FreeType 2.6.2 Brings Changes To Rendering Fonts On LCD Screens

FreeType 2.6.2 was released this weekend as the newest version of this widely-used, open-source library for text/font rendering.

FreeType 2.6.2 changes to the LCD filter for improving the appearance of fonts on LCD panels, better handling of malformed fonts, stem darkening support for the auto-hinter, and more.

The lengthy FreeType 2.6.2 overview at FreeType.org explains many of the changes in great detail along with showing the before/after changes.

The LCD filter for sub-pixel rendering has been changed so by default it supports normalized and color-balanced properties. Nikolaus Waxweiler explained, "It is indeed ever so slightly blurrier than the previous default one, but also lacks its harshness and is less color-happy. The blurriness also means higher tolerance for non-ideal gamma of screens (viewing angles!) and rendering systems without linear alpha blending. Note that color-fringing can only be really minimized when the rendering system will do linear alpha blending of text."

Read his FreeType 2.6.2 overview in full on the FreeType project site.