1 Version 1.8.3 (2019-Apr-09)
2 ---------------------------
4 * Support for Mongolian. The de-facto standard is to render the glyphs
5 horizontally (left-to-right) line by line, then rotating each line
6 clockwise by 90\ degrees. This allows the usage of ttfautohint.
8 * Bug fix: Glyphs with complicated shapes or a large number of outlines
9 could be distorted if displayed with FreeType (or stay unhinted if
13 Version 1.8.2 (2018-Jul-24)
14 ---------------------------
16 * Support for Georgian Mtavruli.
18 * Bug fix: Compilation of ttfautohintGUI with homebrew on the Mac works
21 * Bug fix: Point deltas didn't work for composite glyphs.
24 Version 1.8.1 (2018-Jan-01)
25 ---------------------------
27 * Bug fix: The `configure` script couldn't recognize Qt 5.10.x.
30 Version 1.8 (2017-Dec-31)
31 -------------------------
33 * A third, 'natural' stem width mode has been added: No adjustments to
34 stem widths, discrete blue zone positioning. This is what FreeType uses
35 for its 'light' (auto-)hinting mode.
37 * A new option `-a` has been implemented to select the stem width mode for
38 the three rendering targets (grayscale, GDI ClearType, DW ClearType).
39 This supersedes option `-g`, which is now deprecated.
41 * Stem widths for the hinting process can now be manually set using the
42 new `width` keyword in a control instructions file. This is especially
43 useful for extra-bold fonts, where the algorithmically derived values
44 are often too large, causing the filling of 'eyes' in 'e' or 'a' glyphs
47 * libttfautohint gets now installed as a DLL or static library (or both,
48 depending on the parameters of the `configure` script), together with
51 * Two functions `TTF_autohint_version` and `TTF_autohint_version_string`
52 have been added to the library, which do the obvious.
54 * Two options to `TTF_autohint` have been added: `alloc-func` and
55 `free-func`. These are necessary on some platforms if ttfautohint is
56 compiled as a shared library, and the application uses a different
57 runtime library. This can happen, for example, on the MS Windows
58 platform if your program is written in Python and communicates via the
59 'ctypes' interface with the ttfautohint DLL.
61 * `TTF_autohint` options
62 `{gray,gdi-cleartype,dw-cleartype}-strong-stem-width` are now superseded
63 by `{gray,gdi-cleartype,dw-cleartype}`-stem-width-mode` to handle the
64 new natural stem width mode also.
66 * Bug fix: Later control instructions now correctly overwrite earlier
67 entries as documented.
70 Version 1.7 (2017-Aug-26)
71 -------------------------
73 * Support for Adlam, Avestan, Bamum, Buhid, Unified Canadian Syllabics,
74 Carian, Chakma, Coptic, Cypriot, Deseret, Glagolitic, Gothic, Kayah Li,
75 Lisu, N'Ko, Ol Chiki, Old Turkic, Osage, Osmanya, Saurashtra, Shavian,
76 Sundanese, Tai Viet, Tifinagh, and Vai scripts.
78 Note that the used blue zone characters might not be optimal. Please
79 report any problems so that I can fix issues!
81 * Option `--fallback-stem-width` now works for non-symbol fonts also, as
84 * TrueType bytecode generated by ttfautohint now correctly supports most
85 recent MS interpreter versions.
87 * A bug with bytecode for composite glyphs with composite subglyphs is now
91 Version 1.6 (2016-Nov-27)
92 -------------------------
94 * A new option `--reference` (and `--reference-index` to select a font
95 within a TTC) makes ttfautohint use the blue zones from another font.
96 This helps synchronize the ascenders and descenders of font families.
98 * Support for Armenian, Cherokee, Ethiopic, Georgian, Gujarati, Gurmukhi,
99 Kannada, Malayalam, Sinhala, and Tamil scripts.
101 * New option `--ttfa-info` to display a font's `TTFA` table (if present).
103 * Glyphs covered by the fallback script are now hinted by default.
104 Previously, they were scaled only. The default fallback script `none`
105 now implies hinting without script-specific blue zones (but still
106 aligning stems to the grid if possible).
