1 Version 1.6 (2016-XXX-XX)
2 -------------------------
4 * Support for Armenian, Cherokee, Ethiopic, Georgian, Gujarati, Gurmukhi,
5 Kannada, Malayalam, Sinhala, and Tamil scripts.
7 * New option `--ttfa-info` to display a font's `TTFA` table (if present).
9 * Glyphs covered by the fallback script are now hinted by default.
10 Previously, they were scaled only. The default fallback script `none` now
11 implies hinting without script-specific blue zones (but still aligning
12 stems to the grid if possible).
14 * The new option `--fallback-scaling` changes the behaviour of the fallback
15 script from hinting to scaling (as implemented in previous versions).
17 * ttfautohint (but not ttfautohintGUI) now honours the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
18 environment variable for reproducible builds. This corresponds to the new
19 library option `epoch`.
22 Version 1.5 (2016-Jan-24)
23 -------------------------
25 * Support for Khmer, Myanmar, and Bengali scripts.
27 * Improved Devanagari hinting.
29 * ttfautohintGUI can now be compiled with Qt5.
31 * Bug fix: Too many delta control instructions for a single glyph caused
32 a bytecode stack overflow, making the MS rasterizer ignore all hinting
33 instructions for this glyph.
35 * Bug fix: Don't create multiple `TTFA` tables in font.
37 * Bug fix: Under certain circumstances, glyph indices used in Indic features
38 were incorrectly assigned to the default script.
41 Version 1.4.1 (2015-Oct-17)
42 ---------------------------
44 * A bug in handling control instruction files could cause severe glyph
45 shape distortions of accent-like glyphs. All users should update.
48 Version 1.4 (2015-Oct-04)
49 -------------------------
51 * Support for Thai and Lao scripts.
53 * Support for the Arabic script.
55 * Better support for scripts that contain superscript-like and
56 subscript-like glyphs, e.g., the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
58 * Accents and other `non-base' glyphs are now hinted without snapping to
61 * A new control instruction syntax form was added to adjust the mapping
62 between glyphs and styles. Right now, its usage is quite limited; a
63 forthcoming version will give much more flexibility.
65 * The `touch` keyword in a control instructions file was buggy: If used for
66 a point\ `P` at a ppem value\ `s`, it sometimes led to unwanted movements
67 of\ `P` for ppem values unequal to\ `s`, thus causing outline distortions.
70 Version 1.3 (2015-Jan-06)
71 -------------------------
73 * Keywords in control instruction files can be more verbose to increase
74 readability. You can now use `left`, `right`, `nodir`, `point`, `touch`,
75 `xshift`, and `yshift` for `l`, `r`, `n`, `p`, `t, `x`, and `y`,
78 * A new control instruction keyword `touch` was added to apply delta
79 instructions before the final IUP bytecode commands, also `touching' the
80 affected points (to use the TrueType instructions terminology). Such
81 deltas *do* work even with ClearType if applied to the non-ClearType
84 * Support for the Telugu script.
86 * The amount of information about ttfautohint and its parameters that gets
87 added to the `name` table by default has been reduced. A new option
88 `--detailed-info` restores the previous behaviour.
90 * ttfautohintGUI crashed if not used with a control instruction file.
92 * ttfautohintGUI now correctly switches to a horizontal two-column layout if
93 the standard one-column layout would exceed the screen height.
95 * A new option `--family-suffix` makes it possible to append a suffix to a
96 font's family name in the `name` table. This can be useful during the
97 development process: It helps the operating system to simultaneously
98 display several instances of a font that are processed with different
99 ttfautohint parameters.
101 * The new library option `info-post-callback` helps in processing data from
105 Version 1.2 (2014-Oct-06)
106 -------------------------
108 * It is now possible to control the hinting process at a very low level
109 using a 'control instructions' file. Right now, two modes are supported:
111 - Adding segments and changing segment directions.
113 - Applying delta exceptions. Note that this doesn't really work in
116 Please see the documentation for a description and a small tutorial.
118 In the command-line front-end, use option `--control-file` to load such a
121 * Support for input file watching in ttfautohintGUI: If the 'Watch Input
122 File' box is checked, the program automatically regenerates the output
123 file as soon as the input font or control instructions file gets modified.
125 The idea is to dock ttfautohintGUI to your favourite font and text editor
126 instead of adding a cheap text editor to ttfautohintGUI itself.
