Font Fusion
Encyclopedia
Bitstream
Font Fusion is a small, fast, object-oriented font engine written in ANSI C
capable of rendering high-quality text on any platform, any device, and at any resolution. The entire source code is portable, optimized, and executes independent of operating system
and processor
. The font engine is capable of rendering 2,400-3,300 characters per second on a 100 MIPS CPU.
Font Fusion is designed such that it can meet the memory and performance requirements, even if the Asian languages that contain thousands of characters are to be supported. Font Fusion is also the core technology behind other Bitstream products, Panorama
, ThunderHawk and myMMS.
and founder of Type Solutions (now a wholly owned subsidiary of Bitstream Inc.) designed T2K, a font renderer, which provided an object-oriented design, advanced architecture and algorithms, and was capable, to embed in all sorts of devices. Later in 1998, Bitstream acquired Type solutions and T2K evolved into Bitstream's font rasterizer, called Font Fusion.
(DLL). The plug-in inherits all the features supported by the core Font Fusion engine.
allowing any third party font rendering engine to work as plug-in with the Qt/Qtopia application platform. The framework also adds the capability to have any font format compatibility with Qt/Qtopia.
Bitstream Inc.
Bitstream Inc. is a type foundry that produces digital typefaces . Founded in 1981 by Matthew Carter and Mike Parker among others, it claims to be the oldest such company...
Font Fusion is a small, fast, object-oriented font engine written in ANSI C
ANSI C
ANSI C refers to the family of successive standards published by the American National Standards Institute for the C programming language. Software developers writing in C are encouraged to conform to the standards, as doing so aids portability between compilers.-History and outlook:The first...
capable of rendering high-quality text on any platform, any device, and at any resolution. The entire source code is portable, optimized, and executes independent of operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
and processor
Microprocessor
A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
. The font engine is capable of rendering 2,400-3,300 characters per second on a 100 MIPS CPU.
Font Fusion is designed such that it can meet the memory and performance requirements, even if the Asian languages that contain thousands of characters are to be supported. Font Fusion is also the core technology behind other Bitstream products, Panorama
Panorama (Layout Engine)
Panorama is a line layout and text composition engine to render text in various worldwide languages made by Bitstream Inc.. Panorama uses Font Fusion as the base to support rendering of the text...
, ThunderHawk and myMMS.
Version history
In late 1980s, Sampo Kaasila, lead developer of TrueTypeTrueType
TrueType is an outline font standard originally developed by Apple Computer in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobe's Type 1 fonts used in PostScript...
and founder of Type Solutions (now a wholly owned subsidiary of Bitstream Inc.) designed T2K, a font renderer, which provided an object-oriented design, advanced architecture and algorithms, and was capable, to embed in all sorts of devices. Later in 1998, Bitstream acquired Type solutions and T2K evolved into Bitstream's font rasterizer, called Font Fusion.
