FreeType » Docs » Support API » Outline Processing

Outline Processing¶

Synopsis¶

This section contains routines used to create and destroy scalable glyph images known as ‘outlines’. These can also be measured, transformed, and converted into bitmaps and pixmaps.

FT_Outline¶

Defined in FT_IMAGE_H (freetype/ftimage.h).

  typedef struct  FT_Outline_
  {
    short       n_contours;      /* number of contours in glyph        */
    short       n_points;        /* number of points in the glyph      */

    FT_Vector*  points;          /* the outline's points               */
    char*       tags;            /* the points flags                   */
    short*      contours;        /* the contour end points             */

    int         flags;           /* outline masks                      */

  } FT_Outline;

This structure is used to describe an outline to the scan-line converter.

fields

n_contours	The number of contours in the outline.
n_points	The number of points in the outline.
points	A pointer to an array of `n_points` `FT_Vector` elements, giving the outline's point coordinates.
tags	A pointer to an array of `n_points` chars, giving each outline point's type. If bit 0 is unset, the point is ‘off’ the curve, i.e., a Bezier control point, while it is ‘on’ if set. Bit 1 is meaningful for ‘off’ points only. If set, it indicates a third-order Bezier arc control point; and a second-order control point if unset. If bit 2 is set, bits 5-7 contain the drop-out mode (as defined in the OpenType specification; the value is the same as the argument to the ‘SCANMODE’ instruction). Bits 3 and 4 are reserved for internal purposes.
contours	An array of `n_contours` shorts, giving the end point of each contour within the outline. For example, the first contour is defined by the points ‘0’ to `contours[0]`, the second one is defined by the points `contours[0]+1` to `contours[1]`, etc.
flags	A set of bit flags used to characterize the outline and give hints to the scan-converter and hinter on how to convert/grid-fit it. See `FT_OUTLINE_XXX`.

note

The B/W rasterizer only checks bit 2 in the tags array for the first point of each contour. The drop-out mode as given with FT_OUTLINE_IGNORE_DROPOUTS, FT_OUTLINE_SMART_DROPOUTS, and FT_OUTLINE_INCLUDE_STUBS in flags is then overridden.

FT_Outline_New¶

Defined in FT_OUTLINE_H (freetype/ftoutln.h).

  FT_EXPORT( FT_Error )
  FT_Outline_New( FT_Library   library,
                  FT_UInt      numPoints,
                  FT_Int       numContours,
                  FT_Outline  *anoutline );

Create a new outline of a given size.

input

library	A handle to the library object from where the outline is allocated. Note however that the new outline will not necessarily be freed, when destroying the library, by `FT_Done_FreeType`.
numPoints	The maximum number of points within the outline. Must be smaller than or equal to 0xFFFF (65535).
numContours	The maximum number of contours within the outline. This value must be in the range 0 to `numPoints`.

output

anoutline

A handle to the new outline.

return

FreeType error code. 0 means success.

note

The reason why this function takes a library parameter is simply to use the library's memory allocator.

FT_Outline_Done¶

Defined in FT_OUTLINE_H (freetype/ftoutln.h).

  FT_EXPORT( FT_Error )
  FT_Outline_Done( FT_Library   library,
                   FT_Outline*  outline );

Destroy an outline created with FT_Outline_New.

input

library	A handle of the library object used to allocate the outline.
outline	A pointer to the outline object to be discarded.

return

FreeType error code. 0 means success.

note

If the outline's ‘owner’ field is not set, only the outline descriptor will be released.

FT_Outline_Copy¶

Defined in FT_OUTLINE_H (freetype/ftoutln.h).

  FT_EXPORT( FT_Error )
  FT_Outline_Copy( const FT_Outline*  source,
                   FT_Outline        *target );

Copy an outline into another one. Both objects must have the same sizes (number of points & number of contours) when this function is called.

input

source

A handle to the source outline.

output

target

A handle to the target outline.

return

FreeType error code. 0 means success.

FT_Outline_Translate¶

Defined in FT_OUTLINE_H (freetype/ftoutln.h).

  FT_EXPORT( void )
  FT_Outline_Translate( const FT_Outline*  outline,
                        FT_Pos             xOffset,
                        FT_Pos             yOffset );

Apply a simple translation to the points of an outline.

inout

outline

A pointer to the target outline descriptor.

input

xOffset	The horizontal offset.
yOffset	The vertical offset.

FT_Outline_Transform¶

Defined in FT_OUTLINE_H (freetype/ftoutln.h).

