Better document various TrueType hinting modes.
Text based on private communication with Greg Hitchcock and added to the repository with his permission.
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@ -52,6 +52,83 @@ FT_BEGIN_HEADER
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*
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* The TrueType driver's module name is `truetype'.
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*
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* We start with a list of definitions, kindly provided by Greg
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* Hitchcock.
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*
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* _Bi-Level_ _Rendering_
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*
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* Monochromatic rendering, exclusively used in the early days of
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* TrueType by both Apple and Microsoft. Microsoft's GDI interface
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* supported hinting of the right-side bearing point, such that the
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* advance width could be non-linear. Most often this was done to
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* achieve some level of glyph symmetry. To enable reasonable
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* performance (e.g., not having to run hinting on all glyphs just to
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* get the widths) there was a bit in the head table indicating if the
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* side bearing was hinted, and additional tables, `hdmx' and `LTSH', to
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* cache hinting widths across multiple sizes and device aspect ratios.
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*
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* _Font_ _Smoothing_
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*
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* Microsoft's GDI implementation of anti-aliasing. Not traditional
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* anti-aliasing as the outlines were hinted before the sampling. The
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* widths matched the bi-level rendering.
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*
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* _ClearType_ _Rendering_
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*
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* Technique that uses physical subpixels to improve rendering on LCD
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* (and other) displays. Because of the higher resolution, many methods
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* of improving symmetry in glyphs through hinting the right-side
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* bearing were no longer necessary. This lead to what GDI calls
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* `natural widths' ClearType, see
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* http://www.beatstamm.com/typography/RTRCh4.htm#Sec21. Since hinting
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* has extra resolution, most non-linearity went away, but it is still
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* possible for hints to change the advance widths in this mode.
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*
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* _ClearType_ _Compatible_ _Widths_
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*
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* One of the earliest challenges with ClearType was allowing the
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* implementation in GDI to be selected without requiring all UI and
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* documents to reflow. To address this, a compatible method of
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* rendering ClearType was added where the font hints are executed once
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* to determine the width in bi-level rendering, and then re-run in
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* ClearType, with the difference in widths being absorbed in the font
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* hints for ClearType (mostly in the white space of hints); see
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* http://www.beatstamm.com/typography/RTRCh4.htm#Sec20. Somewhat by
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* definition, compatible width ClearType allows for non-linear widths,
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* but only when the bi-level version has non-linear widths.
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*
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* _ClearType_ _Subpixel_ _Positioning_
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*
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* One of the nice benefits of ClearType is the ability to more crisply
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* display fractional widths; unfortunately, the GDI model of integer
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* bitmaps did not support this. However, the WPF and Direct Write
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* frameworks do support fractional widths. DWrite calls this `natural
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* mode', not to be confused with GDI's `natural widths'. Subpixel
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* positioning, in the current implementation of Direct Write,
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* unfortunately does not support hinted advance widths, see
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* http://www.beatstamm.com/typography/RTRCh4.htm#Sec22. Note that the
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* TrueType interpreter fully allows the advance width to be adjusted in
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* this mode, just the DWrite client will ignore those changes.
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*
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* _ClearType_ _Backwards_ _Compatibility_
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*
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* This is a set of exceptions made in the TrueType interpreter to
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* minimize hinting techniques that were problematic with the extra
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* resolution of ClearType; see
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* http://www.beatstamm.com/typography/RTRCh4.htm#Sec1 and
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* http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/truetypecleartype.aspx.
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* This technique is not to be confused with ClearType compatible
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* widths. ClearType backwards compatibility has no direct impact on
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* changing advance widths, but there might be an indirect impact on
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* disabling some deltas. This could be worked around in backwards
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* compatibility mode.
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*
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* _Native_ _ClearType_ _Mode_
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*
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* (Not to be confused with `natural widths'.) This mode removes all
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* the exceptions in the TrueType interpreter when running with
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* ClearType. Any issues on widths would still apply, though.
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*
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*/
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