108 * The new option `--fallback-scaling` changes the behaviour of the
109 fallback script from hinting to scaling (as implemented in previous
112 * ttfautohint (but not ttfautohintGUI) now honours the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
113 environment variable for reproducible builds. This corresponds to the
114 new library option `epoch`.
116 * Bug fix: Allow dehinting of fonts that contain a `.ttfautohint` glyph.
119 Version 1.5 (2016-Jan-24)
120 -------------------------
122 * Support for Khmer, Myanmar, and Bengali scripts.
124 * Improved Devanagari hinting.
126 * ttfautohintGUI can now be compiled with Qt5.
128 * Bug fix: Too many delta control instructions for a single glyph caused a
129 bytecode stack overflow, making the MS rasterizer ignore all hinting
130 instructions for this glyph.
132 * Bug fix: Don't create multiple `TTFA` tables in font.
134 * Bug fix: Under certain circumstances, glyph indices used in Indic
135 features were incorrectly assigned to the default script.
138 Version 1.4.1 (2015-Oct-17)
139 ---------------------------
141 * A bug in handling control instruction files could cause severe glyph
142 shape distortions of accent-like glyphs. All users should update.
145 Version 1.4 (2015-Oct-04)
146 -------------------------
148 * Support for Thai and Lao scripts.
150 * Support for the Arabic script.
152 * Better support for scripts that contain superscript-like and
153 subscript-like glyphs, e.g., the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
155 * Accents and other `non-base' glyphs are now hinted without snapping to
158 * A new control instruction syntax form was added to adjust the mapping
159 between glyphs and styles. Right now, its usage is quite limited; a
160 forthcoming version will give much more flexibility.
162 * The `touch` keyword in a control instructions file was buggy: If used
163 for a point\ `P` at a ppem value\ `s`, it sometimes led to unwanted
164 movements of\ `P` for ppem values unequal to\ `s`, thus causing outline
168 Version 1.3 (2015-Jan-06)
169 -------------------------
171 * Keywords in control instruction files can be more verbose to increase
172 readability. You can now use `left`, `right`, `nodir`, `point`,
173 `touch`, `xshift`, and `yshift` for `l`, `r`, `n`, `p`, `t, `x`, and
176 * A new control instruction keyword `touch` was added to apply delta
177 instructions before the final IUP bytecode commands, also `touching' the
178 affected points (to use the TrueType instructions terminology). Such
179 deltas *do* work even with ClearType if applied to the non-ClearType
182 * Support for the Telugu script.
184 * The amount of information about ttfautohint and its parameters that gets
185 added to the `name` table by default has been reduced. A new option
186 `--detailed-info` restores the previous behaviour.
188 * ttfautohintGUI crashed if not used with a control instruction file.
190 * ttfautohintGUI now correctly switches to a horizontal two-column layout
191 if the standard one-column layout would exceed the screen height.
193 * A new option `--family-suffix` makes it possible to append a suffix to a
194 font's family name in the `name` table. This can be useful during the
195 development process: It helps the operating system to simultaneously
196 display several instances of a font that are processed with different
197 ttfautohint parameters.
199 * The new library option `info-post-callback` helps in processing data
200 from the `name` table.
203 Version 1.2 (2014-Oct-06)
204 -------------------------
206 * It is now possible to control the hinting process at a very low level
207 using a 'control instructions' file. Right now, two modes are
210 - Adding segments and changing segment directions.
212 - Applying delta exceptions. Note that this doesn't really work in
215 Please see the documentation for a description and a small tutorial.
217 In the command-line front-end, use option `--control-file` to load such
220 * Support for input file watching in ttfautohintGUI: If the 'Watch Input
221 File' box is checked, the program automatically regenerates the output
222 file as soon as the input font or control instructions file gets
225 The idea is to dock ttfautohintGUI to your favourite font and text
226 editor instead of adding a cheap text editor to ttfautohintGUI itself.
228 * With the new option `--fallback-stem-width` it is now possible to set a
229 default stem width for all scripts that lack proper standard characters
232 * Add alias `--adjust-subglyphs` for option `--pre-hinting` to better
233 describe its functionality. The short form `-p` stays unchanged.
235 * New option `--ttfa-table` to add an SFNT table `TTFA` to the output
236 font, containing an ASCII dump of all used ttfautohint parameters
237 (including control instructions). Right now, this is mainly for
238 archiving purposes. Forthcoming versions of ttfautohint will be able to
239 re-use this data if a font gets re-processed.