  FT_EXPORT( void )
  FT_Outline_Transform( const FT_Outline*  outline,
                        const FT_Matrix*   matrix );

Apply a simple 2x2 matrix to all of an outline's points. Useful for applying rotations, slanting, flipping, etc.

inout

outline

A pointer to the target outline descriptor.

input

matrix

A pointer to the transformation matrix.

note

You can use FT_Outline_Translate if you need to translate the outline's points.

FT_Outline_Embolden¶

Defined in FT_OUTLINE_H (freetype/ftoutln.h).

  FT_EXPORT( FT_Error )
  FT_Outline_Embolden( FT_Outline*  outline,
                       FT_Pos       strength );

Embolden an outline. The new outline will be at most 4 times strength pixels wider and higher. You may think of the left and bottom borders as unchanged.

Negative strength values to reduce the outline thickness are possible also.

inout

outline

A handle to the target outline.

input

strength

How strong the glyph is emboldened. Expressed in 26.6 pixel format.

return

FreeType error code. 0 means success.

note

The used algorithm to increase or decrease the thickness of the glyph doesn't change the number of points; this means that certain situations like acute angles or intersections are sometimes handled incorrectly.

If you need ‘better’ metrics values you should call FT_Outline_Get_CBox or FT_Outline_Get_BBox.

To get meaningful results, font scaling values must be set with functions like FT_Set_Char_Size before calling FT_Render_Glyph.

example

  FT_Load_Glyph( face, index, FT_LOAD_DEFAULT );

  if ( face->glyph->format == FT_GLYPH_FORMAT_OUTLINE )
    FT_Outline_Embolden( &face->glyph->outline, strength );

FT_Outline_EmboldenXY¶

Defined in FT_OUTLINE_H (freetype/ftoutln.h).

  FT_EXPORT( FT_Error )
  FT_Outline_EmboldenXY( FT_Outline*  outline,
                         FT_Pos       xstrength,
                         FT_Pos       ystrength );

Embolden an outline. The new outline will be xstrength pixels wider and ystrength pixels higher. Otherwise, it is similar to FT_Outline_Embolden, which uses the same strength in both directions.

since

2.4.10

FT_Outline_Reverse¶

Defined in FT_OUTLINE_H (freetype/ftoutln.h).

  FT_EXPORT( void )
  FT_Outline_Reverse( FT_Outline*  outline );

Reverse the drawing direction of an outline. This is used to ensure consistent fill conventions for mirrored glyphs.

inout

outline

A pointer to the target outline descriptor.

note

This function toggles the bit flag FT_OUTLINE_REVERSE_FILL in the outline's flags field.

It shouldn't be used by a normal client application, unless it knows what it is doing.

FT_Outline_Check¶

Defined in FT_OUTLINE_H (freetype/ftoutln.h).

  FT_EXPORT( FT_Error )
  FT_Outline_Check( FT_Outline*  outline );

Check the contents of an outline descriptor.

input

outline

A handle to a source outline.

return

FreeType error code. 0 means success.

note

An empty outline, or an outline with a single point only is also valid.

FT_Outline_Get_CBox¶

Defined in FT_OUTLINE_H (freetype/ftoutln.h).

  FT_EXPORT( void )
  FT_Outline_Get_CBox( const FT_Outline*  outline,
                       FT_BBox           *acbox );

Return an outline's ‘control box’. The control box encloses all the outline's points, including Bezier control points. Though it coincides with the exact bounding box for most glyphs, it can be slightly larger in some situations (like when rotating an outline that contains Bezier outside arcs).

Computing the control box is very fast, while getting the bounding box can take much more time as it needs to walk over all segments and arcs in the outline. To get the latter, you can use the ‘ftbbox’ component, which is dedicated to this single task.

input

outline

A pointer to the source outline descriptor.

output

acbox

The outline's control box.

note

See FT_Glyph_Get_CBox for a discussion of tricky fonts.

FT_Outline_Get_BBox¶

Defined in FT_BBOX_H (freetype/ftbbox.h).

  FT_EXPORT( FT_Error )
  FT_Outline_Get_BBox( FT_Outline*  outline,
                       FT_BBox     *abbox );

Compute the exact bounding box of an outline. This is slower than computing the control box. However, it uses an advanced algorithm that returns very quickly when the two boxes coincide. Otherwise, the outline Bezier arcs are traversed to extract their extrema.

input

outline

A pointer to the source outline.

output

abbox

The outline's exact bounding box.

return

FreeType error code. 0 means success.

note

If the font is tricky and the glyph has been loaded with FT_LOAD_NO_SCALE, the resulting BBox is meaningless. To get reasonable values for the BBox it is necessary to load the glyph at a large ppem value (so that the hinting instructions can properly shift and scale the subglyphs), then extracting the BBox, which can be eventually converted back to font units.