128 * With the new option `--fallback-stem-width` it is now possible to set a
129 default stem width for all scripts that lack proper standard characters in
132 * Add alias `--adjust-subglyphs` for option `--pre-hinting` to better
133 describe its functionality. The short form `-p` stays unchanged.
135 * New option `--ttfa-table` to add an SFNT table `TTFA` to the output font,
136 containing an ASCII dump of all used ttfautohint parameters (including
137 control instructions). Right now, this is mainly for archiving purposes.
138 Forthcoming versions of ttfautohint will be able to re-use this data if a
139 font gets re-processed.
141 * A harmless buglet was fixed that made the `glyf` table too large by one
142 byte under some circumstances.
144 * A bug fix taken from FreeType, correcting a crash for unusual outlines.
146 * Better handling of TTC files.
148 * New library options `error-callback` and `error-callback-data` for
149 improved diagnostics. [No change in the front-ends except better error
152 * Many other, minor fixes and improvements.
155 Version 1.1 (2014-May-05)
156 -------------------------
158 * Support for the Devanagari script.
160 * Bug fixes in the computation of strong stem widths. GDI hinting now gives
161 much more consistent results.
163 * Better recognition of script coverage: ttfautohint now properly scans
164 composite glyphs to cover components also.
166 * Improved glyph shape analysis: Non-flat local extrema are now recognized
167 more reliably, and stem detection works better.
170 Version 1.00 (2014-Mar-20)
171 --------------------------
173 * Much less memory consumption while handling fonts with complicated glyphs.
175 * Option `-s` was partially broken.
178 Version 1.00rc1 (2014-Feb-07)
179 -----------------------------
181 * OpenType feature support. ttfautohint now uses the HarfBuzz library to
182 analyze data from the `GSUB` table. This allows the hinting of glyphs
183 that don't have an entry in a font's `cmap` table, for example
184 superscripts or small caps.
186 Related to this, the new option `--default-script` controls the default
187 (fallback) script used for OpenType features.
189 * More than a single standard character is used. For example, the 'latin'
190 script uses characters 'o', 'O', and digit '0'. This improves the hinting
191 of fonts (and features) that have only a partial coverage of a script's
192 character repertoire.
194 * Much better GDI ClearType hinting in the range 30-80ppem (approx.),
195 avoiding overly flat tops and bottoms of round glyphs.
197 * Better handling of non-square pixels (this is, horizontal and vertical
198 resolutions differ) in the created TrueType bytecode.
201 Version 0.97 (2013-Nov-09)
202 --------------------------
204 * Improved script support. Besides Cyrillic and Greek, which are now
205 handled separately from Latin, ttfautohint can handle Hebrew.
207 * Option `-f` now takes a parameter to specify the fallback script. The
208 corresponding long option name has been renamed from `--latin-fallback` to
211 * Work around a bug in display environments that use FreeType 2.5.0 and
212 earlier for rendering: Sometimes, the 'strong' stem width routine was used
213 for DW ClearType (this is, subpixel hinting in FreeType is enabled) even
214 if 'smooth' was selected while generating the font with ttfautohint.
217 Version 0.96 (2013-Aug-06)
218 --------------------------
220 * Option `--components` has been replaced with `--composites`: By default,
221 the components of a composite glyph are now hinted separately, since tests
222 has shown that this gives good results in most cases. If this option is
223 set, however, the composite glyph itself gets hinted (and the hints of the
224 components are ignored).
226 An unfortunate side effect is that ttfautohint's option `-c` (which stays
227 as a shorthand for `--composites`) now does exactly the opposite as in
230 * Older versions of Monotype's 'iType' bytecode interpreter have a serious
231 bug: The DIV instruction rounds the result, while the correct operation is
232 truncation. This caused 'exploding characters' with fonts hinted by
233 ttfautohint. Since many printers contain this rasterizer without any
234 possibility to update to a non-buggy version, ttfautohint now contains
235 work-arounds to circumvent the problem.
237 * Better support for glyphs where some points have almost the same position
238 (for example glyph 'Oslash' in font 'Roboto-Thin').
240 * Better support for glyphs that use explicit 'on' points around round
244 Version 0.95 (2013-Mar-07)
245 --------------------------
247 * New option `--dehint` to strip off all hints without generating new hints.
248 This option is intended for testing purposes.
250 * Minor fixes to the created bytecode for compatibility.
252 * Minor GUI improvements.
