Re:Libschrift: A lightweight TrueType font rendering library
by crazygringo on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @10:58AM
(#22935471)
Hinting is only necessary on low-DPI displays and/or when there's no antialiasing.
Given that people mostly own high-DPI displays these days with font libraries that do antialiasing, there's essentially no need for hinting, and subpixel rendering is more trouble than it's worth (which is why Apple removed it from macOS once Retina displays became the norm). Supporting hinting in a new font rendering library feels... pretty backwards-looking to me.
Granted this is a matter of subjective aesthetic opinion, but on high-DPI the lack of hinting isn't even remotely "ugly". To the contrary, it ensures greater fidelity to the letterform, while hinting necessarily distorts proportions.
(Also, the example with the 'iii's has nothing to do with hinting or even subpixel rendering [when edges of black text are in blue and red], but rather subpixel positioning. Anti-aliasing alone handles subpixel positioning perfectly well. But once again, physical subpixel positioning becomes less important on high-DPI, though logical subpixel positioning is still very important.)
Given that people mostly own high-DPI displays these days with font libraries that do antialiasing, there's essentially no need for hinting, and subpixel rendering is more trouble than it's worth (which is why Apple removed it from macOS once Retina displays became the norm). Supporting hinting in a new font rendering library feels... pretty backwards-looking to me.
Granted this is a matter of subjective aesthetic opinion, but on high-DPI the lack of hinting isn't even remotely "ugly". To the contrary, it ensures greater fidelity to the letterform, while hinting necessarily distorts proportions.
(Also, the example with the 'iii's has nothing to do with hinting or even subpixel rendering [when edges of black text are in blue and red], but rather subpixel positioning. Anti-aliasing alone handles subpixel positioning perfectly well. But once again, physical subpixel positioning becomes less important on high-DPI, though logical subpixel positioning is still very important.)