1 Version 1.8.2 (2018-Jul-24)
2 ---------------------------
4 * Support for Georgian Mtavruli.
6 * Bug fix: Compilation of ttfautohintGUI with homebrew on the Mac works
9 * Bug fix: Point deltas didn't work for composite glyphs.
12 Version 1.8.1 (2018-Jan-01)
13 ---------------------------
15 * Bug fix: The `configure` script couldn't recognize Qt 5.10.x.
18 Version 1.8 (2017-Dec-31)
19 -------------------------
21 * A third, 'natural' stem width mode has been added: No adjustments to
22 stem widths, discrete blue zone positioning. This is what FreeType uses
23 for its 'light' (auto-)hinting mode.
25 * A new option `-a` has been implemented to select the stem width mode for
26 the three rendering targets (grayscale, GDI ClearType, DW ClearType).
27 This supersedes option `-g`, which is now deprecated.
29 * Stem widths for the hinting process can now be manually set using the
30 new `width` keyword in a control instructions file. This is especially
31 useful for extra-bold fonts, where the algorithmically derived values
32 are often too large, causing the filling of 'eyes' in 'e' or 'a' glyphs
35 * libttfautohint gets now installed as a DLL or static library (or both,
36 depending on the parameters of the `configure` script), together with
39 * Two functions `TTF_autohint_version` and `TTF_autohint_version_string`
40 have been added to the library, which do the obvious.
42 * Two options to `TTF_autohint` have been added: `alloc-func` and
43 `free-func`. These are necessary on some platforms if ttfautohint is
44 compiled as a shared library, and the application uses a different
45 runtime library. This can happen, for example, on the MS Windows
46 platform if your program is written in Python and communicates via the
47 'ctypes' interface with the ttfautohint DLL.
49 * `TTF_autohint` options
50 `{gray,gdi-cleartype,dw-cleartype}-strong-stem-width` are now superseded
51 by `{gray,gdi-cleartype,dw-cleartype}`-stem-width-mode` to handle the
52 new natural stem width mode also.
54 * Bug fix: Later control instructions now correctly overwrite earlier
55 entries as documented.
58 Version 1.7 (2017-Aug-26)
59 -------------------------
61 * Support for Adlam, Avestan, Bamum, Buhid, Unified Canadian Syllabics,
62 Carian, Chakma, Coptic, Cypriot, Deseret, Glagolitic, Gothic, Kayah Li,
63 Lisu, N'Ko, Ol Chiki, Old Turkic, Osage, Osmanya, Saurashtra, Shavian,
64 Sundanese, Tai Viet, Tifinagh, and Vai scripts.
66 Note that the used blue zone characters might not be optimal. Please
67 report any problems so that I can fix issues!
69 * Option `--fallback-stem-width` now works for non-symbol fonts also, as
72 * TrueType bytecode generated by ttfautohint now correctly supports most
73 recent MS interpreter versions.
75 * A bug with bytecode for composite glyphs with composite subglyphs is now
79 Version 1.6 (2016-Nov-27)
80 -------------------------
82 * A new option `--reference` (and `--reference-index` to select a font
83 within a TTC) makes ttfautohint use the blue zones from another font.
84 This helps synchronize the ascenders and descenders of font families.
86 * Support for Armenian, Cherokee, Ethiopic, Georgian, Gujarati, Gurmukhi,
87 Kannada, Malayalam, Sinhala, and Tamil scripts.
89 * New option `--ttfa-info` to display a font's `TTFA` table (if present).
91 * Glyphs covered by the fallback script are now hinted by default.
92 Previously, they were scaled only. The default fallback script `none`
93 now implies hinting without script-specific blue zones (but still
94 aligning stems to the grid if possible).
96 * The new option `--fallback-scaling` changes the behaviour of the
97 fallback script from hinting to scaling (as implemented in previous
100 * ttfautohint (but not ttfautohintGUI) now honours the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
101 environment variable for reproducible builds. This corresponds to the
102 new library option `epoch`.
104 * Bug fix: Allow dehinting of fonts that contain a `.ttfautohint` glyph.