255 Version 0.94 (2012-Nov-29)
256 --------------------------
258 * New option `--windows-compatibility` that adds two artificial blue zones
259 at vertical positions given by 'usWinAscent' and 'usWinDescent'. This
260 helps ttfautohint's hinting algorithm reduce the possibility of clipping
261 if those two values are very tight.
263 * Implement option `--x-height-snapping-exceptions`, making ttfautohint
264 avoid x-height snapping for selected PPEM values. Useful in combination
265 with `--windows-compatibility`.
267 * Minor fixes to the created bytecode for compatibility and robustness.
270 Version 0.93 (2012-Oct-09)
271 --------------------------
273 * New option `--components` to treat components of composite glyphs
274 separately. This greatly reduces the bytecode size.
276 I'm waiting for reports whether this option works for most fonts; in case
277 this is true I'm inverting the option, making it the default (and the old
280 * Full support of TTCs, this is, all subfonts get auto-hinted now.
282 * The upper limit of the `--increase-x-height` option has been removed.
284 * Drag-and-drop support in the GUI.
286 * The command-line version of ttfautohint now acts like a (Unix) filter,
287 this is, it accepts stdin and stdout as input and output, respectively.
289 * Less memory consumption.
292 Version 0.92 (2012-Aug-07)
293 --------------------------
295 * A serious bug in the created bytecode has been fixed, causing incorrect
299 Version 0.91 (2012-Jul-12)
300 --------------------------
302 * A new, 'strong' routine to handle stem widths and positions has been
303 added, to be selected with the `--strong-stem-width` command line option.
304 If it is active, stem widths and positions are snapped to the grid as much
305 as possible. This algorithm is useful for GDI ClearType support.
307 * A new command line option `--debug` (not available for ttfautohintGUI) to
308 print very detailed debugging information.
311 Version 0.9 (2012-Jun-06)
312 -------------------------
314 * The created bytecode has been reduced in size, making it approx. 20%
317 * New option `--symbol` to use standard stem height and width values instead
318 of using character 'o' (which may be missing). Use this option for symbol
319 fonts or math glyphs.
321 * More documentation (in text, HTML, and PDF format). It's still
324 * Option `--ignore-permissions` has been renamed to `--ignore-restrictions`.
325 The short form is still `-i`.
327 * Defaults for various parameters have been set to more sensible values:
329 - hinting-range-max: 50 (was 1000)
330 - hinting-limit: 200 (was 1000)
332 * Option `--increase-x-height` now has a mandatory argument (in the range
333 6-20 or value\ 0 to disable it, default value is 14).
336 Version 0.8 (2012-Mar-21)
337 -------------------------
339 * Implement option `-x` to increase the x height of the font for small PPEM
340 values by rounding up far more often then rounding down.
342 * Add option '`-G n`' to switch off hinting completely above value\ `n`.
344 * ttfautohint now appends version information and the used parameters to the
345 'Version' field(s) in the 'name' table. This can be suppressed with
349 Version 0.7 (2012-Feb-05)
350 -------------------------
352 * A GUI has been added, using the Qt framework. The binary is called
356 Version 0.6.1 (2012-Jan-02)
357 ---------------------------
359 * The improved handling of composite glyphs in 0.6 was buggy under certain
360 circumstances, making ttfautohint crash and FontValidator complain.
362 * Dropout handling has been activated.
365 Version 0.6 (2011-Dec-25)
366 -------------------------
368 * Improved handling of composite glyphs.
370 * Implement option `-p` to pre-hint glyphs with original hints before
371 conversion takes place.
373 * Don't add a `DSIG` table if there is none in the input font.
375 * Human-readable error messages instead of hexadecimal error codes.
377 * Better tests (both at runtime and compile time) to reject too old FreeType
381 Version 0.5 (2011-Nov-06)
382 -------------------------
384 * Rendering on iOS is now expected to give good results.
386 * No bad rendering at very large PPEM values.
389 Version 0.4 (2011-Oct-27)
390 -------------------------
392 * The bytecode has been changed to 'create' twilight points. This should
393 avoid rendering artifacts on some platforms.
396 Version 0.3 (2011-Sep-09)
397 -------------------------
399 * Fix font generation; sometimes the `glyf` table was one byte too short,
400 making the font invalid.
403 Version 0.2 (2011-Jul-19)
404 -------------------------
406 * Fix bytecode bugs that prevented correct rendering on some platforms.
409 Version 0.1 (2011-Jun-30)
410 -------------------------