1 Version 1.8.4 (2020-XXX-XX)
2 ---------------------------
4 * Support for Hanifi Rohingya, Nyiakeng Puachue Hmong, Medefaidrin, and
7 * Bug fix: Option combination `-f none -S` to suppress hinting of
8 unassigned glyphs was broken.
11 Version 1.8.3 (2019-Apr-09)
12 ---------------------------
14 * Support for Mongolian. The de-facto standard is to render the glyphs
15 horizontally (left-to-right) line by line, then rotating each line
16 clockwise by 90\ degrees. This allows the usage of ttfautohint.
18 * Bug fix: Glyphs with complicated shapes or a large number of outlines
19 could be distorted if displayed with FreeType (or stay unhinted if
23 Version 1.8.2 (2018-Jul-24)
24 ---------------------------
26 * Support for Georgian Mtavruli.
28 * Bug fix: Compilation of ttfautohintGUI with homebrew on the Mac works
31 * Bug fix: Point deltas didn't work for composite glyphs.
34 Version 1.8.1 (2018-Jan-01)
35 ---------------------------
37 * Bug fix: The `configure` script couldn't recognize Qt 5.10.x.
40 Version 1.8 (2017-Dec-31)
41 -------------------------
43 * A third, 'natural' stem width mode has been added: No adjustments to
44 stem widths, discrete blue zone positioning. This is what FreeType uses
45 for its 'light' (auto-)hinting mode.
47 * A new option `-a` has been implemented to select the stem width mode for
48 the three rendering targets (grayscale, GDI ClearType, DW ClearType).
49 This supersedes option `-g`, which is now deprecated.
51 * Stem widths for the hinting process can now be manually set using the
52 new `width` keyword in a control instructions file. This is especially
53 useful for extra-bold fonts, where the algorithmically derived values
54 are often too large, causing the filling of 'eyes' in 'e' or 'a' glyphs
57 * libttfautohint gets now installed as a DLL or static library (or both,
58 depending on the parameters of the `configure` script), together with
61 * Two functions `TTF_autohint_version` and `TTF_autohint_version_string`
62 have been added to the library, which do the obvious.
64 * Two options to `TTF_autohint` have been added: `alloc-func` and
65 `free-func`. These are necessary on some platforms if ttfautohint is
66 compiled as a shared library, and the application uses a different
67 runtime library. This can happen, for example, on the MS Windows
68 platform if your program is written in Python and communicates via the
69 'ctypes' interface with the ttfautohint DLL.
71 * `TTF_autohint` options
72 `{gray,gdi-cleartype,dw-cleartype}-strong-stem-width` are now superseded
73 by `{gray,gdi-cleartype,dw-cleartype}`-stem-width-mode` to handle the
74 new natural stem width mode also.
76 * Bug fix: Later control instructions now correctly overwrite earlier
77 entries as documented.
80 Version 1.7 (2017-Aug-26)
81 -------------------------
83 * Support for Adlam, Avestan, Bamum, Buhid, Unified Canadian Syllabics,
84 Carian, Chakma, Coptic, Cypriot, Deseret, Glagolitic, Gothic, Kayah Li,
85 Lisu, N'Ko, Ol Chiki, Old Turkic, Osage, Osmanya, Saurashtra, Shavian,
86 Sundanese, Tai Viet, Tifinagh, and Vai scripts.
88 Note that the used blue zone characters might not be optimal. Please
89 report any problems so that I can fix issues!
91 * Option `--fallback-stem-width` now works for non-symbol fonts also, as
94 * TrueType bytecode generated by ttfautohint now correctly supports most
95 recent MS interpreter versions.
97 * A bug with bytecode for composite glyphs with composite subglyphs is now
101 Version 1.6 (2016-Nov-27)
102 -------------------------
104 * A new option `--reference` (and `--reference-index` to select a font
105 within a TTC) makes ttfautohint use the blue zones from another font.
106 This helps synchronize the ascenders and descenders of font families.
108 * Support for Armenian, Cherokee, Ethiopic, Georgian, Gujarati, Gurmukhi,
109 Kannada, Malayalam, Sinhala, and Tamil scripts.
111 * New option `--ttfa-info` to display a font's `TTFA` table (if present).
113 * Glyphs covered by the fallback script are now hinted by default.
