[Mageia-dev] why not disable bytecode interpreter in freetype2 ?

Wed May 11 06:23:07 CEST 2011

On Wed, 2011-05-11 at 04:57 +0100, Zé wrote:
+> In mandriva sincepatent expiration in freetype, fonts display wasnt
+> smoth anymore and appeared ugly fonts, this used to exist just in
+> plf..
+
+Note that whether fonts are "ugly" is very subjective, and also varies
+depending on one's eyes.
+
+For example, people who wear glasses will often prefer their text *not*
+to be antialiased, especially when the screen resolution is under 150
+dpi and the viewing distance is under 18 inches / 0.5 metres) or so.
+
+> But since theres no patents issues pending, why not old rendering
+> algorithms by default (disable bytecode interpreter), that way fonts
+> will have a better rendering and look.
+For some fonts and for many (most?) people, this will look worse.
+
+> 
+> This is most true for guys that are used to use small fonts, for
+> example im used to use Sans size 8
+
+I can't even see size 8 on my laptop without a magnifying glass. Not
+because of my vision, but because 8pt text gives letterforms that for
+lower case x-height is typically 1.4mm -and 8px gives me 0.7mm high
+letters.
+
+You can turn off the bytecode interpreter, e.g. using gnome in
+preferences/appearance under fonts/details, or in fonts.conf, but you
+can't turn it back on if it was disabled at compilation time.
+
+You can also turn off antialiasing and sub-pixel positioning.
+
+Liam
+
+-- 
+Liam Quin - XML Activity Lead, W3C, http://www.w3.org/People/Quin/
+Pictures from old books: http://fromoldbooks.org/
+
+