107 Version 1.5 (2016-Jan-24)
108 -------------------------
110 * Support for Khmer, Myanmar, and Bengali scripts.
112 * Improved Devanagari hinting.
114 * ttfautohintGUI can now be compiled with Qt5.
116 * Bug fix: Too many delta control instructions for a single glyph caused a
117 bytecode stack overflow, making the MS rasterizer ignore all hinting
118 instructions for this glyph.
120 * Bug fix: Don't create multiple `TTFA` tables in font.
122 * Bug fix: Under certain circumstances, glyph indices used in Indic
123 features were incorrectly assigned to the default script.
126 Version 1.4.1 (2015-Oct-17)
127 ---------------------------
129 * A bug in handling control instruction files could cause severe glyph
130 shape distortions of accent-like glyphs. All users should update.
133 Version 1.4 (2015-Oct-04)
134 -------------------------
136 * Support for Thai and Lao scripts.
138 * Support for the Arabic script.
140 * Better support for scripts that contain superscript-like and
141 subscript-like glyphs, e.g., the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
143 * Accents and other `non-base' glyphs are now hinted without snapping to
146 * A new control instruction syntax form was added to adjust the mapping
147 between glyphs and styles. Right now, its usage is quite limited; a
148 forthcoming version will give much more flexibility.
150 * The `touch` keyword in a control instructions file was buggy: If used
151 for a point\ `P` at a ppem value\ `s`, it sometimes led to unwanted
152 movements of\ `P` for ppem values unequal to\ `s`, thus causing outline
156 Version 1.3 (2015-Jan-06)
157 -------------------------
159 * Keywords in control instruction files can be more verbose to increase
160 readability. You can now use `left`, `right`, `nodir`, `point`,
161 `touch`, `xshift`, and `yshift` for `l`, `r`, `n`, `p`, `t, `x`, and
164 * A new control instruction keyword `touch` was added to apply delta
165 instructions before the final IUP bytecode commands, also `touching' the
166 affected points (to use the TrueType instructions terminology). Such
167 deltas *do* work even with ClearType if applied to the non-ClearType
170 * Support for the Telugu script.
172 * The amount of information about ttfautohint and its parameters that gets
173 added to the `name` table by default has been reduced. A new option
174 `--detailed-info` restores the previous behaviour.
176 * ttfautohintGUI crashed if not used with a control instruction file.
178 * ttfautohintGUI now correctly switches to a horizontal two-column layout
179 if the standard one-column layout would exceed the screen height.
181 * A new option `--family-suffix` makes it possible to append a suffix to a
182 font's family name in the `name` table. This can be useful during the
183 development process: It helps the operating system to simultaneously
184 display several instances of a font that are processed with different
185 ttfautohint parameters.
187 * The new library option `info-post-callback` helps in processing data
188 from the `name` table.
191 Version 1.2 (2014-Oct-06)
192 -------------------------
194 * It is now possible to control the hinting process at a very low level
195 using a 'control instructions' file. Right now, two modes are
198 - Adding segments and changing segment directions.
200 - Applying delta exceptions. Note that this doesn't really work in
203 Please see the documentation for a description and a small tutorial.
205 In the command-line front-end, use option `--control-file` to load such
208 * Support for input file watching in ttfautohintGUI: If the 'Watch Input
209 File' box is checked, the program automatically regenerates the output
210 file as soon as the input font or control instructions file gets
213 The idea is to dock ttfautohintGUI to your favourite font and text
214 editor instead of adding a cheap text editor to ttfautohintGUI itself.
216 * With the new option `--fallback-stem-width` it is now possible to set a
217 default stem width for all scripts that lack proper standard characters
220 * Add alias `--adjust-subglyphs` for option `--pre-hinting` to better
221 describe its functionality. The short form `-p` stays unchanged.
223 * New option `--ttfa-table` to add an SFNT table `TTFA` to the output
224 font, containing an ASCII dump of all used ttfautohint parameters
225 (including control instructions). Right now, this is mainly for
226 archiving purposes. Forthcoming versions of ttfautohint will be able to
227 re-use this data if a font gets re-processed.
229 * A harmless buglet was fixed that made the `glyf` table too large by one
230 byte under some circumstances.
