3 * OpenType feature support. ttfautohint now uses the HarfBuzz library to
4 analyze data from the `GSUB' table. This allows the hinting of glyphs
5 that don't have an entry in a font's `cmap' table, for example
6 superscripts or small caps.
8 Related to this, the new option `--default-script' controls the default
9 (fallback) script used for OpenType features.
11 * More than a single standard character is used. For example, the `latin'
12 script uses characters `o', `O', and digit `0'. This improves the hinting
13 of fonts (and features) that have only a partial coverage of a script's
16 * Much better GDI ClearType hinting in the range 30-80ppem (approx.),
17 avoiding overly flat tops and bottoms of round glyphs.
19 * Better handling of non-square pixels (this is, horizontal and vertical
20 resolutions differ) in the created TrueType bytecode.
25 * Improved script support. Besides Cyrillic and Greek, which are now
26 handled separately from Latin, ttfautohint can handle Hebrew.
28 * Option `-f' now takes a parameter to specify the fallback script. The
29 corresponding long option name has been renamed from `--latin-fallback' to
32 * Work around a bug in display environments that use FreeType 2.5.0 and
33 earlier for rendering: Sometimes, the `strong' stem width routine was used
34 for DW ClearType (this is, subpixel hinting in FreeType is enabled) even
35 if `smooth' was selected while generating the font with ttfautohint.
40 * Option `--components' has been replaced with `--composites': By default,
41 the components of a composite glyph are now hinted separately, since tests
42 has shown that this gives good results in most cases. If this option is
43 set, however, the composite glyph itself gets hinted (and the hints of the
44 components are ignored).
46 An unfortunate side effect is that ttfautohint's option `-c' (which stays
47 as a shorthand for `--composites') now does exactly the opposite as in
50 * Older versions of Monotype's `iType' bytecode interpreter have a serious
51 bug: The DIV instruction rounds the result, while the correct operation is
52 truncation. This caused `exploding characters' with fonts hinted by
53 ttfautohint. Since many printers contain this rasterizer without any
54 possibility to update to a non-buggy version, ttfautohint now contains
55 work-arounds to circumvent the problem.
57 * Better support for glyphs where some points have almost the same position
58 (for example glyph `Oslash' in font `Roboto-Thin').
60 * Better support for glyphs which use explicit `on' points around round
66 * New option `--dehint' to strip off all hints without generating new hints.
67 This option is intended for testing purposes.
69 * Minor fixes to the created bytecode for compatibility.
71 * Minor GUI improvements.
76 * New option `--windows-compatibility' which adds two artificial blue zones
77 at vertical positions given by `usWinAscent' and `usWinDescent'. This
78 helps ttfautohint's hinting algorithm reduce the possibility of clipping
79 if those two values are very tight.
81 * Implement option `--x-height-snapping-exceptions', making ttfautohint
82 avoid x-height snapping for selected PPEM values. Useful in combination
83 with `--windows-compatibility'.
85 * Minor fixes to the created bytecode for compatibility and robustness.
90 * New option `--components' to treat components of composite glyphs
91 separately. This greatly reduces the bytecode size.
93 I'm waiting for reports whether this option works for most fonts; in case
94 this is true I'm inverting the option, making it the default (and the old
97 * Full support of TTCs, this is, all subfonts get auto-hinted now.
99 * The upper limit of the `--increase-x-height' option has been removed.
101 * Drag-and-drop support in the GUI.
103 * The TTY version of ttfautohint now acts like a (Unix) filter, this is, it
104 accepts stdin and stdout as input and output, respectively.
106 * Less memory consumption.
111 * A serious bug in the created bytecode has been fixed, causing incorrect
117 * A new, `strong' routine to handle stem widths and positions has been
118 added, to be selected with the `--strong-stem-width' command line option.
119 If it is active, stem widths and positions are snapped to the grid as much
120 as possible. This algorithm is useful for GDI ClearType support.
122 * A new command line option `--debug' (not available for ttfautohintGUI) to
123 print very detailed debugging information.
128 * The created bytecode has been reduced in size, making it approx. 20%
131 * New option `--symbol' to use standard stem height and width values instead
132 of using character `o' (which may be missing). Use this option for symbol
133 fonts or math glyphs.
135 * More documentation (in text, HTML, and PDF format). It's still
138 * Option `--ignore-permissions' has been renamed to `--ignore-restrictions'.
139 The short form is still `-i'.
141 * Defaults for various parameters have been set to more sensible values:
143 hinting-range-max: 50 (was 1000)
144 hinting-limit: 200 (was 1000)
146 * Option `--increase-x-height' now has a mandatory argument (in the range
147 6-20 or value 0 to disable it, default value is 14).
152 * Implement option `-x' to increase the x height of the font for small PPEM
153 values by rounding up far more often then rounding down.
155 * Add option `-G N' to switch off hinting completely above value N.
157 * ttfautohint now appends version information and the used parameters to the
158 `Version' field(s) in the `name' table. This can be suppressed with
164 * A GUI has been added, using the Qt framework. The binary is called
170 * The improved handling of composite glyphs in 0.6 was buggy under certain
171 circumstances, making ttfautohint crash and FontValidator complain.
173 * Dropout handling has been activated.
178 * Improved handling of composite glyphs.
180 * Implement option `-p' to pre-hint glyphs with original hints before
181 conversion takes place.
183 * Don't add a DSIG table if there is none in the input font.
185 * Human-readable error messages instead of hexadecimal error codes.
187 * Better tests (both at runtime and compile time) to reject too old FreeType
193 * Rendering on iOS is now expected to give good results.
195 * No bad rendering at very large PPEM values.
200 * The bytecode has been changed to `create' twilight points. This should
201 avoid rendering artifacts on some platforms.
206 * Fix font generation; sometimes the `glyf' table was one byte too short,
207 making the font invalid.
212 * Fix bytecode bugs which prevented correct rendering on some platforms.