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What Does t1lib Do?

t1lib is a library written in the C programming language allowing a programmer to generate bitmaps from Adobe (TM) Type 1 fonts quite easily. These bitmaps are returned in a data structure with type GLYPH. This special GLYPH-type is also used in the X11 window system to describe character bitmaps. It contains the bitmap data as well as some metric information. But t1lib is in itself entirely independent of the X11-system or any other graphical user interface.

Given that the X11-system is probably the most frequently used window system in the UNIX-world, and furthermore assuming that most graphical applications run under window systems, it appears that t1lib implements functionality already provided by the graphical user interface, the X11-system. Thus the question arises: Why not use X11 directly for rastering characters? Well, the answer is quite simple; the X11 Font machinery appears to be too static in order to use it for certain purposes. Moreover X11-calculations and positioning of characters are based on bitmap dimensions and are thus subject to error accumulation.

Here is a list of features which are supported in the current release of t1lib.

There are also some problems and features not yet implemented, but likely to be implemented in the future. The main problem up to now is:


next up previous contents index
Next: Copyrights and Credits Up: Introduction Previous: Introduction   Contents   Index
2004-10-04