1 Version 1.8.4 (2019-XXX-XX)
2 ---------------------------
4 * Bug fix: Option combination `-f none -S` to suppress hinting of
5 unassigned glyphs was broken.
8 Version 1.8.3 (2019-Apr-09)
9 ---------------------------
11 * Support for Mongolian. The de-facto standard is to render the glyphs
12 horizontally (left-to-right) line by line, then rotating each line
13 clockwise by 90\ degrees. This allows the usage of ttfautohint.
15 * Bug fix: Glyphs with complicated shapes or a large number of outlines
16 could be distorted if displayed with FreeType (or stay unhinted if
20 Version 1.8.2 (2018-Jul-24)
21 ---------------------------
23 * Support for Georgian Mtavruli.
25 * Bug fix: Compilation of ttfautohintGUI with homebrew on the Mac works
28 * Bug fix: Point deltas didn't work for composite glyphs.
31 Version 1.8.1 (2018-Jan-01)
32 ---------------------------
34 * Bug fix: The `configure` script couldn't recognize Qt 5.10.x.
37 Version 1.8 (2017-Dec-31)
38 -------------------------
40 * A third, 'natural' stem width mode has been added: No adjustments to
41 stem widths, discrete blue zone positioning. This is what FreeType uses
42 for its 'light' (auto-)hinting mode.
44 * A new option `-a` has been implemented to select the stem width mode for
45 the three rendering targets (grayscale, GDI ClearType, DW ClearType).
46 This supersedes option `-g`, which is now deprecated.
48 * Stem widths for the hinting process can now be manually set using the
49 new `width` keyword in a control instructions file. This is especially
50 useful for extra-bold fonts, where the algorithmically derived values
51 are often too large, causing the filling of 'eyes' in 'e' or 'a' glyphs
54 * libttfautohint gets now installed as a DLL or static library (or both,
55 depending on the parameters of the `configure` script), together with
58 * Two functions `TTF_autohint_version` and `TTF_autohint_version_string`
59 have been added to the library, which do the obvious.
61 * Two options to `TTF_autohint` have been added: `alloc-func` and
62 `free-func`. These are necessary on some platforms if ttfautohint is
63 compiled as a shared library, and the application uses a different
64 runtime library. This can happen, for example, on the MS Windows
65 platform if your program is written in Python and communicates via the
66 'ctypes' interface with the ttfautohint DLL.
68 * `TTF_autohint` options
69 `{gray,gdi-cleartype,dw-cleartype}-strong-stem-width` are now superseded
70 by `{gray,gdi-cleartype,dw-cleartype}`-stem-width-mode` to handle the
71 new natural stem width mode also.
73 * Bug fix: Later control instructions now correctly overwrite earlier
74 entries as documented.
77 Version 1.7 (2017-Aug-26)
78 -------------------------
80 * Support for Adlam, Avestan, Bamum, Buhid, Unified Canadian Syllabics,
81 Carian, Chakma, Coptic, Cypriot, Deseret, Glagolitic, Gothic, Kayah Li,
82 Lisu, N'Ko, Ol Chiki, Old Turkic, Osage, Osmanya, Saurashtra, Shavian,
83 Sundanese, Tai Viet, Tifinagh, and Vai scripts.
85 Note that the used blue zone characters might not be optimal. Please
86 report any problems so that I can fix issues!
88 * Option `--fallback-stem-width` now works for non-symbol fonts also, as
91 * TrueType bytecode generated by ttfautohint now correctly supports most
92 recent MS interpreter versions.
94 * A bug with bytecode for composite glyphs with composite subglyphs is now
98 Version 1.6 (2016-Nov-27)
99 -------------------------
101 * A new option `--reference` (and `--reference-index` to select a font
102 within a TTC) makes ttfautohint use the blue zones from another font.
103 This helps synchronize the ascenders and descenders of font families.
105 * Support for Armenian, Cherokee, Ethiopic, Georgian, Gujarati, Gurmukhi,
106 Kannada, Malayalam, Sinhala, and Tamil scripts.
108 * New option `--ttfa-info` to display a font's `TTFA` table (if present).
110 * Glyphs covered by the fallback script are now hinted by default.
111 Previously, they were scaled only. The default fallback script `none`
112 now implies hinting without script-specific blue zones (but still
113 aligning stems to the grid if possible).
