[cairo] Text display tuning question

Hi,

How can I get the displaying of text in Cairo faster? Compared to displaying text using the standard VW GraphicsContext, Cairo appears to be around 7x slower.

Below are two scripts that can be run from a workspace. I first maximize the workspace window and then I run it. The scripts display 1300 strings on screen (1900x1200 pixels in my case) in a gridlike fashion and repeat this 10x. I use double buffering for both versions with the GraphicsContext version drawing on a Pixmap and the Cairo version using #groupWhile: [].

Running the GraphicsContext version takes about 290ms on my computer. With Cairo it takes 2050ms. That's 7x slower! Using Pango (not shown here) it's about the same performance as Cairo's #showText.

In an application that shows lots of data in grid, scrolling page by page through the data really is sluggish when it's being displayed using Cairo.

How can I improve this?

Thanks,

Mark

Here are the scripts:

GraphicsContext version:

| view gc x y |

view := ScheduledControllers activeController view.

thePixmap := Pixmap extent: view extent.

gc := thePixmap graphicsContext.

symbols := ByteSymbol allInstances select: [:each | each size > 1].

Time millisecondsToRun:

                               [10 timesRepeat:

                                                               [x := 0.

                                                               y := 0.

                                                               gc font: ((FontDescription new)

                                                                                                              family: 'Arial';

                                                                                                              pixelSize: 12).

                                                               1 to: 1300

                                                                              do:

                                                                                              [:i |

                                                                                              gc clippingRectangle: (x @ y extent: (view width // 17) @ 18).

                                                                                              gc displayString: (symbols at: i) at: x @ y + 16.

                                                                                              x := x + (view width // 17).

                                                                                              x > view width

                                                                                                              ifTrue:

                                                                                                                             [x := 0.

                                                                                                                             y := y + 18]].

                                                               thePixmap displayOn: view graphicsContext.

                                                               view flush]]

Cairo version:

| view gc x y |

view := ScheduledControllers activeController view.

gc := view graphicsContext.

symbols := ByteSymbol allInstances select: [:each | each size > 1].

Time millisecondsToRun:

                               [10 timesRepeat:

                                                               [gc newCairoContextWhile:

                                                                                              [:cr |

                                                                                              x := 0.

                                                                                              y := 0.

                                                                                              cr selectFontFace: 'Arial'.

                                                                                              cr fontSize: 10.

                                                                                              cr groupWhile:

                                                                                                                             [1 to: 1300

                                                                                                                                             do:

                                                                                                                                                             [:i |

                                                                                                                                                             cr resetClip.

                                                                                                                                                             cr rectangle: (x @ y extent: (view width // 17) @ 18).

                                                                                                                                                             cr clip.

                                                                                                                                                             cr moveTo: x @ (y + 16).

                                                                                                                                                             cr showText: (symbols at: i).

                                                                                                                                                             x := x + (view width // 17).

                                                                                                                                                             x > view width

                                                                                                                                                                            ifTrue:

                                                                                                                                                                                            [x := 0.

                                                                                                                                                                                            y := y + 18]]].

                                                                                              cr paint]]]

Mark,

we left the text display to be done by VW’s own primitives, rather than Cairo. The rest of the graphics are displayed with Cairo. That’s worked well for us.

Cheers,

Steve

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the tip, I may have to resort to something like that.

Mark

Mark,

we left the text display to be done by VW’s own primitives, rather than Cairo. The rest of the graphics are displayed with Cairo. That’s worked well for us.

Cheers,

Steve

Hi Paul,

Where did you get the package containing the gdiplusflat.h api? It's not the WinGDIPlusInterface from the public repository I believe?

Mark

Mark,

I've tried your example with GDI+ and direct screen output (so without the pixmap).
These are my results (on a Pentium4 with XP-SP3):

    VW7                     530 ms    (your example without pixmap buffering)
    GDI+                   1093 ms
    GDI+ smooth             880 ms    (anti-alias style font rendering)
    GDI+ cleartype         1120 ms    (clear-type style font rendering)

Better than I expected. This is the code I used:

    | view x y gc graphics interface symbols aTime namePtr fontFamilyPtr fontFamily
      fontPtr font  brushPtr brush stringPtr string rectPtr|

    view := ScheduledControllers activeController view.
    gc := view graphicsContext.
    symbols := ByteSymbol allInstances select: [:each | each size > 1].

