Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!pepper!cmcmanis
From: cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Font Smoothing Algorithm
Message-ID: <48057@sun.uucp>
Date: 4 Apr 88 05:50:46 GMT
References: <6065@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Reply-To: cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 29

[Note opt=a == april fools joke]

In article <6065@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> rgd059@Mipl3.JPL.Nasa.Gov writes:
>Does anyone have, or know where to find, an algorithm for smoothing out
>bitmapped fonts when they are scaled up?  Specifically, I want to enlarge
>standard Amiga fonts and not get a blocky appearance.  Failing that, how
>about a general bitmap smoothing routine?

Yes and No, what you can do is "antialias" the output and that will make the
fonts appear less blocky. The 1.3 printer.device will do this for you and
it helps, but don't expect PostScript quality because ...

>I'm about 90% sure that PostScript printers have this capability, but I want
>to do it in the computer.

They use something called 'outline' fonts. The font is described by its outline
in a very high resolution format. The outline is rendered at the resolution of
the output device and 'filled' with the output color. This also lets you get
100 different sizes of font from one font file. Basically you just multiply
the outline coordinates by a factor of 1 to 100 (or anywhere in between). 
This would be a very nice feature on the amiga, although just as nice (and
easier to implement) would be a font directory with say 36 sizes of font in it.)
In that way you could substitute higher font sizes for the larger characters.
*or* you could just have one big font and scale it down by subtracting off
pixels.

--Chuck McManis
uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis   BIX: cmcmanis  ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com
These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.