Re: [ft] Regression in font clarity with Adobe engine

[Dave Arnold]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for sending the screen shots. It gives me a better idea of what you are 
seeing.

Are you finding any problems with Nimbus Sans or Sans, or just with Cantarell?

As Werner says, we expect rendering differences in CFF fonts for 2.5.0, so I 
assume you are using a CFF version of Cantarell. I agree it is surprising how 
much darker the 2.5.0 rendering of Cantarell is in your screen shot. Also, it 
is showing overshoot at baseline and x-height. That would contribute to 
fuzziness.

I'd like to understand this better, but I have not been able to locate an 
OpenType/CFF version of Cantarell; I can find only OpenType/TrueType versions. 
Could you send me a copy of the font you are using for your test?

Thanks.

-Dave

On 1/13/2014 6:47 AM, Werner LEMBERG wrote:
> > Fedora has shipped the 2.5 series of freetype in Fedora 20. Once I
> > upgraded my machines I immediately noticed poor font rendering on
> > them.
> >
> > freetype 2.4.11 (F19): http://i.imgur.com/TiAaFzX.png
> > freetype 2.5.0  (F20): http://i.imgur.com/vyCUUUX.png
> I wouldn't call this poor...
>
> > The default font in Fedora is Cantarell so all application headers,
> > menus, and labels are blurry.
> The font is simply fatter.  What you see is the new CFF engine
> contributed by Adobe, far superior to the old one from FreeType.  As
> done in e.g. Acrobat too, the font gets blackened at smaller sizes.
> To make this work well, you have to adjust the gamma value of your
> screen to its optimal value.
>
>    http://freetype.org/freetype2/docs/reference/ft2-cff_driver.html
>
>
>      Werner
> .