    gc medium gdiGraphicsPtrDo: [:graphicsPtr |
        graphics := graphicsPtr contents.
        interface := WinGDIPlusInterface current.
        "interface GdipSetTextRenderingHint: graphics with: 4."        "try 1, 4, or 5"

        aTime := Time millisecondsToRun: [
            10 timesRepeat: [
                x := 0.
                y := 0.

                namePtr := 'Arial' asTwoByteString gcCopyToHeapUnicode.
                fontFamilyPtr := interface GpFontFamily gcMalloc.
                interface GdipCreateFontFamilyFromName: namePtr with: 0 with: fontFamilyPtr.
                fontFamily := fontFamilyPtr contents.
   
                fontPtr := interface GpFont gcMalloc.
                interface GdipCreateFont: fontFamily with: 12 with: 0 with: 0 with: fontPtr.
                font := fontPtr contents.

                brushPtr := interface GpBrush gcMalloc.
                interface GdipCreateSolidFill: 16rFF000000 with: brushPtr.    "ARGB color"
                brush := brushPtr contents.

                1 to: 1300 do: [:i |
                    interface GdipSetClipRectI: graphics with: x with: y with: (view width // 17) with: 18 with: 0.
   
                    string := (symbols at: i) asString asTwoByteString.
                    stringPtr := string gcCopyToHeapUnicode.
                    rectPtr := interface RectF gcCalloc.
                    rectPtr memberAt: #X put: x.
                    rectPtr memberAt: #Y put: y.
                    interface GdipDrawString: graphics with: stringPtr with: string size with: font with: rectPtr  with: 0 with: brush.

                    x := x + (view width // 17).
                    x > view width ifTrue: [
                        x := 0.
                        y := y + 18.
                    ].
                ].
   
                interface GdipDeleteBrush: brush.
                interface GdipDeleteFont: font.
                interface GdipDeleteFontFamily: fontFamily.
            ].
        ].
    ].
    aTime inspect.

Notes:
- GDI+ also introduces classes that wrap the native "flat" Gdip* functions into nice objects.
  I did not port these classes from C++ yet, since they are not needed to use the gdiplus.dll.
- This code works on any Windows platform. If your OS is before XP please download the gdiplus.dll
  from the microsoft site.
- There exists a Mono open-source project that also has an implementation of GDI+ using Cairo,
  perhaps this can be used for Linux and Mac?

Paul Weustink


On 7-7-2010 22:14, Mark Plas wrote:

Hi,

How can I get the displaying of text in Cairo faster? Compared to displaying text using the standard VW GraphicsContext, Cairo appears to be around 7x slower.

Below are two scripts that can be run from a workspace. I first maximize the workspace window and then I run it. The scripts display 1300 strings on screen (1900x1200 pixels in my case) in a gridlike fashion and repeat this 10x. I use double buffering for both versions with the GraphicsContext version drawing on a Pixmap and the Cairo version using #groupWhile: [].

Running the GraphicsContext version takes about 290ms on my computer. With Cairo it takes 2050ms. That's 7x slower! Using Pango (not shown here) it's about the same performance as Cairo's #showText.

In an application that shows lots of data in grid, scrolling page by page through the data really is sluggish when it's being displayed using Cairo.

How can I improve this?

Thanks,

Mark

Here are the scripts:

GraphicsContext version:

| view gc x y |

view := ScheduledControllers activeController view.

thePixmap := Pixmap extent: view extent.

gc := thePixmap graphicsContext.

symbols := ByteSymbol allInstances select: [:each | each size > 1].

Time millisecondsToRun:

                               [10 timesRepeat:

                                                               [x := 0.

                                                               y := 0.

                                                               gc font: ((FontDescription new)

                                                                                                              family: 'Arial';

                                                                                                              pixelSize: 12).

                                                               1 to: 1300

                                                                              do:

                                                                                              [:i |

                                                                                              gc clippingRectangle: (x @ y extent: (view width // 17) @ 18).

                                                                                              gc displayString: (symbols at: i) at: x @ y + 16.

                                                                                              x := x + (view width // 17).

                                                                                              x > view width

                                                                                                              ifTrue:

                                                                                                                             [x := 0.