232 * A bug fix taken from FreeType, correcting a crash for unusual outlines.
234 * Better handling of TTC files.
236 * New library options `error-callback` and `error-callback-data` for
237 improved diagnostics. [No change in the front-ends except better error
240 * Many other, minor fixes and improvements.
243 Version 1.1 (2014-May-05)
244 -------------------------
246 * Support for the Devanagari script.
248 * Bug fixes in the computation of strong stem widths. GDI hinting now
249 gives much more consistent results.
251 * Better recognition of script coverage: ttfautohint now properly scans
252 composite glyphs to cover components also.
254 * Improved glyph shape analysis: Non-flat local extrema are now recognized
255 more reliably, and stem detection works better.
258 Version 1.00 (2014-Mar-20)
259 --------------------------
261 * Much less memory consumption while handling fonts with complicated
264 * Option `-s` was partially broken.
267 Version 1.00rc1 (2014-Feb-07)
268 -----------------------------
270 * OpenType feature support. ttfautohint now uses the HarfBuzz library to
271 analyze data from the `GSUB` table. This allows the hinting of glyphs
272 that don't have an entry in a font's `cmap` table, for example
273 superscripts or small caps.
275 Related to this, the new option `--default-script` controls the default
276 (fallback) script used for OpenType features.
278 * More than a single standard character is used. For example, the 'latin'
279 script uses characters 'o', 'O', and digit '0'. This improves the
280 hinting of fonts (and features) that have only a partial coverage of a
281 script's character repertoire.
283 * Much better GDI ClearType hinting in the range 30-80ppem (approx.),
284 avoiding overly flat tops and bottoms of round glyphs.
286 * Better handling of non-square pixels (this is, horizontal and vertical
287 resolutions differ) in the created TrueType bytecode.
290 Version 0.97 (2013-Nov-09)
291 --------------------------
293 * Improved script support. Besides Cyrillic and Greek, which are now
294 handled separately from Latin, ttfautohint can handle Hebrew.
296 * Option `-f` now takes a parameter to specify the fallback script. The
297 corresponding long option name has been renamed from `--latin-fallback`
298 to `--fallback-script`.
300 * Work around a bug in display environments that use FreeType 2.5.0 and
301 earlier for rendering: Sometimes, the 'strong' stem width routine was
302 used for DW ClearType (this is, subpixel hinting in FreeType is enabled)
303 even if 'smooth' was selected while generating the font with
307 Version 0.96 (2013-Aug-06)
308 --------------------------
310 * Option `--components` has been replaced with `--composites`: By default,
311 the components of a composite glyph are now hinted separately, since
312 tests has shown that this gives good results in most cases. If this
313 option is set, however, the composite glyph itself gets hinted (and the
314 hints of the components are ignored).
316 An unfortunate side effect is that ttfautohint's option `-c` (which
317 stays as a shorthand for `--composites`) now does exactly the opposite
318 as in previous releases.
320 * Older versions of Monotype's 'iType' bytecode interpreter have a serious
321 bug: The DIV instruction rounds the result, while the correct operation
322 is truncation. This caused 'exploding characters' with fonts hinted by
323 ttfautohint. Since many printers contain this rasterizer without any
324 possibility to update to a non-buggy version, ttfautohint now contains
325 work-arounds to circumvent the problem.
327 * Better support for glyphs where some points have almost the same
328 position (for example glyph 'Oslash' in font 'Roboto-Thin').
330 * Better support for glyphs that use explicit 'on' points around round
334 Version 0.95 (2013-Mar-07)
335 --------------------------
337 * New option `--dehint` to strip off all hints without generating new
338 hints. This option is intended for testing purposes.
340 * Minor fixes to the created bytecode for compatibility.
342 * Minor GUI improvements.
345 Version 0.94 (2012-Nov-29)
346 --------------------------
348 * New option `--windows-compatibility` that adds two artificial blue zones
349 at vertical positions given by 'usWinAscent' and 'usWinDescent'. This
350 helps ttfautohint's hinting algorithm reduce the possibility of clipping
351 if those two values are very tight.
