Re: [gtk-list] Re: Anti-aliased fonts (was: GdkFonts (or rather, fonts in X))

[Jon Trowbridge <trow emccta com>]

On Fri, Mar 10, 2000 at 09:15:51PM +0100, Bernhard Herzog wrote:
> Derek Simkowiak <dereks@kd-dev.com> writes:
> 
> > 	So: What do we need to do to automagically take advantage of the
> > new anti-aliased fonts in XFree86 4.0?  Can we get this into Gtk+ 1.4?
> 
> Does XFree86 4.0 really support anti-aliased text? The RELNOTES and
> README.font don't mention this *at all*. If it really does, where can I
> find more information about this?

AFAIK, the situation with XFree86 4.0 doesn't really do all that much
to solve the worst parts of the "X Font Mess".

4.0 will ship with the ability to use Type 1 and TrueType fonts.  The
3.x series were able to have this capacity with the addition of extra
font servers (like xfstt).  So 4.0 just standardizes a good thing that
existed in 3.x.

(4.0 does appear to have some features for Unicode support and other
i18n issues.  So there are some brand new good things, too.)

But just because Type 1 and TrueType fonts can be anti-aliased doesn't
mean than XFree86 4.0 actually does anti-alias them.  Instead, it is
just rasterizing them into old-fashioned bitmapped X fonts.

If you want anti-aliased fonts, you'll probably need to:
(1) get a libaray like freetype or t1lib
(2) use the library to generate anti-aliased rasterizations
(3) paint those rasterizations into a drawable yourself

I'm secretly hoping that Raph Levien will swoop down from sky and rescue
us all from this grim situation... :-)

-JT

-- 
GNU/Linux: Free your mind and your OS will follow.