Re: [ft] anti-aliasing question

[Dave Calkins]

> The gray value depends on how much the shape of the
> glyph covers the area of the pixel. Fully covered pixels
> become black, uncovered pixels white, and a 50% covered
> pixel will be 50% gray.
>
> To get the result you want, the shape of the glyph has to
> be changed so that fewer pixels will be partially covered.
> This is what hinting does: deform the outline to align with
> the pixel grid.
> at
>    

got it, thanks for the additional clarification.

> > > Removing the FT_LOAD_NO_HINTING flag should affect the rendering
> > > in the way you have been asking.
> > >        
> > I tried removing that flag before and saw no difference in the
> > anti-aliasing.  Perhaps I missed something or my test was incorrect.  I'll
> > try that again and see if I can get it to have any effect.
> >      
> Try it again, the difference between hinted and unhinted should
> be pretty drastic.
>
> Which font are you using by the way? Some fonts have better
> hinting instructions than others. You should also make sure that
> your freetype library is compiled with the bytecode interpreter
> enabled if you want to match windows' rendering (look at ftoption.h).
>
> -Tor
>
>    
One of the test fonts I've been using is "Lucida Sans Unicode".  I'll 
give it a try and see what happens.  It might be a matter of verifying 
the flags are getting passed through FreeTypeGL to FreeType correctly too.

On a related note, do I run into patent/license issues as a result of 
hinting?  I recall reading that on the FreeType site and based on that 
description am thinking that using the hinting might actually mean I 
need to secure a license.  At what point, in regards to the hinting in 
FreeType do I end up needing to deal with a license?