                                                                                                                             y := y + 18]].

                                                               thePixmap displayOn: view graphicsContext.

                                                               view flush]]

Cairo version:

| view gc x y |

view := ScheduledControllers activeController view.

gc := view graphicsContext.

symbols := ByteSymbol allInstances select: [:each | each size > 1].

Time millisecondsToRun:

                               [10 timesRepeat:

                                                               [gc newCairoContextWhile:

                                                                                              [:cr |

                                                                                              x := 0.

                                                                                              y := 0.

                                                                                              cr selectFontFace: 'Arial'.

                                                                                              cr fontSize: 10.

                                                                                              cr groupWhile:

                                                                                                                             [1 to: 1300

                                                                                                                                             do:

                                                                                                                                                             [:i |

                                                                                                                                                             cr resetClip.

                                                                                                                                                             cr rectangle: (x @ y extent: (view width // 17) @ 18).

                                                                                                                                                             cr clip.

                                                                                                                                                             cr moveTo: x @ (y + 16).

                                                                                                                                                             cr showText: (symbols at: i).

                                                                                                                                                             x := x + (view width // 17).

                                                                                                                                                             x > view width

                                                                                                                                                               ;              ifTrue:

                                                                                                                                                               ;                              [x := 0.

                                                                                                                                                               ;                              y := y + 18]]].

                                                                                              cr paint]]]

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Hi Paul,

If you could put this in the public repository that would be great. In the past I already thought of trying some things out with GDI+ but never got to actually doing it. This would be an easy way of doing some experiments with it.

Mark

Hi Mark,

There is no package , I did start with the WinGDIPlusInterface from the repository. Added the missing Gdip functions by changing the gdiplusflat.h file a bit (basically fixing errors from MS and some typedefs of structs) and parse it with the DLLCC tools.

The nice objects from C++ like Graphics, Pen, Brush, Font, etc are still lacking, but the flat functions work fine.

Perhaps, if someone is interested, we could update the package in the repository with the new stuff?
Actually I asked earlier if someone did some work on GDI+ already, no answers so I wonder who uses it?

Paul

On 12-7-2010 13:54, Mark Plas wrote:

Hi Paul,

Where did you get the package containing the gdiplusflat.h api? It's not the WinGDIPlusInterface from the public repository I believe?

Mark

Mark,

I've tried your example with GDI+ and direct screen output (so without the pixmap).
These are my results (on a Pentium4 with XP-SP3):

    VW7                     530 ms    (your example without pixmap buffering)
    GDI+                   1093 ms
    GDI+ smooth             880 ms    (anti-alias style font rendering)
    GDI+ cleartype         1120 ms    (clear-type style font rendering)

Better than I expected. This is the code I used:

    | view x y gc graphics interface symbols aTime namePtr fontFamilyPtr fontFamily
      fontPtr font  brushPtr brush stringPtr string rectPtr|

    view := ScheduledControllers activeController view.
    gc := view graphicsContext.
    symbols := ByteSymbol allInstances select: [:each | each size > 1].

    gc medium gdiGraphicsPtrDo: [:graphicsPtr |
        graphics := graphicsPtr contents.
        interface := WinGDIPlusInterface current.
        "interface GdipSetTextRenderingHint: graphics with: 4."        "try 1, 4, or 5"

        aTime := Time millisecondsToRun: [
            10 timesRepeat: [
                x := 0.
                y := 0.

                namePtr := 'Arial' asTwoByteString gcCopyToHeapUnicode.
                fontFamilyPtr := interface GpFontFamily gcMalloc.
                interface GdipCreateFontFamilyFromName: namePtr with: 0 with: fontFamilyPtr.
                fontFamily := fontFamilyPtr contents.
   
                fontPtr := interface GpFont gcMalloc.
                interface GdipCreateFont: fontFamily with: 12 with: 0 with: 0 with: fontPtr.
                font := fontPtr contents.

                brushPtr := interface GpBrush gcMalloc.
                interface GdipCreateSolidFill: 16rFF000000 with: brushPtr.    "ARGB color"
                brush := brushPtr contents.