241 * A harmless buglet was fixed that made the `glyf` table too large by one
242 byte under some circumstances.
244 * A bug fix taken from FreeType, correcting a crash for unusual outlines.
246 * Better handling of TTC files.
248 * New library options `error-callback` and `error-callback-data` for
249 improved diagnostics. [No change in the front-ends except better error
252 * Many other, minor fixes and improvements.
255 Version 1.1 (2014-May-05)
256 -------------------------
258 * Support for the Devanagari script.
260 * Bug fixes in the computation of strong stem widths. GDI hinting now
261 gives much more consistent results.
263 * Better recognition of script coverage: ttfautohint now properly scans
264 composite glyphs to cover components also.
266 * Improved glyph shape analysis: Non-flat local extrema are now recognized
267 more reliably, and stem detection works better.
270 Version 1.00 (2014-Mar-20)
271 --------------------------
273 * Much less memory consumption while handling fonts with complicated
276 * Option `-s` was partially broken.
279 Version 1.00rc1 (2014-Feb-07)
280 -----------------------------
282 * OpenType feature support. ttfautohint now uses the HarfBuzz library to
283 analyze data from the `GSUB` table. This allows the hinting of glyphs
284 that don't have an entry in a font's `cmap` table, for example
285 superscripts or small caps.
287 Related to this, the new option `--default-script` controls the default
288 (fallback) script used for OpenType features.
290 * More than a single standard character is used. For example, the 'latin'
291 script uses characters 'o', 'O', and digit '0'. This improves the
292 hinting of fonts (and features) that have only a partial coverage of a
293 script's character repertoire.
295 * Much better GDI ClearType hinting in the range 30-80ppem (approx.),
296 avoiding overly flat tops and bottoms of round glyphs.
298 * Better handling of non-square pixels (this is, horizontal and vertical
299 resolutions differ) in the created TrueType bytecode.
302 Version 0.97 (2013-Nov-09)
303 --------------------------
305 * Improved script support. Besides Cyrillic and Greek, which are now
306 handled separately from Latin, ttfautohint can handle Hebrew.
308 * Option `-f` now takes a parameter to specify the fallback script. The
309 corresponding long option name has been renamed from `--latin-fallback`
310 to `--fallback-script`.
312 * Work around a bug in display environments that use FreeType 2.5.0 and
313 earlier for rendering: Sometimes, the 'strong' stem width routine was
314 used for DW ClearType (this is, subpixel hinting in FreeType is enabled)
315 even if 'smooth' was selected while generating the font with
319 Version 0.96 (2013-Aug-06)
320 --------------------------
322 * Option `--components` has been replaced with `--composites`: By default,
323 the components of a composite glyph are now hinted separately, since
324 tests has shown that this gives good results in most cases. If this
325 option is set, however, the composite glyph itself gets hinted (and the
326 hints of the components are ignored).
328 An unfortunate side effect is that ttfautohint's option `-c` (which
329 stays as a shorthand for `--composites`) now does exactly the opposite
330 as in previous releases.
332 * Older versions of Monotype's 'iType' bytecode interpreter have a serious
333 bug: The DIV instruction rounds the result, while the correct operation
334 is truncation. This caused 'exploding characters' with fonts hinted by
335 ttfautohint. Since many printers contain this rasterizer without any
336 possibility to update to a non-buggy version, ttfautohint now contains
337 work-arounds to circumvent the problem.
339 * Better support for glyphs where some points have almost the same
340 position (for example glyph 'Oslash' in font 'Roboto-Thin').
342 * Better support for glyphs that use explicit 'on' points around round
346 Version 0.95 (2013-Mar-07)
347 --------------------------
349 * New option `--dehint` to strip off all hints without generating new
350 hints. This option is intended for testing purposes.
352 * Minor fixes to the created bytecode for compatibility.
354 * Minor GUI improvements.
357 Version 0.94 (2012-Nov-29)
358 --------------------------
360 * New option `--windows-compatibility` that adds two artificial blue zones
361 at vertical positions given by 'usWinAscent' and 'usWinDescent'. This
362 helps ttfautohint's hinting algorithm reduce the possibility of clipping
363 if those two values are very tight.