115 * The new option `--fallback-scaling` changes the behaviour of the
116 fallback script from hinting to scaling (as implemented in previous
119 * ttfautohint (but not ttfautohintGUI) now honours the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
120 environment variable for reproducible builds. This corresponds to the
121 new library option `epoch`.
123 * Bug fix: Allow dehinting of fonts that contain a `.ttfautohint` glyph.
126 Version 1.5 (2016-Jan-24)
127 -------------------------
129 * Support for Khmer, Myanmar, and Bengali scripts.
131 * Improved Devanagari hinting.
133 * ttfautohintGUI can now be compiled with Qt5.
135 * Bug fix: Too many delta control instructions for a single glyph caused a
136 bytecode stack overflow, making the MS rasterizer ignore all hinting
137 instructions for this glyph.
139 * Bug fix: Don't create multiple `TTFA` tables in font.
141 * Bug fix: Under certain circumstances, glyph indices used in Indic
142 features were incorrectly assigned to the default script.
145 Version 1.4.1 (2015-Oct-17)
146 ---------------------------
148 * A bug in handling control instruction files could cause severe glyph
149 shape distortions of accent-like glyphs. All users should update.
152 Version 1.4 (2015-Oct-04)
153 -------------------------
155 * Support for Thai and Lao scripts.
157 * Support for the Arabic script.
159 * Better support for scripts that contain superscript-like and
160 subscript-like glyphs, e.g., the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
162 * Accents and other `non-base' glyphs are now hinted without snapping to
165 * A new control instruction syntax form was added to adjust the mapping
166 between glyphs and styles. Right now, its usage is quite limited; a
167 forthcoming version will give much more flexibility.
169 * The `touch` keyword in a control instructions file was buggy: If used
170 for a point\ `P` at a ppem value\ `s`, it sometimes led to unwanted
171 movements of\ `P` for ppem values unequal to\ `s`, thus causing outline
175 Version 1.3 (2015-Jan-06)
176 -------------------------
178 * Keywords in control instruction files can be more verbose to increase
179 readability. You can now use `left`, `right`, `nodir`, `point`,
180 `touch`, `xshift`, and `yshift` for `l`, `r`, `n`, `p`, `t, `x`, and
183 * A new control instruction keyword `touch` was added to apply delta
184 instructions before the final IUP bytecode commands, also `touching' the
185 affected points (to use the TrueType instructions terminology). Such
186 deltas *do* work even with ClearType if applied to the non-ClearType
189 * Support for the Telugu script.
191 * The amount of information about ttfautohint and its parameters that gets
192 added to the `name` table by default has been reduced. A new option
193 `--detailed-info` restores the previous behaviour.
195 * ttfautohintGUI crashed if not used with a control instruction file.
197 * ttfautohintGUI now correctly switches to a horizontal two-column layout
198 if the standard one-column layout would exceed the screen height.
200 * A new option `--family-suffix` makes it possible to append a suffix to a
201 font's family name in the `name` table. This can be useful during the
202 development process: It helps the operating system to simultaneously
203 display several instances of a font that are processed with different
204 ttfautohint parameters.
206 * The new library option `info-post-callback` helps in processing data
207 from the `name` table.
210 Version 1.2 (2014-Oct-06)
211 -------------------------
213 * It is now possible to control the hinting process at a very low level
214 using a 'control instructions' file. Right now, two modes are
217 - Adding segments and changing segment directions.
219 - Applying delta exceptions. Note that this doesn't really work in
222 Please see the documentation for a description and a small tutorial.
224 In the command-line front-end, use option `--control-file` to load such
227 * Support for input file watching in ttfautohintGUI: If the 'Watch Input
228 File' box is checked, the program automatically regenerates the output
229 file as soon as the input font or control instructions file gets
232 The idea is to dock ttfautohintGUI to your favourite font and text
233 editor instead of adding a cheap text editor to ttfautohintGUI itself.
235 * With the new option `--fallback-stem-width` it is now possible to set a
236 default stem width for all scripts that lack proper standard characters
239 * Add alias `--adjust-subglyphs` for option `--pre-hinting` to better
240 describe its functionality. The short form `-p` stays unchanged.
