The FreeType Project Files

ttfautohint 1.00rc1
-------------------

by Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>


This project provides a library which takes a TrueType font as the input,
removes its bytecode instructions (if any), and returns a new font where all
glyphs are bytecode hinted using the information given by FreeType's
auto-hinting module.  The idea is to provide the excellent quality of the
auto-hinter on platforms which don't use FreeType.

The library has a single API function, `TTF_autohint'; see
`lib/ttfautohint.h' for a detailed description.  Note that the library
itself won't get installed currently.

A command-line interface to the library is the `ttfautohint' program; after
compilation and installation, say

  ttfautohint --help

for usage information, or say

  man ttfautohint

to read its manual page.

A GUI to the library is `ttfautohintGUI'; it uses the Qt4 framework.  The
compilation of this application can be disabled with the `--without-qt'
option of the `configure' script.

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New in 1.00rc1:

* OpenType feature support.  ttfautohint now uses the HarfBuzz library to
  analyze data from the `GSUB' table.  This allows the hinting of glyphs
  that don't have an entry in a font's `cmap' table, for example
  superscripts or small caps.

  Related to this, the new option `--default-script' controls the default
  (fallback) script used for OpenType features.

* More than a single standard character is used.  For example, the `latin'
  script uses characters `o', `O', and digit `0'.  This improves the hinting
  of fonts (and features) that have only a partial coverage of a script's
  character repertoire.

* Much better GDI ClearType hinting in the range 30-80ppem (approx.),
  avoiding overly flat tops and bottoms of round glyphs.

* Better handling of non-square pixels (this is, horizontal and vertical
  resolutions differ) in the created TrueType bytecode.