Re: [ft-devel] Issues due to commit "Fix metrics on size request for scalable fonts."

[Werner LEMBERG]

> We had report of regression in GTK markups rendering in Ubuntu
> precise, (i.e <u>label</u> would render underlined), [...]
>
> We have reverted that commit in Ubuntu for now to workaround the
> issue but I would like to know how to determine if that's a bug in
> freetype or if other part of the stack (i.e gtk) would need to be
> updated to deal with the new freetype?

AFAIK, the problem is in gtk.  For years, FreeType had this metrics
bug, and unfortunately the users got used to the appearance of far too
widely spaced lines.  What FreeType now returns is what the font
designer has had in mind while designing the font, and what can be
found in the font.

As has been stated in one of the Debian bug report comments, the
amount of the vertical line spacing is something which *must* be
configurable or explicitly set by the application.  Additionally, the
underlying graphical library should provide a better default in case
the font value is not satisfying (for whatever reason), for example,
by multiplying the vertical distances by a fixed amount.  Just think
of TeX which ignores a font's line spacing values completely,
providing its own default (1.2 * design size).

Until someone can prove that the patch is incorrect, I won't change it
back.  Simply reverting it, as done by some distributions, is *not*
the correct solution IMHO, since it hides the problem of gtk.


    Werner