[OpenJDK 2D-Dev] Possible solution for font-rendering issues in Windows

[Peter Harvey]

Apologies if this is not the correct channel for this email.

>From what I can tell, Freetype 2.7 contained a change in hint processing
that led to poorer quality font rendering on Windows. Any OpenJDK
distribution using Freetype 2.7 or higher (ie. most distributions) will
have poorer quality font rendering on Windows. I may have found a solution
to this issue but I am unable to add comments to the relevant bugs:

   https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8217731
   https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8208377
   https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8214538

As a temporary workaround, users of OpenJDK distributions can force pre-2.7
font rendering by simply setting an environment variable:

   FREETYPE_PROPERTIES=truetype:interpreter-version=35

I've tested this workaround on OpenJDK distributions from Amazon, Oracle,
and AdoptOpenJDK. Note that AdoptOpenJDK's distribution for Java 8 didn't
require the workaround because it appears to be using Freetype 2.5.3. A
quick Google for "truetype:interpreter-version=35" shows plenty of people
in other open-source communities (eg. Wine, Fedora) which encourage this
workaround for other software.

A more permanent solution would be to change the default build process for
OpenJDK to set "truetype:interpreter-version=35" as the default when
compiling Freetype.

Please let me know if I can assist in any way.

Regards,
Peter.

-- 
*Actenum Corporation*
Peter Harvey  |  Cell: 780.729.8192  |  harvey at actenum.com  |
www.actenum.com
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