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Henrik antialising

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Alan Kay

Re: Henrik antialising

Yes, pretty much (I think all) of the sub-pixel rendering ideas predate any
of the patents, so they are all moot. (And BTW, this is true for defining
fonts as curves (Patrick Baudelaire at PARC did it first, and then Knuth
did a lot). Apple did virtually all of the TType work and then shared with
MS in a deal, which MS has been abusing. The idea of hinting for small
fonts goes back to PARC (and I think was part of the general heuristic of
hinting that Butler Lampson formulated for lots of things).

The earliest use of "color picking" as it was known back then was done at
MIT in Negroponte's lab in the early 70s. Later and independently Woz came
up with an interesting scheme that picked colors to get more resolution on
a color CRT. However, no one has done the work to strike down the patents
(this is one of the reasons why this broken process today is so pernicious).

Cheers,

Alan

At 04:29 AM 3/30/2006, Andrew Tween wrote:

>Sure.
>There are a number of patents, held/applied for by Microsoft, covering various
>aspects of sub-pixel rendering of text/images. Here is an example, though a
>search engine will discover more...
>
>http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=WO0021068&F=0
>
>Some argue that these patents are un-enforcable due to prior art. See
>http://www.grc.com/ctwho.htm for an overview.
>
>Microsoft indicates that it will license their implementation of sub-pixel
>antialiasing (a.k.a. ClearType ) for between one and three US Dollars per
>device. See here for more details...
>
>http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/ip/tech/cleartype.asp
>
>Apple hold patents for portions of the TrueType hinting mechanisms. The
>Freetype
>library source code is distributed in such a manner that it may be
>compiled with
>or without the patent restricted code. When compiled without, a patent-free
>auto-hinting mechanism is employed, which is not as good as the patented code,
>but far better than nothing. For more information, see...
>
>http://www.freetype.org/patents.html
>
>So, it seems acceptable to distribute patent restricted stuff in source form,
>and let the user decide what they compile/install/use. The new BitBlt mode
>does
>not use any patented code. And so a VM with Freetype plugin/library
>compiled to
>use the non-patented auto-hinter, and the modified BitBlt, will be patent
>free.
>The sub-pixel stuff, entirely in Smalltalk, and distributed as source, would
>then be an optional install.
>
>But, of course, I'm not a lawyer :)
>Cheers,
>Andy
>
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "stéphane ducasse" <[hidden email]>
>Newsgroups: gmane.comp.lang.smalltalk.squeak.general
>Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2006 9:11 AM
>Subject: Re: Henrik antialising
>
>
> > Hi andy
> >
> > could you explain a bit more the issues with the patents and the
> > license?
> >
> > Stef
> > On 29 mars 06, at 16:55, Andrew Tween wrote:
> >
> > > I'll see if I can package up a modified Windows VM with Freetype
> > > plugin, the new
> > > BitBlt mode for sub-pixel, and a semi-stable 3.8Full image. That
> > > way, at least
> > > the people
> > > with Windows can have a play.
> > > I think I need to remove the sub-pixel code from the image and make
> > > it a
> > > changeset, due to
> > > the patent issue.
> > > I also need to double check that when I built the freetype lib, I
> > > didn't compile
> > > it with the
> > > patented truetype hinting enabled.
> > > Patents, don't you just love 'em :)
> > >
> > > Does anybody know if it would be ok to put this stuff on
> > > ftp.squeak.org ?
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > > Andy
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Lord ZealoN" <[hidden email]>
> > > Newsgroups: gmane.comp.lang.smalltalk.squeak.general
> > > Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 3:16 PM
> > > Subject: Re: Henrik antialising
> > >
> > >
> > > I can have this in 3.8?
> > >
> > > 2006/3/29, Diego Gomez Deck <[hidden email]>:
> > >> Great!
> > >>
> > >> I can't wait to get a version running on my Squeak.
> > >>
> > >> Cheers,
> > >>
> > >> -- Diego
> > >>
> > >>> Here is a screenshot similar to the one Bert posted, but this
> > >>> time with
> > >>> sub-pixel anti-aliasing applied.
> > >>> This will only look o.k. on an LCD monitor with vertical striping
> > >>> in RGB
> > > order.
> > >>> Cheers,
> > >>> Andy
> > >>>
> > >>> ----- Original Message -----
> > >>> From: "Diego Gomez Deck" <[hidden email]>
> > >>> Newsgroups: gmane.comp.lang.smalltalk.squeak.general
> > >>> Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 1:11 PM
> > >>> Subject: Re: Henrik antialising
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>> Hi Andrew,
> > >>>>
> > >>>>> I've now got everything installed (in a 3.8 image), and the
> > >>>>> Vera fonts
> > > are
> > >>>>> rendering correctly.
> > >>>>> It looks very good.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Please send the mandatory screenshot.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Cheers,
> > >>>>
> > >>>> -- Diego
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > >
> > > ::Mi blog::
> > > http://blog.lordzealon.com
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >

Andrew Tween

Preview of FreeType/Sub-pixel, for Windows. (Was: Henrik antialising)

In reply to this post by Andrew Tween

For those who haven't followed recent discussions, I have been porting the
Sophie project's FreeType code over to 3.9, and integrating it with my sub-pixel
anti-aliasing code which is based on the work begun by Henrik Gedenryd.

Windows users can download a self contained world (Win32 VM, plugins, image
based on 3.9a6705, Bitstream Vera fonts etc.) from here...

http://www.zen61439.zen.co.uk/Squeak3.9a6705_freetype.zip

There are instructions, in a Workspace, for installing new fonts, turning
sub-pixel anti-aliasing on/off, etc..
The image also includes Shout, ECompletion (modified to use the Vera fonts), and
RoelTyper.

This is very experimental, so obviously you shouldn't use it for any serious
work. It WILL crash. You have been warned. (To see it crash, run the image twice
so that it warns about not being able to write to changes, the VM crashes when
it tries to do the warning).

(I tried to load the code into a more recent 3.9 image, but in later images the
FT2Plugin does not work. I am fairly sure that this is due to the Traits
integration in 6706, which added vars to Behavior, and causes the
interpreterProxy->isKindOf calls to fail. There was some discussion of this
problem, earlier in the year. The VM+plugins were built from a 3.7 image,
because I had problems building in 3.8 & 3.9. ).

Cheers,
Andy

Adrian Lienhard

Re: Preview of FreeType/Sub-pixel, for Windows. (Was: Henrik antialising)

On Apr 2, 2006, at 23:37 , Andrew Tween wrote:

> (I tried to load the code into a more recent 3.9 image, but in
> later images the
> FT2Plugin does not work. I am fairly sure that this is due to the
> Traits
> integration in 6706, which added vars to Behavior, and causes the
> interpreterProxy->isKindOf calls to fail. There was some discussion
> of this
> problem, earlier in the year. The VM+plugins were built from a 3.7
> image,
> because I had problems building in 3.8 & 3.9. ).

Yes, its very likely this same problem. We are working on a fix.
Should be coming soon now...

Adrian

stéphane ducasse-2

Re: Preview of FreeType/Sub-pixel, for Windows. (Was: Henrik antialising)

We have a paper deadline for wednesday :)
Adn diego in integrating his changes. After we fix this problem and
go beta :)

Stef

On 2 avr. 06, at 23:55, Adrian Lienhard wrote:

>
> On Apr 2, 2006, at 23:37 , Andrew Tween wrote:
>
>> (I tried to load the code into a more recent 3.9 image, but in
>> later images the
>> FT2Plugin does not work. I am fairly sure that this is due to the
>> Traits
>> integration in 6706, which added vars to Behavior, and causes the
>> interpreterProxy->isKindOf calls to fail. There was some
>> discussion of this
>> problem, earlier in the year. The VM+plugins were built from a 3.7
>> image,
>> because I had problems building in 3.8 & 3.9. ).
>
> Yes, its very likely this same problem. We are working on a fix.
> Should be coming soon now...
>
> Adrian
>

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