114 Previously, they were scaled only. The default fallback script `none`
115 now implies hinting without script-specific blue zones (but still
116 aligning stems to the grid if possible).
118 * The new option `--fallback-scaling` changes the behaviour of the
119 fallback script from hinting to scaling (as implemented in previous
122 * ttfautohint (but not ttfautohintGUI) now honours the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
123 environment variable for reproducible builds. This corresponds to the
124 new library option `epoch`.
126 * Bug fix: Allow dehinting of fonts that contain a `.ttfautohint` glyph.
129 Version 1.5 (2016-Jan-24)
130 -------------------------
132 * Support for Khmer, Myanmar, and Bengali scripts.
134 * Improved Devanagari hinting.
136 * ttfautohintGUI can now be compiled with Qt5.
138 * Bug fix: Too many delta control instructions for a single glyph caused a
139 bytecode stack overflow, making the MS rasterizer ignore all hinting
140 instructions for this glyph.
142 * Bug fix: Don't create multiple `TTFA` tables in font.
144 * Bug fix: Under certain circumstances, glyph indices used in Indic
145 features were incorrectly assigned to the default script.
148 Version 1.4.1 (2015-Oct-17)
149 ---------------------------
151 * A bug in handling control instruction files could cause severe glyph
152 shape distortions of accent-like glyphs. All users should update.
155 Version 1.4 (2015-Oct-04)
156 -------------------------
158 * Support for Thai and Lao scripts.
160 * Support for the Arabic script.
162 * Better support for scripts that contain superscript-like and
163 subscript-like glyphs, e.g., the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
165 * Accents and other `non-base' glyphs are now hinted without snapping to
168 * A new control instruction syntax form was added to adjust the mapping
169 between glyphs and styles. Right now, its usage is quite limited; a
170 forthcoming version will give much more flexibility.
172 * The `touch` keyword in a control instructions file was buggy: If used
173 for a point\ `P` at a ppem value\ `s`, it sometimes led to unwanted
174 movements of\ `P` for ppem values unequal to\ `s`, thus causing outline
178 Version 1.3 (2015-Jan-06)
179 -------------------------
181 * Keywords in control instruction files can be more verbose to increase
182 readability. You can now use `left`, `right`, `nodir`, `point`,
183 `touch`, `xshift`, and `yshift` for `l`, `r`, `n`, `p`, `t, `x`, and
186 * A new control instruction keyword `touch` was added to apply delta
187 instructions before the final IUP bytecode commands, also `touching' the
188 affected points (to use the TrueType instructions terminology). Such
189 deltas *do* work even with ClearType if applied to the non-ClearType
192 * Support for the Telugu script.
194 * The amount of information about ttfautohint and its parameters that gets
195 added to the `name` table by default has been reduced. A new option
196 `--detailed-info` restores the previous behaviour.
198 * ttfautohintGUI crashed if not used with a control instruction file.
200 * ttfautohintGUI now correctly switches to a horizontal two-column layout
201 if the standard one-column layout would exceed the screen height.
203 * A new option `--family-suffix` makes it possible to append a suffix to a
204 font's family name in the `name` table. This can be useful during the
205 development process: It helps the operating system to simultaneously
206 display several instances of a font that are processed with different
207 ttfautohint parameters.
209 * The new library option `info-post-callback` helps in processing data
210 from the `name` table.
213 Version 1.2 (2014-Oct-06)
214 -------------------------
216 * It is now possible to control the hinting process at a very low level
217 using a 'control instructions' file. Right now, two modes are
220 - Adding segments and changing segment directions.
222 - Applying delta exceptions. Note that this doesn't really work in
225 Please see the documentation for a description and a small tutorial.
227 In the command-line front-end, use option `--control-file` to load such
230 * Support for input file watching in ttfautohintGUI: If the 'Watch Input
231 File' box is checked, the program automatically regenerates the output
232 file as soon as the input font or control instructions file gets
235 The idea is to dock ttfautohintGUI to your favourite font and text
236 editor instead of adding a cheap text editor to ttfautohintGUI itself.
238 * With the new option `--fallback-stem-width` it is now possible to set a
239 default stem width for all scripts that lack proper standard characters
242 * Add alias `--adjust-subglyphs` for option `--pre-hinting` to better
243 describe its functionality. The short form `-p` stays unchanged.
