[poppler] auto switching of TrueType hinter for Type42/Type11 font in PDF

[mpsuzuki at hiroshima-u.ac.jp]

On Thu, 26 Aug 2010 23:34:01 +0100
Albert Astals Cid <aacid at kde.org> wrote:
>> it is difficult for FreeType2 to determine hinting is
>> required /or not for an embedded True42/Type11 without
>> "name" table, because FreeType2 does not receive reliable
>> identifier. 
>
>I see in the freetype thread between you and David Bevan that fonts without 
>name are identified as tricky automatically (or when he says "our code" he 
>doesn't mean FreeType but some other code), if so, is that enough?

# For the people who don't subscribe freetype developer
# mailing list:
#   http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/freetype-devel/2010-08/msg00021.html
# I guess David says they have their own modified version
# of FreeType2.

It would be enough for the people feeling that broken
MingLiU is the most painful issue. Personally, I hesitate
to enable hinting for all nameless TrueType, because I
can't expect the range of the impact (I've never investigated
how many nameless TrueType in the PDF, it's majority or
minority). I want to wait for the comment from FreeType2
maintainer. If Werner decides "David's idea is better",
I will follow (I guess he will say so, because now FreeType2's
default hinter is genuine algorithm).

>> The additional information from PDF parser
>> layer is expected. The auto switching of the hinter for
>> the tricky font is generic problem, as you wrote, but
>> I think the handling of TrueType without of "name" table
>> issue is PDF specific issue. How do you think of?
>
>As said, i'd prefer freetype doing the job, because it's one centralized 
>place, if it is not techically possible yeah, then we'll have to do it on 
>poppler :D

Thanks in advance. Maybe, if next release 2.4.3 enables
hinting for nameless TrueType, and then, if many people
complain against the change, I will ask for poppler's
help.

Regards,
mpsuzuki