1 New in Version 1.3 (XXXX-XXX-XX)
2 --------------------------------
4 * Keywords in control instruction files can be more verbose to increase
5 readability. You can now use `left`, `right`, `nodir`, `point`, `xshift`,
6 and `yshift` for `l`, `r`, `n`, `p`, `x`, and `y`, respectively.
9 New in Version 1.2 (2014-Oct-06)
10 --------------------------------
12 * It is now possible to control the hinting process at a very low level
13 using a 'control instructions' file. Right now, two modes are supported:
15 - Adding segments and changing segment directions.
17 - Applying delta exceptions. Note that this doesn't really work in
20 Please see the documentation for a description and a small tutorial.
22 In the TTY front-end, use option `--control-file` to load such a file.
24 * Support for input file watching in ttfautohintGUI: If the 'Watch Input
25 File' box is checked, the program automatically regenerates the output
26 file as soon as the input font or control instructions file gets modified.
28 The idea is to dock ttfautohintGUI to your favourite font and text editor
29 instead of adding a cheap text editor to ttfautohintGUI itself.
31 * With the new option `--fallback-stem-width` it is now possible to set a
32 default stem width for all scripts that lack proper standard characters in
35 * Add alias `--adjust-subglyphs` for option `--pre-hinting` to better
36 describe its functionality. The short form `-p` stays unchanged.
38 * New option `--ttfa-table` to add an SFNT table `TTFA` to the output font,
39 containing an ASCII dump of all used ttfautohint parameters (including
40 control instructions). Right now, this is mainly for archiving purposes.
41 Forthcoming versions of ttfautohint will be able to re-use this data if a
42 font gets re-processed.
44 * A harmless buglet was fixed that made the `glyf` table too large by one
45 byte under some circumstances.
47 * A bug fix taken from FreeType, correcting a crash for unusual outlines.
49 * Better handling of TTC files.
51 * New library options `error-callback` and `error-callback-data` for
52 improved diagnostics. [No change in the front-ends except better error
55 * Many other, minor fixes and improvements.
58 New in Version 1.1 (2014-May-05)
59 --------------------------------
61 * Support for the Devanagari script.
63 * Bug fixes in the computation of strong stem widths. GDI hinting now gives
64 much more consistent results.
66 * Better recognition of script coverage: ttfautohint now properly scans
67 composite glyphs to cover components also.
69 * Improved glyph shape analysis: Non-flat local extrema are now recognized
70 more reliably, and stem detection works better.
73 New in Version 1.00 (2014-Mar-20)
74 ---------------------------------
76 * Much less memory consumption while handling fonts with complicated glyphs.
78 * Option `-s` was partially broken.
81 New in Version 1.00rc1 (2014-Feb-07)
82 ------------------------------------
84 * OpenType feature support. ttfautohint now uses the HarfBuzz library to
85 analyze data from the `GSUB` table. This allows the hinting of glyphs
86 that don't have an entry in a font's `cmap` table, for example
87 superscripts or small caps.
89 Related to this, the new option `--default-script` controls the default
90 (fallback) script used for OpenType features.
92 * More than a single standard character is used. For example, the 'latin'
93 script uses characters 'o', 'O', and digit '0'. This improves the hinting
94 of fonts (and features) that have only a partial coverage of a script's
97 * Much better GDI ClearType hinting in the range 30-80ppem (approx.),
98 avoiding overly flat tops and bottoms of round glyphs.
100 * Better handling of non-square pixels (this is, horizontal and vertical
101 resolutions differ) in the created TrueType bytecode.
104 New in Version 0.97 (2013-Nov-09)
105 ---------------------------------
107 * Improved script support. Besides Cyrillic and Greek, which are now
108 handled separately from Latin, ttfautohint can handle Hebrew.
110 * Option `-f` now takes a parameter to specify the fallback script. The
111 corresponding long option name has been renamed from `--latin-fallback` to
114 * Work around a bug in display environments that use FreeType 2.5.0 and
115 earlier for rendering: Sometimes, the 'strong' stem width routine was used
116 for DW ClearType (this is, subpixel hinting in FreeType is enabled) even
117 if 'smooth' was selected while generating the font with ttfautohint.
120 New in Version 0.96 (2013-Aug-06)
121 ---------------------------------
123 * Option `--components` has been replaced with `--composites`: By default,
124 the components of a composite glyph are now hinted separately, since tests
125 has shown that this gives good results in most cases. If this option is
126 set, however, the composite glyph itself gets hinted (and the hints of the
127 components are ignored).
129 An unfortunate side effect is that ttfautohint's option `-c` (which stays
130 as a shorthand for `--composites`) now does exactly the opposite as in
133 * Older versions of Monotype's 'iType' bytecode interpreter have a serious
134 bug: The DIV instruction rounds the result, while the correct operation is
135 truncation. This caused 'exploding characters' with fonts hinted by
136 ttfautohint. Since many printers contain this rasterizer without any
137 possibility to update to a non-buggy version, ttfautohint now contains
138 work-arounds to circumvent the problem.