245 * New option `--ttfa-table` to add an SFNT table `TTFA` to the output
246 font, containing an ASCII dump of all used ttfautohint parameters
247 (including control instructions). Right now, this is mainly for
248 archiving purposes. Forthcoming versions of ttfautohint will be able to
249 re-use this data if a font gets re-processed.
251 * A harmless buglet was fixed that made the `glyf` table too large by one
252 byte under some circumstances.
254 * A bug fix taken from FreeType, correcting a crash for unusual outlines.
256 * Better handling of TTC files.
258 * New library options `error-callback` and `error-callback-data` for
259 improved diagnostics. [No change in the front-ends except better error
262 * Many other, minor fixes and improvements.
265 Version 1.1 (2014-May-05)
266 -------------------------
268 * Support for the Devanagari script.
270 * Bug fixes in the computation of strong stem widths. GDI hinting now
271 gives much more consistent results.
273 * Better recognition of script coverage: ttfautohint now properly scans
274 composite glyphs to cover components also.
276 * Improved glyph shape analysis: Non-flat local extrema are now recognized
277 more reliably, and stem detection works better.
280 Version 1.00 (2014-Mar-20)
281 --------------------------
283 * Much less memory consumption while handling fonts with complicated
286 * Option `-s` was partially broken.
289 Version 1.00rc1 (2014-Feb-07)
290 -----------------------------
292 * OpenType feature support. ttfautohint now uses the HarfBuzz library to
293 analyze data from the `GSUB` table. This allows the hinting of glyphs
294 that don't have an entry in a font's `cmap` table, for example
295 superscripts or small caps.
297 Related to this, the new option `--default-script` controls the default
298 (fallback) script used for OpenType features.
300 * More than a single standard character is used. For example, the 'latin'
301 script uses characters 'o', 'O', and digit '0'. This improves the
302 hinting of fonts (and features) that have only a partial coverage of a
303 script's character repertoire.
305 * Much better GDI ClearType hinting in the range 30-80ppem (approx.),
306 avoiding overly flat tops and bottoms of round glyphs.
308 * Better handling of non-square pixels (this is, horizontal and vertical
309 resolutions differ) in the created TrueType bytecode.
312 Version 0.97 (2013-Nov-09)
313 --------------------------
315 * Improved script support. Besides Cyrillic and Greek, which are now
316 handled separately from Latin, ttfautohint can handle Hebrew.
318 * Option `-f` now takes a parameter to specify the fallback script. The
319 corresponding long option name has been renamed from `--latin-fallback`
320 to `--fallback-script`.
322 * Work around a bug in display environments that use FreeType 2.5.0 and
323 earlier for rendering: Sometimes, the 'strong' stem width routine was
324 used for DW ClearType (this is, subpixel hinting in FreeType is enabled)
325 even if 'smooth' was selected while generating the font with
329 Version 0.96 (2013-Aug-06)
330 --------------------------
332 * Option `--components` has been replaced with `--composites`: By default,
333 the components of a composite glyph are now hinted separately, since
334 tests has shown that this gives good results in most cases. If this
335 option is set, however, the composite glyph itself gets hinted (and the
336 hints of the components are ignored).
338 An unfortunate side effect is that ttfautohint's option `-c` (which
339 stays as a shorthand for `--composites`) now does exactly the opposite
340 as in previous releases.
342 * Older versions of Monotype's 'iType' bytecode interpreter have a serious
343 bug: The DIV instruction rounds the result, while the correct operation
344 is truncation. This caused 'exploding characters' with fonts hinted by
345 ttfautohint. Since many printers contain this rasterizer without any
346 possibility to update to a non-buggy version, ttfautohint now contains
347 work-arounds to circumvent the problem.
349 * Better support for glyphs where some points have almost the same
350 position (for example glyph 'Oslash' in font 'Roboto-Thin').
352 * Better support for glyphs that use explicit 'on' points around round
356 Version 0.95 (2013-Mar-07)
357 --------------------------
359 * New option `--dehint` to strip off all hints without generating new
360 hints. This option is intended for testing purposes.
362 * Minor fixes to the created bytecode for compatibility.
364 * Minor GUI improvements.
367 Version 0.94 (2012-Nov-29)
368 --------------------------
370 * New option `--windows-compatibility` that adds two artificial blue zones
371 at vertical positions given by 'usWinAscent' and 'usWinDescent'. This
372 helps ttfautohint's hinting algorithm reduce the possibility of clipping
373 if those two values are very tight.
