Re: [dev] [patch] dmenu - support for xft font rendering

On Sun, Sep 05, 2010 at 11:28:17PM -0400, Josh Rickmar wrote:
>On Sun, Sep 05, 2010 at 11:02:58PM -0400, Kris Maglione wrote:
>> I still don't think that the auto-hinter is nearly up to par with
>> designer hinted fonts. For the fonts that I have screen and print
>> varieties from different foundaries, the versions without hinting
>> information look considerably worse on-screen (though better in
>> print) than the auto-hinted varieties.
>
>This all really depends on how you like your fonts rendered. When
>Apple first ported Safari to Windows, everyone was screaming about
>how the fonts looked like crap. The Apply way is to use little
>hinting and respect the shape of the font glyphs, while the Microsoft
>way is to hammer the font into the pixel grid so it looks sharper,
>but also causes the original typeface's unique shape to suffer.
>
>Personally, I prefer the autohinter since I've found that with
>slight hinting it looks very similar to the way Apple renders their
>fonts. I don't know if Apple uses an autohinter or the hints in
>the font, but they certainly put a lot less emphasis on the hinting
>and more on the shape.
>
>Generally, if you like your fonts sharp on screen (Microsoft),
>designer hints are usually the best. If you want your fonts to
>look more like print (Apple), using the autohinter seems to work
>better.
>
>Not that this matters much, as I spend most of my time staring at
>bitmaped monospace fonts.

Apple's font rendering engine and display screens are miles
beyond Microsoft's or Freetype's. If either of them could match
the quality of font rendering on a MacBook, I'd be all for it,
but instead of the crisp, high contrast fonts you get on an Mac,
you just wind up with fonts with blurry edges that are ugly and
hard to read.

-- 
Kris Maglione
I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will
survive.  I am not young, and I love life.  But I should scorn to
shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation.  Happiness is none
the less true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought
and love lose their value because they are not everlasting.
	--Bertrand Russell