* include/freetype/freetype.h: Improve SDF documentation.

This commit is contained in:
Anuj Verma 2022-03-04 16:42:02 +05:30 committed by Werner Lemberg
parent 335224beee
commit 5499d7bf81

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@ -3409,6 +3409,44 @@ FT_BEGIN_HEADER
* }
*
* ```
*
* FreeType has two rasterizers for generating SDF, namely:
*
* 1. `sdf` for generating SDF directly from glyph's outline, and
*
* 2. `bsdf` for generating SDF from rasterized bitmaps.
*
* Depending on the glyph type (i.e., outline or bitmap), one of the two
* rasterizers is chosen at runtime and used for generating SDFs. To
* force the use of `bsdf` you should render the glyph with any of the
* FreeType's other rendering modes (e.g., `FT_RENDER_MODE_NORMAL`) and
* then re-render with `FT_RENDER_MODE_SDF`.
*
* There are some issues with stability and possible failures of the SDF
* renderers (specifically `sdf`).
*
* 1. The `sdf` rasterizer is sensitive to really small features (e.g.,
* sharp turns that are less than 1~pixel) and imperfections in the
* glyph's outline, causing artifacts in the final output.
*
* 2. The `sdf` rasterizer has limited support for handling intersecting
* contours and *cannot* handle self-intersecting contours whatsoever.
* Self-intersection happens when a single connected contour intersect
* itself at some point; having these in your font definitely pose a
* problem to the rasterizer and cause artifacts, too.
*
* 3. Generating SDF for really small glyphs may result in undesirable
* output; the pixel grid (which stores distance information) becomes
* too coarse.
*
* 4. Since the output buffer is normalized, precision at smaller spreads
* is greater than precision at larger spread values because the
* output range of [0..255] gets mapped to a smaller SDF range. A
* spread of~2 should be sufficient in most cases.
*
* Points (1) and (2) can be avoided by using the `bsdf` rasterizer,
* which is more stable than the `sdf` rasterizer in general.
*
*/
typedef enum FT_Render_Mode_
{