Oct 26, 2009 0
MS white paper on the TrueType interpreter
Somewhat old news now but a new white paper has been posted to the Microsoft Typography website. The paper was written by Greg Hitchcock and is about the Microsoft implementation of the TrueType interpreter. As I read it (and very slowly at that), this is helpful for those interested in ensuring that you older TT fonts will be optimal when utilizing Cleartype. (I’ve probable just butchered the whole white paper). Accorindingly this is form MS themselves…
With the implementation of ClearType® in Windows XP and later versions, adjustments were needed for the interpretation of some TrueType® instructions in order to allow existing fonts to work with no updates. This white paper is targeted for font designers and describes the instruction changes and how fonts can continue to have their instructions behave as described in the current OpenType® specification.
Note that this white paper is not part of the OpenType specification, and will not be submitted for inclusion in the ISO Open Font Format. It is provided solely to explain how Windows handles hinted fonts under ClearType rendering.
The paper can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/truetypecleartype.aspx
As interseting as the white paper was, the ensuing discussion on the Typophile forums was even more interesting.