Re: [ft-devel] on widening at low res

[Werner LEMBERG]

>> This seems to suggest that Apple's font rendering could be a pixel
>> or two wider than FreeType at low res also.  That seems reasonable
>> as widening letters at low res make it more readable, everything
>> else being equal.

I can't believe that.  If you insert pixels horizontally, the printed
output differs from what you see on screen.

> Hm.  the v40 code specifically ignores the hdmx table because it
> leads to wonky spacing if you ignore vertical hinting.  Note that
> the autohinter also does not increase spacing.

Correct.  `hdmx' makes only sense for v35.[1] In other words, you must
switch to non-ClearType hinting if you want to validate `hdmx' tables.


    Werner


[1] This is not completely true, since you actually *can* modify
    phantom points in v40 mode if the `backwards compatility' flag is
    switched off.  However, browsers don't support that!  They all
    assume that advance widths can be linearly scaled if ClearType is
    active, actually ignoring the results delivered by the hinting
    engine.