Posted by Ben on 10/12/05 00:54

I'm running PHP version 4.3.11, bundled GD version (2.0.28 compatible),
and it doesn't say what FreeType version, but I'm almost certain it's
FreeType 2. I just discovered the two functions imagettftext() and
imagefttext(), the latter of which (according to the PHP docs) is
supposed to use FreeType 2. But they both work and look exactly the
same on my system.

As for SFNTs, are they the embedded fixed point size bitmaps in
TrueType fonts? I downloaded a Microsoft utility SBIT32, which is
supposed to extract bitmap fonts from TrueType fonts. Looked very
hopeful, but it said all the fonts I tried (Verdana, Arial, and others)
didn't have bitmaps in them. See:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/tools/tools.htm

So maybe the hinting is done in such a way now that they don't need
bitmaps at small sizes. I don't know.

Thanks again for your time,
Ben.

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