| Major version | Minor version | Release date | Significant changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Version 1 | 1.0 | October 28, 1999 | Initial release. |
| Version 2 | 2.0 | July 18, 2000 | Japanese/Korean Fonts support. Improved display of text for Internet appliances and wireless devices |
| 2.1 | June 12, 2001 | Includes an optional 1.23 MB unified stroke-based font with 30,000 CJK characters | |
| 2.2 | January 29, 2002 | Includes the Wireless Font Set (four proportional, four monospaced, and one symbol font), designed specifically for handheld and wireless devices | |
| 2.3 | April 2, 2002 | OpenType Support. Support for FFC standards for closed captioning. Character edge effects. Pen Styles, Character Offsetting, and Pen Sizes. New CCTV font set. | |
| 2.4 | April 8, 2003 | Enhanced support for OpenType and Type 1 fonts allowing access to all characters. Plug-in filter for embedding of bitmaps. | |
| 2.5 | June 22, 2004 | Integration support for Panorama (enhanced support for text composition with simultaneous release of Bitstream Panorama). Support to modify the color tables. Improved stroke-based font output. | |
| Version 3 | 3.0 | June 6, 2005 | New support for Font compression at all font formats |
| 3.1 | November 3, 2005 | Caching for memory-constrained consumer devices and mobile phones | |
| 3.2 | April 25, 2006 | Optimized performance for mobile handsets and consumer electronics devices. Improved algorithms for compressed fonts. Optimized heap usage with fewer memory blocks. Reduced cache fragmentation | |
| 3.3 | November 6, 2006 | Improved font rendering speed for compressed fonts. | |
| Version 4 | 4.0 | September 24, 2007 | Extension for BREW and new methods to create outline of the characters |
| 4.5 | April 10, 2008 | Includes Smart Scale technology that dynamically scales the extended characters to fit within the device’s preset bounding box. 32-bit Unicode support for CJK font files with extended CMAPs for 32-bit Unicode values. Support for windows bitmap font format FNT/FON and CID-keyed fonts | |
| Version 5 | 5.0 | July 15, 2009 | Includes support for fractional sizes, an optimized PFR format, optional OTF support, vertical processing, format 16 font headers, and enhanced printer support. |
| Version 6 | 6.0 | May 10, 2011 | Includes support for Web Open Font Format (WOFF), OpenType fonts, Multiple Master Postscript Fonts, Type1 fonts and provides an optional Android wrapper add-on. Also includes an enhanced Font Manager and 32-bit filter tags for increased font customization and optimization. |
Features
- Enhanced Font Support - Font Fusion provides support for Web Open Font Format (WOFF), OpenType fonts, Multiple Master Postscript Fonts, and Type1 fonts.
- New Font Manager - The new Font Manager module has been written from the scratch. As compared to previous version, it is faster, consumes less memory, and has a rich set of user APIs. It also includes an optional Android wrapper Add-on which enables an Android application to use Font Fusion rendering engine.
- Optimized hmtx Structure - Includes an optimized Horizontal Metrics hmtx table loading process.
- Added support for 32-bit Filter Tag - Font Fusion includes support for 32 bit Filter Tag, now more number of filters can be added by a user of Font Fusion.
- Lossless Font Compression — The font engine can read and render industry-standard fonts, bitmap fonts, and outline fonts in a compressed format. The engine has a unique capability of font compression such that each font consumes less memory, and achieving a 2-to-1 compression factor. For example, a unified stroke-based CJKCJKCJK is a collective term for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, which is used in the field of software and communications internationalization.The term CJKV means CJK plus Vietnamese, which constitute the main East Asian languages.- Characteristics :...
font, with 37,000 characters is under 1MB with optimum compression. - CJK Bitmap Font Compression — Font Fusion implements a compression algorithm for CJK bitmap fonts, which ideally compresses the embedded bitmaps and provides a compressed CJK bitmap font support. This font format is Bitstream proprietary compression format for CJK bitmap fonts.
- Fractional Size and Positioning — Supports fractional sizing and positioning of characters, such that text strings can be fit into any region.
- Smart Scaling — Smart scaling regulates the adjustment of characters that extend beyond the set height parameters and may get clipped when rendered on small screen devices. The technology ensures that the scaled characters are in proportion to the other characters in the font.
- Cache Management — Includes a dedicated cache manager to manage the system performance. Uses the cache to store rendered characters (bitmaps).
- Small footprint — The Font Fusion code size for devices varies from 65 – 187 KB, depending on the configuration chosen.
- Extraordinary Typographical Quality — Native TrueType hinting produces high-quality output on any device. Additionally, the anti-aliasing techniques, TV/LCD modes improve the glyph output irrespective of the device (a mobile handset or a large digital TV).
- Low Memory Requirement — Only 16 – 40 KB of RAM required for a Latin font and 27 – 34 KB of RAM required for a stroke based Asian font.
- Scalable Text — Supports high quality scalable text that can be used by mobile and smart phones. The device manufacturers and mobile developers can replace the bitmaps at a single point size with scalable font that can be rendered at different font sizes.