242 * New option `--ttfa-table` to add an SFNT table `TTFA` to the output
243 font, containing an ASCII dump of all used ttfautohint parameters
244 (including control instructions). Right now, this is mainly for
245 archiving purposes. Forthcoming versions of ttfautohint will be able to
246 re-use this data if a font gets re-processed.
248 * A harmless buglet was fixed that made the `glyf` table too large by one
249 byte under some circumstances.
251 * A bug fix taken from FreeType, correcting a crash for unusual outlines.
253 * Better handling of TTC files.
255 * New library options `error-callback` and `error-callback-data` for
256 improved diagnostics. [No change in the front-ends except better error
259 * Many other, minor fixes and improvements.
262 Version 1.1 (2014-May-05)
263 -------------------------
265 * Support for the Devanagari script.
267 * Bug fixes in the computation of strong stem widths. GDI hinting now
268 gives much more consistent results.
270 * Better recognition of script coverage: ttfautohint now properly scans
271 composite glyphs to cover components also.
273 * Improved glyph shape analysis: Non-flat local extrema are now recognized
274 more reliably, and stem detection works better.
277 Version 1.00 (2014-Mar-20)
278 --------------------------
280 * Much less memory consumption while handling fonts with complicated
283 * Option `-s` was partially broken.
286 Version 1.00rc1 (2014-Feb-07)
287 -----------------------------
289 * OpenType feature support. ttfautohint now uses the HarfBuzz library to
290 analyze data from the `GSUB` table. This allows the hinting of glyphs
291 that don't have an entry in a font's `cmap` table, for example
292 superscripts or small caps.
294 Related to this, the new option `--default-script` controls the default
295 (fallback) script used for OpenType features.
297 * More than a single standard character is used. For example, the 'latin'
298 script uses characters 'o', 'O', and digit '0'. This improves the
299 hinting of fonts (and features) that have only a partial coverage of a
300 script's character repertoire.
302 * Much better GDI ClearType hinting in the range 30-80ppem (approx.),
303 avoiding overly flat tops and bottoms of round glyphs.
305 * Better handling of non-square pixels (this is, horizontal and vertical
306 resolutions differ) in the created TrueType bytecode.
309 Version 0.97 (2013-Nov-09)
310 --------------------------
312 * Improved script support. Besides Cyrillic and Greek, which are now
313 handled separately from Latin, ttfautohint can handle Hebrew.
315 * Option `-f` now takes a parameter to specify the fallback script. The
316 corresponding long option name has been renamed from `--latin-fallback`
317 to `--fallback-script`.
319 * Work around a bug in display environments that use FreeType 2.5.0 and
320 earlier for rendering: Sometimes, the 'strong' stem width routine was
321 used for DW ClearType (this is, subpixel hinting in FreeType is enabled)
322 even if 'smooth' was selected while generating the font with
326 Version 0.96 (2013-Aug-06)
327 --------------------------
329 * Option `--components` has been replaced with `--composites`: By default,
330 the components of a composite glyph are now hinted separately, since
331 tests has shown that this gives good results in most cases. If this
332 option is set, however, the composite glyph itself gets hinted (and the
333 hints of the components are ignored).
335 An unfortunate side effect is that ttfautohint's option `-c` (which
336 stays as a shorthand for `--composites`) now does exactly the opposite
337 as in previous releases.
339 * Older versions of Monotype's 'iType' bytecode interpreter have a serious
340 bug: The DIV instruction rounds the result, while the correct operation
341 is truncation. This caused 'exploding characters' with fonts hinted by
342 ttfautohint. Since many printers contain this rasterizer without any
343 possibility to update to a non-buggy version, ttfautohint now contains
344 work-arounds to circumvent the problem.
346 * Better support for glyphs where some points have almost the same
347 position (for example glyph 'Oslash' in font 'Roboto-Thin').
349 * Better support for glyphs that use explicit 'on' points around round
353 Version 0.95 (2013-Mar-07)
354 --------------------------
356 * New option `--dehint` to strip off all hints without generating new
357 hints. This option is intended for testing purposes.
359 * Minor fixes to the created bytecode for compatibility.
361 * Minor GUI improvements.
364 Version 0.94 (2012-Nov-29)
365 --------------------------
367 * New option `--windows-compatibility` that adds two artificial blue zones
368 at vertical positions given by 'usWinAscent' and 'usWinDescent'. This
369 helps ttfautohint's hinting algorithm reduce the possibility of clipping
370 if those two values are very tight.
