Re: Fonts looking washed out with newer freetype versions

[Werner LEMBERG]

>> Have you actually played around with the `ftview` tool?  Right now,
>> this is the only recommendation I can give to exactly find out
>> what's going on...
>
> Yes, I did. I tried to reproduce the output of version 2.6.1 of the
> 'ftview' demo tool with version 2.10.1. But even with the exact same
> settings (hinting, gamma, LCD filter etc.) the output that version
> 2.10.1 produces differs from that of version 2.6.1.

OK, thanks for trying.

> The fonts rendered with version 2.6.1 are darker and their stems
> thicker.  I'm not sure how to describe this properly, but I also
> perceive the fonts rendered with version 2.6.1 as sharper than their
> counterparts rendered with version 2.10.1.

Another possibility is to configure module properties.  Assuming that
your FreeType library instance was compiled with configuration option
`FT_CONFIG_OPTION_ENVIRONMENT_PROPERTIES` enabled (see file
`ftoption.h`), you could try to play around with things like

   FREETYPE_PROPERTIES=truetype:interpreter-version=35 \
                       cff:no-stem-darkening=1 \
                       autofitter:warping=1

to adjust various driver properties.  See

  https://www.freetype.org/freetype2/docs/reference/ft2-properties.html

> I have attached several images and comparisons of the respective
> outputs that hopefully make this difference apparent.  The text
> strings in the comparison images are taken from the two 'ftview'
> outputs.  The upper string is in each case taken from the output of
> version 2.6.1 of the 'ftview' demo tool and the lower one from
> version 2.10.1.

Alas, I currently lack time to investigate this further.  In case you
want to help more, and you have experience with compilation: Compile
FreeType by yourself, using the git repository to bisect the code
until you find the exact commit that changes the behaviour.


    Werner