140 * Better support for glyphs where some points have almost the same position
141 (for example glyph 'Oslash' in font 'Roboto-Thin').
143 * Better support for glyphs that use explicit 'on' points around round
147 New in Version 0.95 (2013-Mar-07)
148 ---------------------------------
150 * New option `--dehint` to strip off all hints without generating new hints.
151 This option is intended for testing purposes.
153 * Minor fixes to the created bytecode for compatibility.
155 * Minor GUI improvements.
158 New in Version 0.94 (2012-Nov-29)
159 ---------------------------------
161 * New option `--windows-compatibility` that adds two artificial blue zones
162 at vertical positions given by 'usWinAscent' and 'usWinDescent'. This
163 helps ttfautohint's hinting algorithm reduce the possibility of clipping
164 if those two values are very tight.
166 * Implement option `--x-height-snapping-exceptions`, making ttfautohint
167 avoid x-height snapping for selected PPEM values. Useful in combination
168 with `--windows-compatibility`.
170 * Minor fixes to the created bytecode for compatibility and robustness.
173 New in Version 0.93 (2012-Oct-09)
174 ---------------------------------
176 * New option `--components` to treat components of composite glyphs
177 separately. This greatly reduces the bytecode size.
179 I'm waiting for reports whether this option works for most fonts; in case
180 this is true I'm inverting the option, making it the default (and the old
183 * Full support of TTCs, this is, all subfonts get auto-hinted now.
185 * The upper limit of the `--increase-x-height` option has been removed.
187 * Drag-and-drop support in the GUI.
189 * The TTY version of ttfautohint now acts like a (Unix) filter, this is, it
190 accepts stdin and stdout as input and output, respectively.
192 * Less memory consumption.
195 New in Version 0.92 (2012-Aug-07)
196 ---------------------------------
198 * A serious bug in the created bytecode has been fixed, causing incorrect
202 New in Version 0.91 (2012-Jul-12)
203 ---------------------------------
205 * A new, 'strong' routine to handle stem widths and positions has been
206 added, to be selected with the `--strong-stem-width` command line option.
207 If it is active, stem widths and positions are snapped to the grid as much
208 as possible. This algorithm is useful for GDI ClearType support.
210 * A new command line option `--debug` (not available for ttfautohintGUI) to
211 print very detailed debugging information.
214 New in Version 0.9 (2012-Jun-06)
215 --------------------------------
217 * The created bytecode has been reduced in size, making it approx. 20%
220 * New option `--symbol` to use standard stem height and width values instead
221 of using character 'o' (which may be missing). Use this option for symbol
222 fonts or math glyphs.
224 * More documentation (in text, HTML, and PDF format). It's still
227 * Option `--ignore-permissions` has been renamed to `--ignore-restrictions`.
228 The short form is still `-i`.
230 * Defaults for various parameters have been set to more sensible values:
232 - hinting-range-max: 50 (was 1000)
233 - hinting-limit: 200 (was 1000)
235 * Option `--increase-x-height` now has a mandatory argument (in the range
236 6-20 or value\ 0 to disable it, default value is 14).
239 New in Version 0.8 (2012-Mar-21)
240 --------------------------------
242 * Implement option `-x` to increase the x height of the font for small PPEM
243 values by rounding up far more often then rounding down.
245 * Add option '`-G n`' to switch off hinting completely above value\ `n`.
247 * ttfautohint now appends version information and the used parameters to the
248 'Version' field(s) in the 'name' table. This can be suppressed with
252 New in Version 0.7 (2012-Feb-05)
253 --------------------------------
255 * A GUI has been added, using the Qt framework. The binary is called
259 New in Version 0.6.1 (2012-Jan-02)
260 ----------------------------------
262 * The improved handling of composite glyphs in 0.6 was buggy under certain
263 circumstances, making ttfautohint crash and FontValidator complain.
265 * Dropout handling has been activated.
268 New in Version 0.6 (2011-Dec-25)
269 --------------------------------
271 * Improved handling of composite glyphs.
273 * Implement option `-p` to pre-hint glyphs with original hints before
274 conversion takes place.
276 * Don't add a `DSIG` table if there is none in the input font.
278 * Human-readable error messages instead of hexadecimal error codes.
280 * Better tests (both at runtime and compile time) to reject too old FreeType
284 New in Version 0.5 (2011-Nov-06)
285 --------------------------------
287 * Rendering on iOS is now expected to give good results.
289 * No bad rendering at very large PPEM values.
292 New in Version 0.4 (2011-Oct-27)
293 --------------------------------
295 * The bytecode has been changed to 'create' twilight points. This should
296 avoid rendering artifacts on some platforms.
299 New in Version 0.3 (2011-Sep-09)
300 --------------------------------
302 * Fix font generation; sometimes the `glyf` table was one byte too short,
303 making the font invalid.
306 New in Version 0.2 (2011-Jul-19)
307 --------------------------------
309 * Fix bytecode bugs that prevented correct rendering on some platforms.
312 New in Version 0.1 (2011-Jun-30)
313 --------------------------------