372 * Implement option `--x-height-snapping-exceptions`, making ttfautohint
373 avoid x-height snapping for selected PPEM values. Useful in combination
374 with `--windows-compatibility`.
376 * Minor fixes to the created bytecode for compatibility and robustness.
379 Version 0.93 (2012-Oct-09)
380 --------------------------
382 * New option `--components` to treat components of composite glyphs
383 separately. This greatly reduces the bytecode size.
385 I'm waiting for reports whether this option works for most fonts; in
386 case this is true I'm inverting the option, making it the default (and
387 the old behaviour optional).
389 * Full support of TTCs, this is, all subfonts get auto-hinted now.
391 * The upper limit of the `--increase-x-height` option has been removed.
393 * Drag-and-drop support in the GUI.
395 * The command-line version of ttfautohint now acts like a (Unix) filter,
396 this is, it accepts stdin and stdout as input and output, respectively.
398 * Less memory consumption.
401 Version 0.92 (2012-Aug-07)
402 --------------------------
404 * A serious bug in the created bytecode has been fixed, causing incorrect
408 Version 0.91 (2012-Jul-12)
409 --------------------------
411 * A new, 'strong' routine to handle stem widths and positions has been
412 added, to be selected with the `--strong-stem-width` command line
413 option. If it is active, stem widths and positions are snapped to the
414 grid as much as possible. This algorithm is useful for GDI ClearType
417 * A new command line option `--debug` (not available for ttfautohintGUI)
418 to print very detailed debugging information.
421 Version 0.9 (2012-Jun-06)
422 -------------------------
424 * The created bytecode has been reduced in size, making it approx. 20%
427 * New option `--symbol` to use standard stem height and width values
428 instead of using character 'o' (which may be missing). Use this option
429 for symbol fonts or math glyphs.
431 * More documentation (in text, HTML, and PDF format). It's still
434 * Option `--ignore-permissions` has been renamed to
435 `--ignore-restrictions`. The short form is still `-i`.
437 * Defaults for various parameters have been set to more sensible values:
439 - hinting-range-max: 50 (was 1000)
440 - hinting-limit: 200 (was 1000)
442 * Option `--increase-x-height` now has a mandatory argument (in the range
443 6-20 or value\ 0 to disable it, default value is 14).
446 Version 0.8 (2012-Mar-21)
447 -------------------------
449 * Implement option `-x` to increase the x height of the font for small
450 PPEM values by rounding up far more often then rounding down.
452 * Add option '`-G n`' to switch off hinting completely above value\ `n`.
454 * ttfautohint now appends version information and the used parameters to
455 the 'Version' field(s) in the 'name' table. This can be suppressed with
459 Version 0.7 (2012-Feb-05)
460 -------------------------
462 * A GUI has been added, using the Qt framework. The binary is called
466 Version 0.6.1 (2012-Jan-02)
467 ---------------------------
469 * The improved handling of composite glyphs in 0.6 was buggy under certain
470 circumstances, making ttfautohint crash and FontValidator complain.
472 * Dropout handling has been activated.
475 Version 0.6 (2011-Dec-25)
476 -------------------------
478 * Improved handling of composite glyphs.
480 * Implement option `-p` to pre-hint glyphs with original hints before
481 conversion takes place.
483 * Don't add a `DSIG` table if there is none in the input font.
485 * Human-readable error messages instead of hexadecimal error codes.
487 * Better tests (both at runtime and compile time) to reject too old
491 Version 0.5 (2011-Nov-06)
492 -------------------------
494 * Rendering on iOS is now expected to give good results.
496 * No bad rendering at very large PPEM values.
499 Version 0.4 (2011-Oct-27)
500 -------------------------
502 * The bytecode has been changed to 'create' twilight points. This should
503 avoid rendering artifacts on some platforms.
506 Version 0.3 (2011-Sep-09)
507 -------------------------
509 * Fix font generation; sometimes the `glyf` table was one byte too short,
510 making the font invalid.
513 Version 0.2 (2011-Jul-19)
514 -------------------------
516 * Fix bytecode bugs that prevented correct rendering on some platforms.
519 Version 0.1 (2011-Jun-30)
520 -------------------------