News & Updates

FreeType 2.11.0

Our new release brings an additional rendering module to create Signed Distance Fields (SDF) for glyphs; it also introduces an experimental interface to access ‘COLR’ v1 fonts.

Ubuntu Linux can be customized at your need: however my current settings (FreeType library-best shapes) are very similar to the Mac font rendering, probably superior. Alberto Jun 26th, 2007 / 7:01 am.
From PyPI, recommended: pip install freetype-py. This will install the library with a bundled FreeType binary, so you're ready to go on Windows, macOS and Linux (all with 32 and 64 bit x86 architecture support). Do note: if you specify the -no-binary paramater to pip, or use a different architecture for which we don't pre-compile binaries, the.

The FreeType engine is a free and portable TrueType font rendering engine. It has been developed to provide TT support to a great variety of platforms and environments.

As usual, there are many more fixes and features; please see here for more.

FreeType moved to freedesktop.org

2021-01-16

We are now using the infrastructure of the gitlab instance of freedesktop.org. All bug issues have been imported (kudos to Anurag Thakur for doing this tedious job!), together with the git repositories, which have been renamed to freetype and freetype-demos (this is, we are dropping the ‘2’ in the repository names).

The git repositories at Savannah will stay as mirrors.

FreeType 2.10.4

This is an emergency release, fixing a severe vulnerability in embedded PNG bitmap handling (see here for more).

All users should update immediately.

FreeType 2.10.3

2020-10-10

This is a maintenance release, having better support for TrueType glyphs with overlapping contours. See the list of changes for more details.

A warning for distribution maintainers: Version 2.10.3 and later may break the build of ghostscript, due to ghostscript's use of a withdrawn macro that wasn't intended for external usage. A fix is available here.

Freetype Library Download

FreeType 2.10.2

Besides various maintenance fixes, this release comes with support of WOFF 2 fonts. More details are listed in the list of changes.

FreeType 2.10.1

2019-07-01

A new maintenance release, fixing bytecode hinting of OpenType variation fonts and cmap processing of PCF fonts, among other things. Check the list of changes for more fixes.

FreeType 2.10.0

This release brings one notable feature, namely support for color-layered outline glyphs (for example, scalable emoji glyphs). Additionally, the API reference has been completely overhauled and modernized, as already announced.

As usual, many minor fixes and corrections have been applied also; a detailed list is given here.

Website Makeover

2018-08-25

A revamped version of the FreeType website is available for preview here. It includes a complete interface redesign, and uses markdown as input which greatly improves maintainability. Comments are welcome.

FreeType 2.9.1

This is a maintenance release; most importantly fixing correct handling of Type 1 fonts with flex features, which was broken in version 2.9. An overview of the remaining changes is given here. All users should upgrade.

FreeType 2.9

2018-01-08

FreeType version 2.9, the first release of a new ‘minor’ series, is now available for download. The main reason for starting a new series is Ewald Hew's GSoC contribution of making Adobe's CFF engine handle Type 1 fonts also, greatly improving the rendering quality of this ancient but still important font format.

If you are going to use variation fonts, please update to this version since it comes with some important fixes. More information on this and other changes can be found here.

FreeType 2.8.1

FreeType 2.8.1 has been released. This is mainly a maintenance release with one important change: By default, FreeType now offers high quality LCD-optimized output without resorting to ClearType techniques of resolution tripling and filtering. In this method, called Harmony, each color channel is generated separately after shifting the glyph outline, capitalizing on the fact that the color grids on LCD panels are shifted by a third of a pixel. This output is indistinguishable from ClearType with a light 3-tap filter.

See here for a extensive list of changes; noteworthy bug fixes are correct handling of B/W TrueType hinting and some OpenType variation font handling issues.

FreeType 2.8

2017-05-13

FreeType 2.8 has been released. CFF2 support and OpenType variation font handling is now complete; the auto-hinter now understands 25 more scripts, for example N'Ko and Tifinagh.

See here for a list of changes; noteworthy bug fixes are the handling of TrueType fonts: unhinted loading didn't work as expected, and the light auto-hinter used incorrect metrics.

GSoC

The FreeType project was accepted to be part of Google Summer of Code 2017! Here's a link to our ideas list – if you have another one, please write to our mailing list so that we can discuss your suggestions, eventually adding them to the list. And if you want to participate as a student, now is the time to discuss everything, again using the mailing list.

FreeType 2.7.1

2016-12-30

FreeType 2.7.1 has been released. The most important news is preliminary support of Adobe's new CFF2 font format and variation fonts as specified in the new OpenType specification version 1.8. It also fixes the handling of raw CID fonts (which might be found in PDF files)

See here for a list of changes.

FreeType 2.7

We start a new ‘minor’ series, which finally allows us to activate a new default mode for bytecode hinting (see also the announcements below for version 2.6.4 and 2.6.5): Subpixel hinting, also known as ClearType hinting.

In case you are already using subpixel hinting (for example, by using the ‘Infinality patches’ as provided by some GNU/Linux or BSD distributions, or directly from bohoomil.com), be noted that the new mode might provide subtle differences; the code was simplified to make it much faster. If you are used to the old full-pixel hinting, you will see many rendering changes. If you really dislike them, you can disable them at compile time or using the new FREETYPE_PROPERTIES environment variable.

A description of the remaining changes can be found here, as usual.

FreeType 2.6.5

2016-07-12

This release is almost identical to the previous version, with two differences.

It compiles again on Mac OS X, and
it reverts the activation of subpixel hinting by default; it will be enabled by default in the forthcoming 2.7.x series. Main reason for reverting this feature is the principle of least surprise: a sudden change in appearance of all fonts (even if the rendering improves for almost all recent fonts) should not be expected in a new micro version of a series.

FreeType 2.6.4

FreeType 2.6.4 has been released. The most important change is a new bytecode hinting mode for TrueType fonts that finally activates subpixel hinting (a.k.a. ClearType hinting) by default.

The new release also brings support for the following new scripts in the auto-hinter: Armenian, Cherokee, Ethiopic, Georgian, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Malayalam, Sinhala, and Tamil.

See here for a detailed list of changes.

FreeType 2.6.3

2016-02-09

FreeType 2.6.3 has been released. It brings support for four new Asian scripts in the auto-hinter (Khmer, Myanmar, Kannada, and Bengali), together with other, minor improvements and bug fixes.

See here for a detailed list of changes.

More on the 2.6.2 release for users and developers

FreeType 2.6.2 ships with three interesting details for users and developers of rendering libraries that deal with text. Read more.

FreeType 2.6.2

2015-11-28

FreeType 2.6.2 has been released. This is a minor release that mainly provides better handling of malformed fonts. All users should upgrade.

A new feature is stem darkening support for the auto-hinter. Note, however, that it is off by default, since most graphic systems don't provide correct linear alpha blending with gamma correction, which is crucial for a good appearance. For the same reason, stem darkening for the CFF engine is now off by default, too.

See here for a more detailed list of changes.

FreeType 2.6.1

FreeType 2.6.1 has been released. This is a minor release that corrects problems with CFF metrics, and that prov