FT_Outline_Get_Bitmap¶

Defined in FT_OUTLINE_H (freetype/ftoutln.h).

  FT_EXPORT( FT_Error )
  FT_Outline_Get_Bitmap( FT_Library        library,
                         FT_Outline*       outline,
                         const FT_Bitmap  *abitmap );

Render an outline within a bitmap. The outline's image is simply OR-ed to the target bitmap.

input

library	A handle to a FreeType library object.
outline	A pointer to the source outline descriptor.

inout

abitmap

A pointer to the target bitmap descriptor.

return

FreeType error code. 0 means success.

note

This function does not create the bitmap, it only renders an outline image within the one you pass to it! Consequently, the various fields in abitmap should be set accordingly.

It will use the raster corresponding to the default glyph format.

The value of the num_grays field in abitmap is ignored. If you select the gray-level rasterizer, and you want less than 256 gray levels, you have to use FT_Outline_Render directly.

FT_Outline_Render¶

Defined in FT_OUTLINE_H (freetype/ftoutln.h).

  FT_EXPORT( FT_Error )
  FT_Outline_Render( FT_Library         library,
                     FT_Outline*        outline,
                     FT_Raster_Params*  params );

Render an outline within a bitmap using the current scan-convert.

input

library	A handle to a FreeType library object.
outline	A pointer to the source outline descriptor.

inout

params

A pointer to an FT_Raster_Params structure used to describe the rendering operation.

return

FreeType error code. 0 means success.

note

This advanced function uses FT_Raster_Params as an argument. The field params.source will be set to outline before the scan converter is called, which means that the value you give to it is actually ignored. Either params.target must point to preallocated bitmap, or FT_RASTER_FLAG_DIRECT must be set in params.flags allowing FreeType rasterizer to be used for direct composition, translucency, etc. See FT_Raster_Params for more details.

FT_Outline_Decompose¶

Defined in FT_OUTLINE_H (freetype/ftoutln.h).

  FT_EXPORT( FT_Error )
  FT_Outline_Decompose( FT_Outline*              outline,
                        const FT_Outline_Funcs*  func_interface,
                        void*                    user );

Walk over an outline's structure to decompose it into individual segments and Bezier arcs. This function also emits ‘move to’ operations to indicate the start of new contours in the outline.

input

outline	A pointer to the source target.
func_interface	A table of ‘emitters’, i.e., function pointers called during decomposition to indicate path operations.

inout

user	A typeless pointer that is passed to each emitter during the decomposition. It can be used to store the state during the decomposition.

return

FreeType error code. 0 means success.

note

Degenerate contours, segments, and Bezier arcs may be reported. In most cases, it is best to filter these out before using the outline for stroking or other path modification purposes (which may cause degenerate segments to become non-degenrate and visible, like when stroke caps are used or the path is otherwise outset). Some glyph outlines may contain deliberate degenerate single points for mark attachement.

Similarly, the function returns success for an empty outline also (doing nothing, this is, not calling any emitter); if necessary, you should filter this out, too.

FT_Outline_Funcs¶

Defined in FT_IMAGE_H (freetype/ftimage.h).

  typedef struct  FT_Outline_Funcs_
  {
    FT_Outline_MoveToFunc   move_to;
    FT_Outline_LineToFunc   line_to;
    FT_Outline_ConicToFunc  conic_to;
    FT_Outline_CubicToFunc  cubic_to;

    int                     shift;
    FT_Pos                  delta;

  } FT_Outline_Funcs;

A structure to hold various function pointers used during outline decomposition in order to emit segments, conic, and cubic Beziers.

fields

move_to	The ‘move to’ emitter.
line_to	The segment emitter.
conic_to	The second-order Bezier arc emitter.
cubic_to	The third-order Bezier arc emitter.
shift	The shift that is applied to coordinates before they are sent to the emitter.
delta	The delta that is applied to coordinates before they are sent to the emitter, but after the shift.

note

The point coordinates sent to the emitters are the transformed version of the original coordinates (this is important for high accuracy during scan-conversion). The transformation is simple:

  x' = (x << shift) - delta
  y' = (y << shift) - delta

Set the values of shift and delta to 0 to get the original point coordinates.