                1 to: 1300 do: [:i |
                    interface GdipSetClipRectI: graphics with: x with: y with: (view width // 17) with: 18 with: 0.
   
                    string := (symbols at: i) asString asTwoByteString.
                    stringPtr := string gcCopyToHeapUnicode.
                    rectPtr := interface RectF gcCalloc.
                    rectPtr memberAt: #X put: x.
                    rectPtr memberAt: #Y put: y.
                    interface GdipDrawString: graphics with: stringPtr with: string size with: font with: rectPtr  with: 0 with: brush.

                    x := x + (view width // 17).
                    x > view width ifTrue: [
                        x := 0.
                        y := y + 18.
                    ].
                ].
   
                interface GdipDeleteBrush: brush.
                interface GdipDeleteFont: font.
                interface GdipDeleteFontFamily: fontFamily.
            ].
        ].
    ].
    aTime inspect.

Notes:
- GDI+ also introduces classes that wrap the native "flat" Gdip* functions into nice objects.
  I did not port these classes from C++ yet, since they are not needed to use the gdiplus.dll.
- This code works on any Windows platform. If your OS is before XP please download the gdiplus.dll
  from the microsoft site.
- There exists a Mono open-source project that also has an implementation of GDI+ using Cairo,
  perhaps this can be used for Linux and Mac?

Paul Weustink


On 7-7-2010 22:14, Mark Plas wrote:

Hi,

How can I get the displaying of text in Cairo faster? Compared to displaying text using the standard VW GraphicsContext, Cairo appears to be around 7x slower.

Below are two scripts that can be run from a workspace. I first maximize the workspace window and then I run it. The scripts display 1300 strings on screen (1900x1200 pixels in my case) in a gridlike fashion and repeat this 10x. I use double buffering for both versions with the GraphicsContext version drawing on a Pixmap and the Cairo version using #groupWhile: [].

Running the GraphicsContext version takes about 290ms on my computer. With Cairo it takes 2050ms. That's 7x slower! Using Pango (not shown here) it's about the same performance as Cairo's #showText.

In an application that shows lots of data in grid, scrolling page by page through the data really is sluggish when it's being displayed using Cairo.

How can I improve this?

Thanks,

Mark

Here are the scripts:

GraphicsContext version:

| view gc x y |

view := ScheduledControllers activeController view.

thePixmap := Pixmap extent: view extent.

gc := thePixmap graphicsContext.

symbols := ByteSymbol allInstances select: [:each | each size > 1].

Time millisecondsToRun:

                               [10 timesRepeat:

                                                               [x := 0.

                                                               y := 0.

                                                               gc font: ((FontDescription new)

                                                                                                              family: 'Arial';

                                                                                                              pixelSize: 12).

                                                               1 to: 1300

                                                                              do:

                                                                                              [:i |

                                                                                              gc clippingRectangle: (x @ y extent: (view width // 17) @ 18).

                                                                                              gc displayString: (symbols at: i) at: x @ y + 16.

                                                                                              x := x + (view width // 17).

                                                                                              x > view width

                                                                                                              ifTrue:

                                                                                                                             [x := 0.

                                                                                                                             y := y + 18]].

                                                               thePixmap displayOn: view graphicsContext.

                                                               view flush]]

Cairo version:

| view gc x y |

view := ScheduledControllers activeController view.

gc := view graphicsContext.

symbols := ByteSymbol allInstances select: [:each | each size > 1].

Time millisecondsToRun:

                               [10 timesRepeat:

                                                               [gc newCairoContextWhile:

                                                                                              [:cr |

                                                                                              x := 0.

                                                                                              y := 0.

                                                                                              cr selectFontFace: 'Arial'.

                                                                                              cr fontSize: 10.

                                                                                              cr groupWhile:

                                                                                                                             [1 to: 1300

                                                                                                                                             do:

                                                                                                                                                             [:i |

                                                                                                                                                             cr resetClip.

                                                                                                                                                             cr rectangle: (x @ y extent: (view width // 17) @ 18).

                                                                                                                                                             cr clip.

                                                                                                                                                             cr moveTo: x @ (y + 16).

                                                                                                                                                             cr showText: (symbols at: i).

                                                                                                                                                             x := x + (view width // 17).

                                                                                                                                                             x > view width

                                                                                                                                                               ; ;              ifTrue:

                                                                                                                                                               ; ;                              [x := 0.

                                                                                                                                                               ; ;                              y := y + 18]]].

                                                                                              cr paint]]]

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http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwnc