"Mike A. Harris" <mharris@redhat.com> writes: > >We really need a new font type. One with the look > >of TrueType but without patent restrictions. > > I really can't see how that can be accomplished. Truetype is not > the problem. The specific method of hinting truetype fonts and > using a bytecode interpreter is what is patented. You could do > the same thing with any font type, and it would still potentially > be impacted by Apple's patents (assuming they are actually > valid). There are a number of methods of getting better appearing fonts without using TrueType hinting: Methods for antialiased rendering: - Use postscript hinting. FreeType has had a fairly good Postscript hinter for a while; the current Rawhide has various bug fixes that make it work better. - Use postscript hinting, but hint less to avoid too much character distortion. This will likely be the default in the next release of Red Hat. See: http://people.redhat.com/otaylor/fonts/hinting-screenshots/ for some comparisons. - Use no hinting. To some people, this looks good. Other people can't stand the fuzziness. - Improve the FreeType autohinter. The FreeType autohinter in CVS does a quite good job for sans-serif fonts, though it still has some problems with serif fonts. Methods for bilevel rendering: - Use embedded bitmaps. It's possible to take a TrueType font, render bitmaps for a range of sizes, and then embed them into the font. Since the advantages of TrueType hinting is mostly in the range of 11-17 pixels, this isn't that prohibitive spacewise. (Except for CJK. But for CJK, embedded bitmaps are desirable even when you have TrueType hinting.) Regards, Owen
