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`, `touch`,
6 `xshift`, and `yshift` for `l`, `r`, `n`, `p`, `t, `x`, and `y`,
9 * A new control instruction keyword `touch` was added to apply delta
10 instructions before the final IUP bytecode commands, also `touching' the
11 affected points (to use the TrueType instructions terminology). Such
12 deltas *do* work even with ClearType if applied to the non-ClearType
15 * Support for the Telugu script.
17 * ttfautohintGUI crashed if not used with a control instruction file.
19 * ttfautohintGUI now correctly switches to a horizontal two-column layout if
20 the standard one-column layout would exceed the screen height.
23 New in Version 1.2 (2014-Oct-06)
24 --------------------------------
26 * It is now possible to control the hinting process at a very low level
27 using a 'control instructions' file. Right now, two modes are supported:
29 - Adding segments and changing segment directions.
31 - Applying delta exceptions. Note that this doesn't really work in
34 Please see the documentation for a description and a small tutorial.
36 In the TTY front-end, use option `--control-file` to load such a file.
38 * Support for input file watching in ttfautohintGUI: If the 'Watch Input
39 File' box is checked, the program automatically regenerates the output
40 file as soon as the input font or control instructions file gets modified.
42 The idea is to dock ttfautohintGUI to your favourite font and text editor
43 instead of adding a cheap text editor to ttfautohintGUI itself.
45 * With the new option `--fallback-stem-width` it is now possible to set a
46 default stem width for all scripts that lack proper standard characters in
49 * Add alias `--adjust-subglyphs` for option `--pre-hinting` to better
50 describe its functionality. The short form `-p` stays unchanged.
52 * New option `--ttfa-table` to add an SFNT table `TTFA` to the output font,
53 containing an ASCII dump of all used ttfautohint parameters (including
54 control instructions). Right now, this is mainly for archiving purposes.
55 Forthcoming versions of ttfautohint will be able to re-use this data if a
56 font gets re-processed.
58 * A harmless buglet was fixed that made the `glyf` table too large by one
59 byte under some circumstances.
61 * A bug fix taken from FreeType, correcting a crash for unusual outlines.
63 * Better handling of TTC files.
65 * New library options `error-callback` and `error-callback-data` for
66 improved diagnostics. [No change in the front-ends except better error
69 * Many other, minor fixes and improvements.
72 New in Version 1.1 (2014-May-05)
73 --------------------------------
75 * Support for the Devanagari script.
77 * Bug fixes in the computation of strong stem widths. GDI hinting now gives
78 much more consistent results.
80 * Better recognition of script coverage: ttfautohint now properly scans
81 composite glyphs to cover components also.
83 * Improved glyph shape analysis: Non-flat local extrema are now recognized
84 more reliably, and stem detection works better.
87 New in Version 1.00 (2014-Mar-20)
88 ---------------------------------
90 * Much less memory consumption while handling fonts with complicated glyphs.
92 * Option `-s` was partially broken.
95 New in Version 1.00rc1 (2014-Feb-07)
96 ------------------------------------
98 * OpenType feature support. ttfautohint now uses the HarfBuzz library to
99 analyze data from the `GSUB` table. This allows the hinting of glyphs
100 that don't have an entry in a font's `cmap` table, for example
101 superscripts or small caps.
103 Related to this, the new option `--default-script` controls the default
104 (fallback) script used for OpenType features.
106 * More than a single standard character is used. For example, the 'latin'
107 script uses characters 'o', 'O', and digit '0'. This improves the hinting
108 of fonts (and features) that have only a partial coverage of a script's
109 character repertoire.
111 * Much better GDI ClearType hinting in the range 30-80ppem (approx.),
112 avoiding overly flat tops and bottoms of round glyphs.
114 * Better handling of non-square pixels (this is, horizontal and vertical
115 resolutions differ) in the created TrueType bytecode.
118 New in Version 0.97 (2013-Nov-09)
119 ---------------------------------
121 * Improved script support. Besides Cyrillic and Greek, which are now
122 handled separately from Latin, ttfautohint can handle Hebrew.
124 * Option `-f` now takes a parameter to specify the fallback script. The
125 corresponding long option name has been renamed from `--latin-fallback` to
128 * Work around a bug in display environments that use FreeType 2.5.0 and
129 earlier for rendering: Sometimes, the 'strong' stem width routine was used
130 for DW ClearType (this is, subpixel hinting in FreeType is enabled) even
131 if 'smooth' was selected while generating the font with ttfautohint.
134 New in Version 0.96 (2013-Aug-06)
135 ---------------------------------
137 * Option `--components` has been replaced with `--composites`: By default,
138 the components of a composite glyph are now hinted separately, since tests
139 has shown that this gives good results in most cases. If this option is
140 set, however, the composite glyph itself gets hinted (and the hints of the
141 components are ignored).
143 An unfortunate side effect is that ttfautohint's option `-c` (which stays
144 as a shorthand for `--composites`) now does exactly the opposite as in
147 * Older versions of Monotype's 'iType' bytecode interpreter have a serious
148 bug: The DIV instruction rounds the result, while the correct operation is
149 truncation. This caused 'exploding characters' with fonts hinted by
150 ttfautohint. Since many printers contain this rasterizer without any
151 possibility to update to a non-buggy version, ttfautohint now contains
152 work-arounds to circumvent the problem.