353 * Implement option `--x-height-snapping-exceptions`, making ttfautohint
354 avoid x-height snapping for selected PPEM values. Useful in combination
355 with `--windows-compatibility`.
357 * Minor fixes to the created bytecode for compatibility and robustness.
360 Version 0.93 (2012-Oct-09)
361 --------------------------
363 * New option `--components` to treat components of composite glyphs
364 separately. This greatly reduces the bytecode size.
366 I'm waiting for reports whether this option works for most fonts; in
367 case this is true I'm inverting the option, making it the default (and
368 the old behaviour optional).
370 * Full support of TTCs, this is, all subfonts get auto-hinted now.
372 * The upper limit of the `--increase-x-height` option has been removed.
374 * Drag-and-drop support in the GUI.
376 * The command-line version of ttfautohint now acts like a (Unix) filter,
377 this is, it accepts stdin and stdout as input and output, respectively.
379 * Less memory consumption.
382 Version 0.92 (2012-Aug-07)
383 --------------------------
385 * A serious bug in the created bytecode has been fixed, causing incorrect
389 Version 0.91 (2012-Jul-12)
390 --------------------------
392 * A new, 'strong' routine to handle stem widths and positions has been
393 added, to be selected with the `--strong-stem-width` command line
394 option. If it is active, stem widths and positions are snapped to the
395 grid as much as possible. This algorithm is useful for GDI ClearType
398 * A new command line option `--debug` (not available for ttfautohintGUI)
399 to print very detailed debugging information.
402 Version 0.9 (2012-Jun-06)
403 -------------------------
405 * The created bytecode has been reduced in size, making it approx. 20%
408 * New option `--symbol` to use standard stem height and width values
409 instead of using character 'o' (which may be missing). Use this option
410 for symbol fonts or math glyphs.
412 * More documentation (in text, HTML, and PDF format). It's still
415 * Option `--ignore-permissions` has been renamed to
416 `--ignore-restrictions`. The short form is still `-i`.
418 * Defaults for various parameters have been set to more sensible values:
420 - hinting-range-max: 50 (was 1000)
421 - hinting-limit: 200 (was 1000)
423 * Option `--increase-x-height` now has a mandatory argument (in the range
424 6-20 or value\ 0 to disable it, default value is 14).
427 Version 0.8 (2012-Mar-21)
428 -------------------------
430 * Implement option `-x` to increase the x height of the font for small
431 PPEM values by rounding up far more often then rounding down.
433 * Add option '`-G n`' to switch off hinting completely above value\ `n`.
435 * ttfautohint now appends version information and the used parameters to
436 the 'Version' field(s) in the 'name' table. This can be suppressed with
440 Version 0.7 (2012-Feb-05)
441 -------------------------
443 * A GUI has been added, using the Qt framework. The binary is called
447 Version 0.6.1 (2012-Jan-02)
448 ---------------------------
450 * The improved handling of composite glyphs in 0.6 was buggy under certain
451 circumstances, making ttfautohint crash and FontValidator complain.
453 * Dropout handling has been activated.
456 Version 0.6 (2011-Dec-25)
457 -------------------------
459 * Improved handling of composite glyphs.
461 * Implement option `-p` to pre-hint glyphs with original hints before
462 conversion takes place.
464 * Don't add a `DSIG` table if there is none in the input font.
466 * Human-readable error messages instead of hexadecimal error codes.
468 * Better tests (both at runtime and compile time) to reject too old
472 Version 0.5 (2011-Nov-06)
473 -------------------------
475 * Rendering on iOS is now expected to give good results.
477 * No bad rendering at very large PPEM values.
480 Version 0.4 (2011-Oct-27)
481 -------------------------
483 * The bytecode has been changed to 'create' twilight points. This should
484 avoid rendering artifacts on some platforms.
487 Version 0.3 (2011-Sep-09)
488 -------------------------
490 * Fix font generation; sometimes the `glyf` table was one byte too short,
491 making the font invalid.
494 Version 0.2 (2011-Jul-19)
495 -------------------------
497 * Fix bytecode bugs that prevented correct rendering on some platforms.
500 Version 0.1 (2011-Jun-30)
501 -------------------------