365 * Implement option `--x-height-snapping-exceptions`, making ttfautohint
366 avoid x-height snapping for selected PPEM values. Useful in combination
367 with `--windows-compatibility`.
369 * Minor fixes to the created bytecode for compatibility and robustness.
372 Version 0.93 (2012-Oct-09)
373 --------------------------
375 * New option `--components` to treat components of composite glyphs
376 separately. This greatly reduces the bytecode size.
378 I'm waiting for reports whether this option works for most fonts; in
379 case this is true I'm inverting the option, making it the default (and
380 the old behaviour optional).
382 * Full support of TTCs, this is, all subfonts get auto-hinted now.
384 * The upper limit of the `--increase-x-height` option has been removed.
386 * Drag-and-drop support in the GUI.
388 * The command-line version of ttfautohint now acts like a (Unix) filter,
389 this is, it accepts stdin and stdout as input and output, respectively.
391 * Less memory consumption.
394 Version 0.92 (2012-Aug-07)
395 --------------------------
397 * A serious bug in the created bytecode has been fixed, causing incorrect
401 Version 0.91 (2012-Jul-12)
402 --------------------------
404 * A new, 'strong' routine to handle stem widths and positions has been
405 added, to be selected with the `--strong-stem-width` command line
406 option. If it is active, stem widths and positions are snapped to the
407 grid as much as possible. This algorithm is useful for GDI ClearType
410 * A new command line option `--debug` (not available for ttfautohintGUI)
411 to print very detailed debugging information.
414 Version 0.9 (2012-Jun-06)
415 -------------------------
417 * The created bytecode has been reduced in size, making it approx. 20%
420 * New option `--symbol` to use standard stem height and width values
421 instead of using character 'o' (which may be missing). Use this option
422 for symbol fonts or math glyphs.
424 * More documentation (in text, HTML, and PDF format). It's still
427 * Option `--ignore-permissions` has been renamed to
428 `--ignore-restrictions`. The short form is still `-i`.
430 * Defaults for various parameters have been set to more sensible values:
432 - hinting-range-max: 50 (was 1000)
433 - hinting-limit: 200 (was 1000)
435 * Option `--increase-x-height` now has a mandatory argument (in the range
436 6-20 or value\ 0 to disable it, default value is 14).
439 Version 0.8 (2012-Mar-21)
440 -------------------------
442 * Implement option `-x` to increase the x height of the font for small
443 PPEM values by rounding up far more often then rounding down.
445 * Add option '`-G n`' to switch off hinting completely above value\ `n`.
447 * ttfautohint now appends version information and the used parameters to
448 the 'Version' field(s) in the 'name' table. This can be suppressed with
452 Version 0.7 (2012-Feb-05)
453 -------------------------
455 * A GUI has been added, using the Qt framework. The binary is called
459 Version 0.6.1 (2012-Jan-02)
460 ---------------------------
462 * The improved handling of composite glyphs in 0.6 was buggy under certain
463 circumstances, making ttfautohint crash and FontValidator complain.
465 * Dropout handling has been activated.
468 Version 0.6 (2011-Dec-25)
469 -------------------------
471 * Improved handling of composite glyphs.
473 * Implement option `-p` to pre-hint glyphs with original hints before
474 conversion takes place.
476 * Don't add a `DSIG` table if there is none in the input font.
478 * Human-readable error messages instead of hexadecimal error codes.
480 * Better tests (both at runtime and compile time) to reject too old
484 Version 0.5 (2011-Nov-06)
485 -------------------------
487 * Rendering on iOS is now expected to give good results.
489 * No bad rendering at very large PPEM values.
492 Version 0.4 (2011-Oct-27)
493 -------------------------
495 * The bytecode has been changed to 'create' twilight points. This should
496 avoid rendering artifacts on some platforms.
499 Version 0.3 (2011-Sep-09)
500 -------------------------
502 * Fix font generation; sometimes the `glyf` table was one byte too short,
503 making the font invalid.
506 Version 0.2 (2011-Jul-19)
507 -------------------------
509 * Fix bytecode bugs that prevented correct rendering on some platforms.
512 Version 0.1 (2011-Jun-30)
513 -------------------------