375 * Implement option `--x-height-snapping-exceptions`, making ttfautohint
376 avoid x-height snapping for selected PPEM values. Useful in combination
377 with `--windows-compatibility`.
379 * Minor fixes to the created bytecode for compatibility and robustness.
382 Version 0.93 (2012-Oct-09)
383 --------------------------
385 * New option `--components` to treat components of composite glyphs
386 separately. This greatly reduces the bytecode size.
388 I'm waiting for reports whether this option works for most fonts; in
389 case this is true I'm inverting the option, making it the default (and
390 the old behaviour optional).
392 * Full support of TTCs, this is, all subfonts get auto-hinted now.
394 * The upper limit of the `--increase-x-height` option has been removed.
396 * Drag-and-drop support in the GUI.
398 * The command-line version of ttfautohint now acts like a (Unix) filter,
399 this is, it accepts stdin and stdout as input and output, respectively.
401 * Less memory consumption.
404 Version 0.92 (2012-Aug-07)
405 --------------------------
407 * A serious bug in the created bytecode has been fixed, causing incorrect
411 Version 0.91 (2012-Jul-12)
412 --------------------------
414 * A new, 'strong' routine to handle stem widths and positions has been
415 added, to be selected with the `--strong-stem-width` command line
416 option. If it is active, stem widths and positions are snapped to the
417 grid as much as possible. This algorithm is useful for GDI ClearType
420 * A new command line option `--debug` (not available for ttfautohintGUI)
421 to print very detailed debugging information.
424 Version 0.9 (2012-Jun-06)
425 -------------------------
427 * The created bytecode has been reduced in size, making it approx. 20%
430 * New option `--symbol` to use standard stem height and width values
431 instead of using character 'o' (which may be missing). Use this option
432 for symbol fonts or math glyphs.
434 * More documentation (in text, HTML, and PDF format). It's still
437 * Option `--ignore-permissions` has been renamed to
438 `--ignore-restrictions`. The short form is still `-i`.
440 * Defaults for various parameters have been set to more sensible values:
442 - hinting-range-max: 50 (was 1000)
443 - hinting-limit: 200 (was 1000)
445 * Option `--increase-x-height` now has a mandatory argument (in the range
446 6-20 or value\ 0 to disable it, default value is 14).
449 Version 0.8 (2012-Mar-21)
450 -------------------------
452 * Implement option `-x` to increase the x height of the font for small
453 PPEM values by rounding up far more often then rounding down.
455 * Add option '`-G n`' to switch off hinting completely above value\ `n`.
457 * ttfautohint now appends version information and the used parameters to
458 the 'Version' field(s) in the 'name' table. This can be suppressed with
462 Version 0.7 (2012-Feb-05)
463 -------------------------
465 * A GUI has been added, using the Qt framework. The binary is called
469 Version 0.6.1 (2012-Jan-02)
470 ---------------------------
472 * The improved handling of composite glyphs in 0.6 was buggy under certain
473 circumstances, making ttfautohint crash and FontValidator complain.
475 * Dropout handling has been activated.
478 Version 0.6 (2011-Dec-25)
479 -------------------------
481 * Improved handling of composite glyphs.
483 * Implement option `-p` to pre-hint glyphs with original hints before
484 conversion takes place.
486 * Don't add a `DSIG` table if there is none in the input font.
488 * Human-readable error messages instead of hexadecimal error codes.
490 * Better tests (both at runtime and compile time) to reject too old
494 Version 0.5 (2011-Nov-06)
495 -------------------------
497 * Rendering on iOS is now expected to give good results.
499 * No bad rendering at very large PPEM values.
502 Version 0.4 (2011-Oct-27)
503 -------------------------
505 * The bytecode has been changed to 'create' twilight points. This should
506 avoid rendering artifacts on some platforms.
509 Version 0.3 (2011-Sep-09)
510 -------------------------
512 * Fix font generation; sometimes the `glyf` table was one byte too short,
513 making the font invalid.
516 Version 0.2 (2011-Jul-19)
517 -------------------------
519 * Fix bytecode bugs that prevented correct rendering on some platforms.
522 Version 0.1 (2011-Jun-30)
523 -------------------------