From: Philippe Verdy (verdy_p@wanadoo.fr)
Date: Thu Dec 04 2003 - 05:29:52 EST
John Hudson writes:
> [I'm not entirely sure what the MS CLearType renderer
> does with
> these instructions: a whole set of x-direction instructions are
> deliberately ignored in ClearType.] I'd be interested to know what
> percentage of fonts actually contain these instructions. I suspect it may
> be the minority of 'super-hinted' fonts like Arial and Times New
> Roman that
> were developed for maximum screen legibility in b/w rendering.
> Not all font
> development tools even support these instructions, and for most people it
> is easier to make a font without these instructions than with them.
A simple look at some core fonts used in Windows will reveal that
they are hinted for ClearType with subpixel hinting. It is really obvious
even for a simple font like "Courier New": look at the "dollar" symbol,
and how poorly it will appear at 12 PPEM if hinting of diagonals is disabled
and ClearType subpixel rendering is not activated; if you activate
ClearType,
the same rendeing problem also appears at 9 PPEM.
My opinion is that Microsoft must have licensed from Apple the patented
technology so that these protected instructions are effectively used in
the Microsoft TrueType renderer, and Microsoft may have offered its own
license on ClearType's subpixel rendering to Apple so that these companies
are not required to pay royaltees to each other. Instead they have common
technologies that allow them to develop or buy well-hinted fonts from
renouned typographers for use in their respective operating systems,
without requiring expensive custom developments for each platform (this
is already the case for glyph substitution tables between OTF/AAT, and
this costs too much indevelopment to maintain tables for both in fonts).
After all, the OpenType spec is a joint initiative of Microsoft and Apple
and including some other source of typography such as Adobe and Agfa.
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