FT_Outline_MoveToFunc¶

Defined in FT_IMAGE_H (freetype/ftimage.h).

  typedef int
  (*FT_Outline_MoveToFunc)( const FT_Vector*  to,
                            void*             user );

#define FT_Outline_MoveTo_Func  FT_Outline_MoveToFunc

A function pointer type used to describe the signature of a ‘move to’ function during outline walking/decomposition.

A ‘move to’ is emitted to start a new contour in an outline.

input

to	A pointer to the target point of the ‘move to’.
user	A typeless pointer, which is passed from the caller of the decomposition function.

return

Error code. 0 means success.

FT_Outline_LineToFunc¶

Defined in FT_IMAGE_H (freetype/ftimage.h).

  typedef int
  (*FT_Outline_LineToFunc)( const FT_Vector*  to,
                            void*             user );

#define FT_Outline_LineTo_Func  FT_Outline_LineToFunc

A function pointer type used to describe the signature of a ‘line to’ function during outline walking/decomposition.

A ‘line to’ is emitted to indicate a segment in the outline.

input

to	A pointer to the target point of the ‘line to’.
user	A typeless pointer, which is passed from the caller of the decomposition function.

return

Error code. 0 means success.

FT_Outline_ConicToFunc¶

Defined in FT_IMAGE_H (freetype/ftimage.h).

  typedef int
  (*FT_Outline_ConicToFunc)( const FT_Vector*  control,
                             const FT_Vector*  to,
                             void*             user );

#define FT_Outline_ConicTo_Func  FT_Outline_ConicToFunc

A function pointer type used to describe the signature of a ‘conic to’ function during outline walking or decomposition.

A ‘conic to’ is emitted to indicate a second-order Bezier arc in the outline.

input

control	An intermediate control point between the last position and the new target in `to`.
to	A pointer to the target end point of the conic arc.
user	A typeless pointer, which is passed from the caller of the decomposition function.

return

Error code. 0 means success.

FT_Outline_CubicToFunc¶

Defined in FT_IMAGE_H (freetype/ftimage.h).

  typedef int
  (*FT_Outline_CubicToFunc)( const FT_Vector*  control1,
                             const FT_Vector*  control2,
                             const FT_Vector*  to,
                             void*             user );

#define FT_Outline_CubicTo_Func  FT_Outline_CubicToFunc

A function pointer type used to describe the signature of a ‘cubic to’ function during outline walking or decomposition.

A ‘cubic to’ is emitted to indicate a third-order Bezier arc.

input

control1	A pointer to the first Bezier control point.
control2	A pointer to the second Bezier control point.
to	A pointer to the target end point.
user	A typeless pointer, which is passed from the caller of the decomposition function.

return

Error code. 0 means success.

FT_Orientation¶

Defined in FT_OUTLINE_H (freetype/ftoutln.h).

  typedef enum  FT_Orientation_
  {
    FT_ORIENTATION_TRUETYPE   = 0,
    FT_ORIENTATION_POSTSCRIPT = 1,
    FT_ORIENTATION_FILL_RIGHT = FT_ORIENTATION_TRUETYPE,
    FT_ORIENTATION_FILL_LEFT  = FT_ORIENTATION_POSTSCRIPT,
    FT_ORIENTATION_NONE

  } FT_Orientation;

A list of values used to describe an outline's contour orientation.

The TrueType and PostScript specifications use different conventions to determine whether outline contours should be filled or unfilled.

values

FT_ORIENTATION_TRUETYPE	According to the TrueType specification, clockwise contours must be filled, and counter-clockwise ones must be unfilled.
FT_ORIENTATION_POSTSCRIPT	According to the PostScript specification, counter-clockwise contours must be filled, and clockwise ones must be unfilled.
FT_ORIENTATION_FILL_RIGHT	This is identical to `FT_ORIENTATION_TRUETYPE`, but is used to remember that in TrueType, everything that is to the right of the drawing direction of a contour must be filled.
FT_ORIENTATION_FILL_LEFT	This is identical to `FT_ORIENTATION_POSTSCRIPT`, but is used to remember that in PostScript, everything that is to the left of the drawing direction of a contour must be filled.
FT_ORIENTATION_NONE	The orientation cannot be determined. That is, different parts of the glyph have different orientation.

FT_Outline_Get_Orientation¶

Defined in FT_OUTLINE_H (freetype/ftoutln.h).

  FT_EXPORT( FT_Orientation )
  FT_Outline_Get_Orientation( FT_Outline*  outline );

This function analyzes a glyph outline and tries to compute its fill orientation (see FT_Orientation). This is done by integrating the total area covered by the outline. The positive integral corresponds to the clockwise orientation and FT_ORIENTATION_POSTSCRIPT is returned. The negative integral corresponds to the counter-clockwise orientation and FT_ORIENTATION_TRUETYPE is returned.

