[MPlayer-dev-eng] Font hinting in libass

[Rich Felker]

On Thu, Apr 19, 2007 at 10:51:18AM +0400, Vladimir Mosgalin wrote:
> > Why do you think it has to be a FreeType bug? Surely there are at least
> > a few fonts floating around that really have incorrect hinting
> > information and render badly if it's used?
> 
> Well, if windows renders these fonts slightly better than freetype with
> native hinting, most likely it's freetype bug. I don't think you can
> turn off native hinting in windows - there is no point in it, the idea
> is absurd (well, unless you are trying to use Type1 fonts on your
> desktop and want autohinting-similar effect - but who cares about Type1
> on desktop).

Actually, disabling hinting is always necessary for true wysiwyg.
Hinting changes the font metrics, meaning that if your program uses
the changed metrics for layout, it won't get the same layout when
printed, and if it doesn't use the changed metrics for layout, the
layout will look bad on screen. There's really no way around this;
it's a fundamental problem of trying to fit an arbitrary-scale font to
a coarsely discrete grid.

IMO this is not an argument against hinting but rather an argument why
wysiwyg is dumb. :)

Rich