What's --enable-freetype2 good for?

[askwar]

Hoi!

I'm having a "little" problem of understanding the various build options for Firefox; right now, I'm confused about --enable-freetype2 vs. --disable-freetype2.

Basically - what is --enable-freetype2 good for? I "suppose" it enables freetype2 support. But what does it do? If you check out this <a href="http://alexander.skwar.name/stuff/Bilder/Ff_Freetype2_vs._No_Freetype2.png">screenshot</a> showing a Freetype2 enabled and a Freetype2 disabled Firefox side-by-side, you can see what I'm talking about. My problem is, that I fail to see any differences - or shouldn't there be any visible differences?



Thanks a lot,
Alexander

[Yek]

There was a really good thread about this in the tbird build forum. Someone asked for a freetype2 enabled build so they could see more exact representations of websites that used unusual fonts & formats, but that was secondary to their using freetype2.printing which would actually print using the correct fonts on l3 postscript printers. That was what got me started using that option.

In thunderbird, I can see the difference in menu's , widgets, and page text, as well as printing, but I've only just started using it in firefox and aren't sure yet how to setup the prefs.js and userChrome files (for firefox). They require at the least to have freetype2 & freetype2.printing enabled (you can also do this using "about:config").

Many pages, in fact, most won't show any difference using this option since xft works well enough

I'll try to find the old thunderbird thread and edit the url into this reply.

[sasquatch]

...<a href="http://alexander.skwar.name/stuff/Bilder/Ff_Freetype2_vs._No_Freetype2.png">screenshot</a> showing a Freetype2 enabled and a Freetype2 disabled Firefox side-by-side, you can see what I'm talking about. My problem is, that I fail to see any differences - or shouldn't there be any visible differences?



...

The one on the left looks sharper and crisper and is easier to read for me. That is about it as far as a quick glance gives.

[TheOldMan]

I'm probably in over my head. but I think this site may give you an idea about Freetype. (Strange fonts)

http://mbox.troja.mff.cuni.cz/~peak/ftdemo/index.cgi

(Try the Chancery.ttf font)

.....also see .....
http://mbox.troja.mff.cuni.cz/~peak/ftdemo/source.html

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