Note that this will return FT_ORIENTATION_TRUETYPE for empty outlines.

input

outline

A handle to the source outline.

return

The orientation.

FT_OUTLINE_XXX¶

Defined in FT_IMAGE_H (freetype/ftimage.h).

#define FT_OUTLINE_NONE             0x0
#define FT_OUTLINE_OWNER            0x1
#define FT_OUTLINE_EVEN_ODD_FILL    0x2
#define FT_OUTLINE_REVERSE_FILL     0x4
#define FT_OUTLINE_IGNORE_DROPOUTS  0x8
#define FT_OUTLINE_SMART_DROPOUTS   0x10
#define FT_OUTLINE_INCLUDE_STUBS    0x20
#define FT_OUTLINE_OVERLAP          0x40

#define FT_OUTLINE_HIGH_PRECISION   0x100
#define FT_OUTLINE_SINGLE_PASS      0x200


  /* these constants are deprecated; use the corresponding */
  /* `FT_OUTLINE_XXX` values instead                       */
#define ft_outline_none             FT_OUTLINE_NONE
#define ft_outline_owner            FT_OUTLINE_OWNER
#define ft_outline_even_odd_fill    FT_OUTLINE_EVEN_ODD_FILL
#define ft_outline_reverse_fill     FT_OUTLINE_REVERSE_FILL
#define ft_outline_ignore_dropouts  FT_OUTLINE_IGNORE_DROPOUTS
#define ft_outline_high_precision   FT_OUTLINE_HIGH_PRECISION
#define ft_outline_single_pass      FT_OUTLINE_SINGLE_PASS

A list of bit-field constants used for the flags in an outline's flags field.

values

FT_OUTLINE_NONE	Value 0 is reserved.
FT_OUTLINE_OWNER	If set, this flag indicates that the outline's field arrays (i.e., `points`, `flags`, and `contours`) are ‘owned’ by the outline object, and should thus be freed when it is destroyed.
FT_OUTLINE_EVEN_ODD_FILL	By default, outlines are filled using the non-zero winding rule. If set to 1, the outline will be filled using the even-odd fill rule (only works with the smooth rasterizer).
FT_OUTLINE_REVERSE_FILL	By default, outside contours of an outline are oriented in clock-wise direction, as defined in the TrueType specification. This flag is set if the outline uses the opposite direction (typically for Type 1 fonts). This flag is ignored by the scan converter.
FT_OUTLINE_IGNORE_DROPOUTS	By default, the scan converter will try to detect drop-outs in an outline and correct the glyph bitmap to ensure consistent shape continuity. If set, this flag hints the scan-line converter to ignore such cases. See below for more information.
FT_OUTLINE_SMART_DROPOUTS	Select smart dropout control. If unset, use simple dropout control. Ignored if `FT_OUTLINE_IGNORE_DROPOUTS` is set. See below for more information.
FT_OUTLINE_INCLUDE_STUBS	If set, turn pixels on for ‘stubs’, otherwise exclude them. Ignored if `FT_OUTLINE_IGNORE_DROPOUTS` is set. See below for more information.
FT_OUTLINE_OVERLAP	[Since 2.10.3] This flag indicates that this outline contains overlapping contours and the anti-aliased renderer should perform oversampling to mitigate possible artifacts. This flag should not be set for well designed glyphs without overlaps because it quadruples the rendering time.
FT_OUTLINE_HIGH_PRECISION	This flag indicates that the scan-line converter should try to convert this outline to bitmaps with the highest possible quality. It is typically set for small character sizes. Note that this is only a hint that might be completely ignored by a given scan-converter.
FT_OUTLINE_SINGLE_PASS	This flag is set to force a given scan-converter to only use a single pass over the outline to render a bitmap glyph image. Normally, it is set for very large character sizes. It is only a hint that might be completely ignored by a given scan-converter.

note

The flags FT_OUTLINE_IGNORE_DROPOUTS, FT_OUTLINE_SMART_DROPOUTS, and FT_OUTLINE_INCLUDE_STUBS are ignored by the smooth rasterizer.

There exists a second mechanism to pass the drop-out mode to the B/W rasterizer; see the tags field in FT_Outline.

Please refer to the description of the ‘SCANTYPE’ instruction in the OpenType specification (in file ttinst1.doc) how simple drop-outs, smart drop-outs, and stubs are defined.