1 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 * The amount of information about ttfautohint and its parameters that gets
18 added to the `name` table by default has been reduced. A new option
19 `--detailed-info` restores the previous behaviour.
21 * ttfautohintGUI crashed if not used with a control instruction file.
23 * ttfautohintGUI now correctly switches to a horizontal two-column layout if
24 the standard one-column layout would exceed the screen height.
26 * A new option `--family-suffix` makes it possible to append a suffix to a
27 font's family name in the `name` table. This can be useful during the
28 development process: It helps the operating system to simultaneously
29 display several instances of a font that are processed with different
30 ttfautohint parameters.
32 * The new library option `info-post-callback` helps in processing data from
36 Version 1.2 (2014-Oct-06)
37 -------------------------
39 * It is now possible to control the hinting process at a very low level
40 using a 'control instructions' file. Right now, two modes are supported:
42 - Adding segments and changing segment directions.
44 - Applying delta exceptions. Note that this doesn't really work in
47 Please see the documentation for a description and a small tutorial.
49 In the TTY front-end, use option `--control-file` to load such a file.
51 * Support for input file watching in ttfautohintGUI: If the 'Watch Input
52 File' box is checked, the program automatically regenerates the output
53 file as soon as the input font or control instructions file gets modified.
55 The idea is to dock ttfautohintGUI to your favourite font and text editor
56 instead of adding a cheap text editor to ttfautohintGUI itself.
58 * With the new option `--fallback-stem-width` it is now possible to set a
59 default stem width for all scripts that lack proper standard characters in
62 * Add alias `--adjust-subglyphs` for option `--pre-hinting` to better
63 describe its functionality. The short form `-p` stays unchanged.
65 * New option `--ttfa-table` to add an SFNT table `TTFA` to the output font,
66 containing an ASCII dump of all used ttfautohint parameters (including
67 control instructions). Right now, this is mainly for archiving purposes.
68 Forthcoming versions of ttfautohint will be able to re-use this data if a
69 font gets re-processed.
71 * A harmless buglet was fixed that made the `glyf` table too large by one
72 byte under some circumstances.
74 * A bug fix taken from FreeType, correcting a crash for unusual outlines.
76 * Better handling of TTC files.
78 * New library options `error-callback` and `error-callback-data` for
79 improved diagnostics. [No change in the front-ends except better error
82 * Many other, minor fixes and improvements.
85 Version 1.1 (2014-May-05)
86 -------------------------
88 * Support for the Devanagari script.
90 * Bug fixes in the computation of strong stem widths. GDI hinting now gives
91 much more consistent results.
93 * Better recognition of script coverage: ttfautohint now properly scans
94 composite glyphs to cover components also.
96 * Improved glyph shape analysis: Non-flat local extrema are now recognized
97 more reliably, and stem detection works better.
100 Version 1.00 (2014-Mar-20)
101 --------------------------
103 * Much less memory consumption while handling fonts with complicated glyphs.
105 * Option `-s` was partially broken.
108 Version 1.00rc1 (2014-Feb-07)
109 -----------------------------
111 * OpenType feature support. ttfautohint now uses the HarfBuzz library to
112 analyze data from the `GSUB` table. This allows the hinting of glyphs
113 that don't have an entry in a font's `cmap` table, for example
114 superscripts or small caps.
116 Related to this, the new option `--default-script` controls the default
117 (fallback) script used for OpenType features.
119 * More than a single standard character is used. For example, the 'latin'
120 script uses characters 'o', 'O', and digit '0'. This improves the hinting
121 of fonts (and features) that have only a partial coverage of a script's
122 character repertoire.
124 * Much better GDI ClearType hinting in the range 30-80ppem (approx.),
125 avoiding overly flat tops and bottoms of round glyphs.
127 * Better handling of non-square pixels (this is, horizontal and vertical
128 resolutions differ) in the created TrueType bytecode.
131 Version 0.97 (2013-Nov-09)
132 --------------------------
134 * Improved script support. Besides Cyrillic and Greek, which are now
135 handled separately from Latin, ttfautohint can handle Hebrew.
137 * Option `-f` now takes a parameter to specify the fallback script. The
138 corresponding long option name has been renamed from `--latin-fallback` to
141 * Work around a bug in display environments that use FreeType 2.5.0 and
142 earlier for rendering: Sometimes, the 'strong' stem width routine was used
143 for DW ClearType (this is, subpixel hinting in FreeType is enabled) even
144 if 'smooth' was selected while generating the font with ttfautohint.
147 Version 0.96 (2013-Aug-06)
148 --------------------------
150 * Option `--components` has been replaced with `--composites`: By default,
151 the components of a composite glyph are now hinted separately, since tests
152 has shown that this gives good results in most cases. If this option is
153 set, however, the composite glyph itself gets hinted (and the hints of the
154 components are ignored).
156 An unfortunate side effect is that ttfautohint's option `-c` (which stays
157 as a shorthand for `--composites`) now does exactly the opposite as in
160 * Older versions of Monotype's 'iType' bytecode interpreter have a serious
161 bug: The DIV instruction rounds the result, while the correct operation is
162 truncation. This caused 'exploding characters' with fonts hinted by
163 ttfautohint. Since many printers contain this rasterizer without any
164 possibility to update to a non-buggy version, ttfautohint now contains
165 work-arounds to circumvent the problem.
