts on my screen for several months,
I've grown accustomed to their face.  Viewing the unhinted AA text found in
various document previewers produces significantly more eyestrain than the
full-on TT faces found in Xft-based applications.

While my typographical leanings finds such appalling, I also realize that 
we continue to be constrained by the low resolution of the typical display 
device.  As FreeType is configurable in its behavour, I suppose I will add 
appropriate controls to the Xft configuration mechanism so that all can 
explore these effects in greater detail.

[EMAIL PROTECTED]        XFree86 Core Team              SuSE, Inc.


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