[ft] Announcing FreeType version 2.6

[Werner LEMBERG]

FreeType 2.6 has been released.

It is available from

    http://savannah.nongnu.org/download/freetype/

or

    http://sourceforge.net/projects/freetype/files/

The latter site also holds older versions of the FreeType library.

See below for the relevant snippet from the CHANGES file.

Enjoy!


   Werner


PS: Downloads from  savannah.nongnu.org  will redirect to your nearest
    mirror site.   Files on  mirrors may  be subject to  a replication
    delay   of   up   to   24   hours.   In   case   of  problems  use
    http://download-mirror.savannah.gnu.org/releases/


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http://www.freetype.org


FreeType 2  is a software  font engine that  is designed to  be small,
efficient,  highly   customizable,  and  portable   while  capable  of
producing high-quality output (glyph images) of most vector and bitmap
font formats.

Note that  FreeType 2 is  a font service  and doesn't provide  APIs to
perform higher-level features, like text layout or graphics processing
(e.g.,  colored  text  rendering,  `hollowing',  etc.).   However,  it
greatly simplifies these tasks by providing a simple, easy to use, and
uniform interface to access the content of font files.

FreeType  2  is  released  under  two open-source  licenses:  our  own
BSD-like FreeType  License and the  GPL.  It can  thus be used  by any
kind of projects, be they proprietary or not.


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CHANGES BETWEEN 2.5.5 and 2.6

  I. IMPORTANT CHANGES

    - Behdad  Esfahbod contributed  code  for improved  thread-safety,
      which results in the following model.

      * An `FT_Face' object can only be safely used from one thread at
        a time.

      * An `FT_Library'  object can  now be used  without modification
        from multiple threads at the same time.

      * `FT_Face' creation and destruction  with the same `FT_Library'
        object can only be done from one thread at a time.

      One can use a single  `FT_Library' object across threads as long
      as a mutex lock is used around `FT_New_Face' and `FT_Done_Face'.
      Any calls to `FT_Load_Glyph' and similar API are safe and do not
      need the lock  to be held as  long as the same  `FT_Face' is not
      used from multiple threads at the same time.

    - Thai script support has been added to the auto-hinter.

    - Arabic script support has been added to the auto-hinter.

    - Following OpenType version 1.7,  advance widths and side bearing
      values in  CFFs (wrapped  in an SFNT  structure) are  now always
      taken from the `hmtx' table.

    - Following OpenType  version 1.7, the  PostScript font name  of a
      CFF font (wrapped in an SFNT structure) is now always taken from
      the `name'  table.  This is  also true for  OpenType Collections
      (i.e., TTCs using  CFFs subfonts instead of TTFs),  where it may
      have a significant difference.

    - Fonts natively hinted for  ClearType are now supported, properly
      handling selector index 3 of the INSTCTRL bytecode instruction.

    - Major improvements to the GX TrueType variation font handling.


  II. MISCELLANEOUS

    - A new auto-hinter  property `warping' can switch on  and off the
      warping code  if this  experimental feature  is compiled  in (by
      defining  the AF_CONFIG_OPTION_USE_WARPER  configuration option;
      by default  this option is  now enabled but warping  is switched
      off).

      The AF_CONFIG_OPTION_USE_WARPER option itself is an old feature,
      available   since  2006.    Warping   only   works  in   `light'
      auto-hinting mode.   The idea of  the code is to  slightly scale
      and  shift a  glyph  along the  non-hinted  dimension (which  is
      usually the horizontal axis) so that as much of its segments are
      aligned  (more or  less) to  the grid.   To find  out a  glyph's
      optimal   scaling   and   shifting  value,   various   parameter
      combinations are tried and scored.

      See  file  `ftautoh.h' for  more;  the  demo programs  `ftdiff',
      `ftview', and `ftgrid' can toggle warping with key `w'.

    - Some  fields  in  the  `FTC_ImageTypeRec'  structure  have  been
      changed from signed to unsigned  type, which better reflects the
      actual usage.  It is also an additional means to protect against
      malformed input.

      This  change doesn't  break  the ABI;  however,  it might  cause
      compiler warnings.

    - Function `FT_Bitmap_New'  has been renamed  to `FT_Bitmap_Init',
      since  this name  better reflects  its function.   For backwards
      compatibility, the old function name is still available.

    - Function   `FT_Get_X11_Font_Format'   has    been   renamed   to
      `FT_Get_Font_Format',  since  this   name  better  reflects  its
      function.  For backwards compatibility, the old function name is
      still available.

      Additionally, the header  file macro for this  function has been
      renamed to  `FT_FONT_FORMATS_H' (the old name  `FT_XFREE86_H' is
      retained for backwards compatibility).

    - Various improvements to the `ftgrid' demo program.

      . It  can  now  display  GX and  MM  fonts  while  interactively
        manipulating the axes (with keys F2, F3, and F4).

      . Anti-aliasing rendering  modes can now be  selected (with keys
        F5 and F6).

      . The display of point numbers can be toggled with key `D'.

    - Various improvements to the `ftdump' demo program.

      . It now displays information on MM and GX variation axes.

      . New  command line option  `-u' makes  it output data  in utf-8
        encoding.

    - The `ftmulti'  demo program can  now handle up  to six MM  or GX
      axes.