Re: gnome and GDK_USE_XFT

[Owen Taylor <otaylor redhat com>]

Allin Cottrell <cottrell wfu edu> writes:

> > 	Also, given the performance cost of scanning both the X server
> > fonts, and client side fonts I'd not want that code on my machine.
> 
> I don't quite get this -- the X server handles both outline and bitmap
> fonts, doesn't it?  Xfontsel and xlsfonts offer me a selection of Type
> 1, TrueType and bitmap fonts as made available by the choice of font
> paths in XF86Config.

Basically, the old X font system was completely broken. It could
handle both outline and bitmap fonts, but very badly, and without
antialiasing.

GDK_USE_XFT replaces the old X font system with a completely
new font system, Xft. The two biggest changes with Xft are:

 - No XLFDs
 - fonts are on the client side, not the server side, which
   is *more* efficient, and gives clients full access to the
   font files.

Xft can also use both outline and bitmap fonts, though the bitmap
font support is (more or less) new in version 2 of Xft which
isn't very widely deployed yet.

Regards,
                                        Owen