Re: serving compressed images

[Werner LEMBERG]

>> Adding support for TIFF and JPEG is not much code; it would be
>> configurable in the same way as PNG.
> 
> You probably mean libjpeg-turbo and libtiff as external dependencies.

Yes.

> This is a GNU approach.

Yes, and it is a good, modular one.

> Other systems might have an abstraction layer that handles an
> arbitrary set of image formats.  I mean Windows since GDI+, or Skia,
> or Qt.  Truth be told, those systems are more successful on desktop
> because of these abstraction layers, perhaps.

Hard to tell.  You get a complete package, and handling of compressed
image formats is a miniscule part of it.

> Skia might not be using FreeType on Windows however.  If they do,
> they might not appreciate depending on libjpeg-turbo as well.

My suggestion to add a new load flag would cover this situation.

> The same way as PNG is not necessarily the only or the best way to
> handle compressed images.  That is why FreeType should probably stay
> out of it.

I disagree.  Firstly, we already have PNG support, thus it is natural
to handle other formats.  Secondly, we can't make Skia the measure of
all things.  It should be served well, of course, but other use cases
must be covered also.

> But then, we have a parallel discussion about handling color
> palettes in FreeType for Skia.  Who would have anticipated that?

I think FreeType is the right layer for managing (which is probably a
better word than 'handling') palettes.


    Werner