Re: FreeType patented bytecode interpreter now in rawhide

[Kevin Kofler <kevin kofler chello at>]

Behdad Esfahbod wrote:
> Since the patents covering the TrueType bytecode interpreter expired at
> the end of October, I've now built FreeType in rawhide with that part of
> code enabled.

IMHO, if we want to ship this by default, we really need to fix FreeType for
the case where the font doesn't provide hinting bytecode. AFAICT, currently,
in that case, if FreeType is built with the BCI enabled, it won't do any
hinting at all. See e.g. the CJK characters in the screenshot by Martin
Sourada at:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_lh41g82r7rk/SuWk7rqgaJI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/AfWQU9yAHu8/s1600-h/mark-the-difference.png
(the first line is no antialiasing, no hinting, the second one is
antialiasing only, the third one is antialiasing+hinting and the last one is
antialiasing+hinting with forced autohinter)
from:
http://mso-chronicles.blogspot.com/2009/10/mark-difference-ugly-fonts-in-fedora.html

It should fall back to the autohinter when the font does not provide hinting
bytecode.

        Kevin Kofler