- Stroke-based Fonts Fupport — Uses a proprietary stroke-based font technology that uses a library of common components, called "radicals", that appear in characters repeatedly. The radicals and strokes are then pieced together and rendered on the fly to create characters.
Language Coverage/Font Support
- Compact Asian fonts
- Industry Standard Asian Fonts
- Cyrillic
- GreekGreek alphabetThe Greek alphabet is the script that has been used to write the Greek language since at least 730 BC . The alphabet in its classical and modern form consists of 24 letters ordered in sequence from alpha to omega...
- Arabic (complex scripting language)
- Hebrew (complex scripting language)
- Indian (complex scripting languages)
- ThaiThai alphabetThai script , is used to write the Thai language and other, minority, languages in Thailand. It has forty-four consonants , fifteen vowel symbols that combine into at least twenty-eight vowel forms, and four tone marks ....
(complex scripting language) - Over 50 other worldwide languages
Font Formats Supported
- Multiple master fontsMultiple master fontsMultiple master fonts are an extension to Adobe Systems' Type 1 PostScript fonts, now mostly superseded by the advent of OpenType...
- WOFF fontsWeb Open Font FormatThe Web Open Font Format is a font format for use in web pages. It was developed during 2009 and is in the process of being standardized as a recommendation by the World Wide Web Consortium Web Fonts Working Group....
- Type 1PostScript fontsPostScript fonts are outline font specifications developed by Adobe Systems for professional digital typesetting, which uses PostScript file format to encode font information.-History:...
- TrueTypeTrueTypeTrueType is an outline font standard originally developed by Apple Computer in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobe's Type 1 fonts used in PostScript...
- TrueType collections
- OpenTypeOpenTypeOpenType is a format for scalable computer fonts. It was built on its predecessor TrueType, retaining TrueType's basic structure and adding many intricate data structures for prescribing typographic behavior...
- Compact font format (CFF)/Type 2
- TrueDoc Portable Font Resources (PFRs)
- Bitstream Speedo
- T2K
- Font Fusion Stroke (FFS)
- Embedded bitmaps (TrueType, TrueDoc, and T2K)
- Bitmap Distribution FormatGlyph Bitmap Distribution FormatThe Glyph Bitmap Distribution Format by Adobe is a file format for storing bitmap fonts. The content is presented as a text file that is intended to be human and computer readable. BDF is typically used in Unix environments.-Overview:...
(BDF) - Mac font suitcase (Dfont)
- Windows bitmap font format FNT/FON
- PCLeo (PCL Encapsulated Outline), an Intellifont font format
- PCLetto (PCL Encapsulated Truetype Outline), soft fonts for printing applications
Applications/Operating Systems Supported
- Cross-platform applications
- WebWorld Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
(HTMLHTMLHyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
) applications - MacintoshMacintoshThe Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
& WindowsMicrosoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal... - BREW
- LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
& UNIXUnixUnix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna... - Embedded operating systems
- Real time operating systems
Devices Supported
Consumer Electronic Devices, Mobile Handset, Set-top box, Digital TV, Printer, Printer Controller, Fax Machine, Multi-function Device, Medical Imaging Device, GPS System, Automobile Display, and other Embedded SystemFont Fusion Plug-In for Symbian
Font Fusion plug-in is available for the Symbian OS as a dynamic-link libraryDynamic-link library
Dynamic-link library , or DLL, is Microsoft's implementation of the shared library concept in the Microsoft Windows and OS/2 operating systems...
(DLL). The plug-in inherits all the features supported by the core Font Fusion engine.
Font Fusion Plug-In for BREW
Font Fusion plug-in for BREW platform provides a standard font-rendering framework that implements different BREW interfaces, supporting scalable and multilingual text.Font Fusion Plug-In for Qtopia
Font Fusion framework is available for QtopiaQtopia
Qt Extended is an application platform for embedded Linux-based mobile computing devices such as personal digital assistants, video projectors and mobile phones...
allowing any third party font rendering engine to work as plug-in with the Qt/Qtopia application platform. The framework also adds the capability to have any font format compatibility with Qt/Qtopia.