[ft-devel] Re: [freetype-autohint] Bitstream Vera and tilde

[August Karlstrom]

Werner LEMBERG wrote:
> > > If you can reproduce the problem with this application, it is
> > > usually a problem of FreeType2.  Otherwise, it might be a problem
> > > somewhere else.
> >
> > If I run the command
> >
> >    ftview -r 96 -f 97 ppem \
> >    /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-bitstream-vera/Vera.ttf
> >
> > tilde displays correctly, but that's at 64 points so it's not much
> > of a clue.
>
>
> ???  I get a visual tilde for all sizes down to 5pt, using monochrome
> display (to make the display worse) and autohinting!  With other
> words, this
>
>   ftview -r 96 -f 97 4 Vera.ttf
>
> then pressing `a' and `f', shows something different from a dash,
> still resembling a tilde.

OK, now it starts to get interesting. I issue

$ ftview -r 96 -f 97 8 \ 
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-bitstream-vera/Vera.ttf

Initially tilde is displayed correctly. This is the rendering I would 
like to use. If I disable anti-aliasing with `a' it's still a tilde, but 
with forced auto-hinting (with or without anti-aliasing) all tilde 
symbols, the single one and the ones above a, n and o turns into a 
dash/horizontal bar. Everything's not perfect with forced auto-hinting 
off though: In e.g. `ä' the dots are too far to the left of the `a'. 
With forced auto-hinting all diacritic marks are correctly centered.

> It seems that something is seriously broken at your site.  Which
> version of Vera.ttf do you use?  I have the font dated 2003-Apr-16
> (the `modified' value in the `head' table).

Same here:

$ ls -l /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-bitstream-vera/Vera.ttf
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 65932 2003-04-16 16:02 \ 
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-bitstream-vera/Vera.ttf

So how do I specify the font rendering (with `dpkg-reconfigure 
fontconfig') I see initially when I run ftview?


Regards,

August