Re: [Devel] Using FreeType for vectorial purpose

[George Williams]

On Thu, 2004-08-19 at 10:10, Cortex - DRAG-Network - wrote:
> So, my question is : does FreeType support vectorial output ? Is it 
> possible to obtain a set of 2D vectors for each character (defining the 
> outline in fact) for a give font ? With which font formats is it 
> available if it is ?
FreeType supports spline output. TrueType (and Type42) fonts are stored
as quadratic splines. PostScript (Type1, Type2, CFF, OTF, CID) fonts are
stored as cubic splines. Bitmap fonts (BDF, PCF, FNT, FON, NFNT, OTB,
etc.) are only available as bitmaps.

Note that output is in splines, not in linear vectors. If you want
vectors you must do that conversion yourself. It isn't particularly
difficult, but doing it well is resolution dependent.

Not only will FreeType give you the splines as they are in the font, it
will also provide you with (if you ask for them) grid-fit versions of
the splines. These have been optimized to look nice at specific
resolutions.