[cairo] Struggling with subpixel text (last blocker for 1.8)

[James Cloos]

>>>>> "Carl" == Carl Worth <cworth at cworth.org> writes:

Carl> Our header file suggests "2.3.5(?)" as the required version, but
Carl> I've got 2.3.7 (from a Debian package) installed here. Is the code
Carl> not reliably compiled into freetype?

The freetype docs indicate that there may be patents relevant to
sub-pixel rendering and therefore the sub-pixel support is not on by
default.  You have to specifically ask for it when compiling freetype.

It is likely that binary distributions will tend to avoid compiling in
the support for both sub-pixel and the full bci.  (Even though they
include similar code in Xft....)

Users of source-based distributions or who compile freetype themselves
will probably activate both options when compiling.

Ideally, cairo should support the lcd filtering options when linked to a
version of freetype which supports sub-pixel internally and should use
the Xft-derived code otherwise.

-JimC
-- 
James Cloos <cloos at jhcloos.com>         OpenPGP: 1024D/ED7DAEA6