167 * Better support for glyphs where some points have almost the same position
168 (for example glyph 'Oslash' in font 'Roboto-Thin').
170 * Better support for glyphs that use explicit 'on' points around round
174 Version 0.95 (2013-Mar-07)
175 --------------------------
177 * New option `--dehint` to strip off all hints without generating new hints.
178 This option is intended for testing purposes.
180 * Minor fixes to the created bytecode for compatibility.
182 * Minor GUI improvements.
185 Version 0.94 (2012-Nov-29)
186 --------------------------
188 * New option `--windows-compatibility` that adds two artificial blue zones
189 at vertical positions given by 'usWinAscent' and 'usWinDescent'. This
190 helps ttfautohint's hinting algorithm reduce the possibility of clipping
191 if those two values are very tight.
193 * Implement option `--x-height-snapping-exceptions`, making ttfautohint
194 avoid x-height snapping for selected PPEM values. Useful in combination
195 with `--windows-compatibility`.
197 * Minor fixes to the created bytecode for compatibility and robustness.
200 Version 0.93 (2012-Oct-09)
201 --------------------------
203 * New option `--components` to treat components of composite glyphs
204 separately. This greatly reduces the bytecode size.
206 I'm waiting for reports whether this option works for most fonts; in case
207 this is true I'm inverting the option, making it the default (and the old
210 * Full support of TTCs, this is, all subfonts get auto-hinted now.
212 * The upper limit of the `--increase-x-height` option has been removed.
214 * Drag-and-drop support in the GUI.
216 * The TTY version of ttfautohint now acts like a (Unix) filter, this is, it
217 accepts stdin and stdout as input and output, respectively.
219 * Less memory consumption.
222 Version 0.92 (2012-Aug-07)
223 --------------------------
225 * A serious bug in the created bytecode has been fixed, causing incorrect
229 Version 0.91 (2012-Jul-12)
230 --------------------------
232 * A new, 'strong' routine to handle stem widths and positions has been
233 added, to be selected with the `--strong-stem-width` command line option.
234 If it is active, stem widths and positions are snapped to the grid as much
235 as possible. This algorithm is useful for GDI ClearType support.
237 * A new command line option `--debug` (not available for ttfautohintGUI) to
238 print very detailed debugging information.
241 Version 0.9 (2012-Jun-06)
242 -------------------------
244 * The created bytecode has been reduced in size, making it approx. 20%
247 * New option `--symbol` to use standard stem height and width values instead
248 of using character 'o' (which may be missing). Use this option for symbol
249 fonts or math glyphs.
251 * More documentation (in text, HTML, and PDF format). It's still
254 * Option `--ignore-permissions` has been renamed to `--ignore-restrictions`.
255 The short form is still `-i`.
257 * Defaults for various parameters have been set to more sensible values:
259 - hinting-range-max: 50 (was 1000)
260 - hinting-limit: 200 (was 1000)
262 * Option `--increase-x-height` now has a mandatory argument (in the range
263 6-20 or value\ 0 to disable it, default value is 14).
266 Version 0.8 (2012-Mar-21)
267 -------------------------
269 * Implement option `-x` to increase the x height of the font for small PPEM
270 values by rounding up far more often then rounding down.
272 * Add option '`-G n`' to switch off hinting completely above value\ `n`.
274 * ttfautohint now appends version information and the used parameters to the
275 'Version' field(s) in the 'name' table. This can be suppressed with
279 Version 0.7 (2012-Feb-05)
280 -------------------------
282 * A GUI has been added, using the Qt framework. The binary is called
286 Version 0.6.1 (2012-Jan-02)
287 ---------------------------
289 * The improved handling of composite glyphs in 0.6 was buggy under certain
290 circumstances, making ttfautohint crash and FontValidator complain.
292 * Dropout handling has been activated.
295 Version 0.6 (2011-Dec-25)
296 -------------------------
298 * Improved handling of composite glyphs.
300 * Implement option `-p` to pre-hint glyphs with original hints before
301 conversion takes place.
303 * Don't add a `DSIG` table if there is none in the input font.
305 * Human-readable error messages instead of hexadecimal error codes.
307 * Better tests (both at runtime and compile time) to reject too old FreeType
311 Version 0.5 (2011-Nov-06)
312 -------------------------
314 * Rendering on iOS is now expected to give good results.
316 * No bad rendering at very large PPEM values.
319 Version 0.4 (2011-Oct-27)
320 -------------------------
322 * The bytecode has been changed to 'create' twilight points. This should
323 avoid rendering artifacts on some platforms.
326 Version 0.3 (2011-Sep-09)
327 -------------------------
329 * Fix font generation; sometimes the `glyf` table was one byte too short,
330 making the font invalid.
333 Version 0.2 (2011-Jul-19)
334 -------------------------
336 * Fix bytecode bugs that prevented correct rendering on some platforms.
339 Version 0.1 (2011-Jun-30)
340 -------------------------