154 * Better support for glyphs where some points have almost the same position
155 (for example glyph 'Oslash' in font 'Roboto-Thin').
157 * Better support for glyphs that use explicit 'on' points around round
161 New in Version 0.95 (2013-Mar-07)
162 ---------------------------------
164 * New option `--dehint` to strip off all hints without generating new hints.
165 This option is intended for testing purposes.
167 * Minor fixes to the created bytecode for compatibility.
169 * Minor GUI improvements.
172 New in Version 0.94 (2012-Nov-29)
173 ---------------------------------
175 * New option `--windows-compatibility` that adds two artificial blue zones
176 at vertical positions given by 'usWinAscent' and 'usWinDescent'. This
177 helps ttfautohint's hinting algorithm reduce the possibility of clipping
178 if those two values are very tight.
180 * Implement option `--x-height-snapping-exceptions`, making ttfautohint
181 avoid x-height snapping for selected PPEM values. Useful in combination
182 with `--windows-compatibility`.
184 * Minor fixes to the created bytecode for compatibility and robustness.
187 New in Version 0.93 (2012-Oct-09)
188 ---------------------------------
190 * New option `--components` to treat components of composite glyphs
191 separately. This greatly reduces the bytecode size.
193 I'm waiting for reports whether this option works for most fonts; in case
194 this is true I'm inverting the option, making it the default (and the old
197 * Full support of TTCs, this is, all subfonts get auto-hinted now.
199 * The upper limit of the `--increase-x-height` option has been removed.
201 * Drag-and-drop support in the GUI.
203 * The TTY version of ttfautohint now acts like a (Unix) filter, this is, it
204 accepts stdin and stdout as input and output, respectively.
206 * Less memory consumption.
209 New in Version 0.92 (2012-Aug-07)
210 ---------------------------------
212 * A serious bug in the created bytecode has been fixed, causing incorrect
216 New in Version 0.91 (2012-Jul-12)
217 ---------------------------------
219 * A new, 'strong' routine to handle stem widths and positions has been
220 added, to be selected with the `--strong-stem-width` command line option.
221 If it is active, stem widths and positions are snapped to the grid as much
222 as possible. This algorithm is useful for GDI ClearType support.
224 * A new command line option `--debug` (not available for ttfautohintGUI) to
225 print very detailed debugging information.
228 New in Version 0.9 (2012-Jun-06)
229 --------------------------------
231 * The created bytecode has been reduced in size, making it approx. 20%
234 * New option `--symbol` to use standard stem height and width values instead
235 of using character 'o' (which may be missing). Use this option for symbol
236 fonts or math glyphs.
238 * More documentation (in text, HTML, and PDF format). It's still
241 * Option `--ignore-permissions` has been renamed to `--ignore-restrictions`.
242 The short form is still `-i`.
244 * Defaults for various parameters have been set to more sensible values:
246 - hinting-range-max: 50 (was 1000)
247 - hinting-limit: 200 (was 1000)
249 * Option `--increase-x-height` now has a mandatory argument (in the range
250 6-20 or value\ 0 to disable it, default value is 14).
253 New in Version 0.8 (2012-Mar-21)
254 --------------------------------
256 * Implement option `-x` to increase the x height of the font for small PPEM
257 values by rounding up far more often then rounding down.
259 * Add option '`-G n`' to switch off hinting completely above value\ `n`.
261 * ttfautohint now appends version information and the used parameters to the
262 'Version' field(s) in the 'name' table. This can be suppressed with
266 New in Version 0.7 (2012-Feb-05)
267 --------------------------------
269 * A GUI has been added, using the Qt framework. The binary is called
273 New in Version 0.6.1 (2012-Jan-02)
274 ----------------------------------
276 * The improved handling of composite glyphs in 0.6 was buggy under certain
277 circumstances, making ttfautohint crash and FontValidator complain.
279 * Dropout handling has been activated.
282 New in Version 0.6 (2011-Dec-25)
283 --------------------------------
285 * Improved handling of composite glyphs.
287 * Implement option `-p` to pre-hint glyphs with original hints before
288 conversion takes place.
290 * Don't add a `DSIG` table if there is none in the input font.
292 * Human-readable error messages instead of hexadecimal error codes.
294 * Better tests (both at runtime and compile time) to reject too old FreeType
298 New in Version 0.5 (2011-Nov-06)
299 --------------------------------
301 * Rendering on iOS is now expected to give good results.
303 * No bad rendering at very large PPEM values.
306 New in Version 0.4 (2011-Oct-27)
307 --------------------------------
309 * The bytecode has been changed to 'create' twilight points. This should
310 avoid rendering artifacts on some platforms.
313 New in Version 0.3 (2011-Sep-09)
314 --------------------------------
316 * Fix font generation; sometimes the `glyf` table was one byte too short,
317 making the font invalid.
320 New in Version 0.2 (2011-Jul-19)
321 --------------------------------
323 * Fix bytecode bugs that prevented correct rendering on some platforms.
326 New in Version 0.1 (2011-Jun-30)
327 --------------------------------