FreeType 2 Tutorial
Step 1 — simple glyph loading
© 2003 David Turner
(
mailto:david@freetype.org
david@freetype.org
)
© 2003 The FreeType Development Team
(
http://www.freetype.org
www.freetype.org
)
Introduction
This is the first section of the FreeType 2 tutorial.  It will teach
you how to:
initialize the library
open a font file by creating a new face object
select a character size in points or in pixels
load a single glyph image and convert it to a bitmap
render a very simple string of text
render a rotated string of text easily
1. Header files
The following are instructions required to compile an application that
uses the FreeType 2 library.
Please read them
carefully; we have changed a few things since the last
release!
Locate the FreeType 2
include
directory.
You have to add it to your compilation include path.
Note that on Unix systems, you can now run the
freetype-config
script with the
--cflags
option to
retrieve the appropriate compilation flags.  This script can also be
used to check the version of the library that is installed on your
system, as well as the required librarian and linker flags.
Include the file named
ft2build.h
.
It contains various macro declarations that are later used to
#include
the appropriate public FreeType 2 header
files.
Include the main FreeType 2 API header
file.
You should do that using the macro
FT_FREETYPE_H
,
like in the following example:
#include <ft2build.h>
#include FT_FREETYPE_H
FT_FREETYPE_H
is a special macro defined in the file
ftheader.h
.  It contains some installation-specific macros
to name other public header files of the FreeType 2 API.
You can read
../reference/ft2-header_file_macros.html
this section of the
FreeType 2 API Reference
for a complete listing of the
header macros.
The use of macros in
#include
statements is ANSI-compliant.
It is used for several reasons:
It avoids some painful conflicts with the FreeType 1.x public
header files.
The macro names are not limited to the DOS 8.3 file naming limit;
names like
FT_MULTIPLE_MASTERS_H
or
FT_SFNT_NAMES_H
are a lot more readable and explanatory than the real file names
ftmm.h
and
ftsnames.h
.
It allows special installation tricks that will not be discussed
here.
NOTE: Starting with FreeType 2.1.6, the old
header file inclusion scheme is no longer supported.  This means that
you now get an error if you do something like the following:
#include <freetype/freetype.h>
#include <freetype/ftglyph.h>
...
2. Initialize the library
Simply create a variable of type
../reference/ft2-base_interface.html#FT_Library
FT_Library
named, for example,
library
, and call
the function
../reference/ft2-base_interface.html#FT_Init_FreeType
FT_Init_FreeType
as in
#include <ft2build.h>
#include FT_FREETYPE_H
FT_Library  library;
...
error = FT_Init_FreeType( &library );
if ( error )
{
... an error occurred during library initialization ...
}
This function is in charge of the following:
It creates a new instance of the FreeType 2 library, and
sets the handle
library
to it.
It loads each module that FreeType knows about in the library.
Among others, your new
library
object is able
to handle TrueType, Type 1, CID-keyed & OpenType/CFF fonts
gracefully.
As you can see, the function returns an error code, like most others
in the FreeType API.  An error code of 0
always
means that
the operation was successful; otherwise, the value describes the error,
and
library
is set to NULL.
3. Load a font face
a. From a font file
Create a new
face
object by calling
../reference/ft2-base_interface.html#FT_New_Face
FT_New_Face
.  A
face
describes a given typeface
and style.  For example, ‘Times New Roman Regular’ and
‘Times New Roman Italic’ correspond to two different
faces.
FT_Library  library;
/* handle to library     */
FT_Face     face;
/* handle to face object */
error = FT_Init_FreeType( &library );
if ( error ) { ... }
error = FT_New_Face( library,
"/usr/share/fonts/truetype/arial.ttf",
0,
&face );
if ( error == FT_Err_Unknown_File_Format )
{
... the font file could be opened and read, but it appears
... that its font format is unsupported
}
else if ( error )
{
... another error code means that the font file could not
... be opened or read, or simply that it is broken...
}
As you can certainly imagine,
FT_New_Face
opens a font
file, then tries to extract one face from it.  Its parameters are
library
A handle to the FreeType library instance where the face object
is created.
filepathname
The font file pathname (a standard C string).
face_index
Certain font formats allow several font faces to be embedded
in a single file.
This index tells which face you want to load.  An error will
be returned if its value is too large.
Index 0 always work though.
face
A
pointer
to the handle that will be set to describe
the new face object.
It is set to NULL in case of error.
To know how many faces a given font file contains, simply load its
first face (this is,
face_index
should be set to zero), then
check the value of
face->num_faces
which indicates how
many faces are embedded in the font file.
b. From memory
In the case where you have already loaded the font file into memory,
you can similarly create a new face object for it by calling
../reference/ft2-base_interface.html#FT_New_Memory_Face
FT_New_Memory_Face
as in
FT_Library  library;
/* handle to library     */
FT_Face     face;
/* handle to face object */
error = FT_Init_FreeType( &library );
if ( error ) { ... }
error = FT_New_Memory_Face( library,
buffer,
/* first byte in memory */
size,
/* size in bytes        */
0,
/* face_index           */
&face );
if ( error ) { ... }
As you can see,
FT_New_Memory_Face
simply takes a pointer
to the font file buffer and its size in bytes instead of a file
pathname.  Other than that, it has exactly the same semantics as
FT_New_Face
.
c. From other sources (compressed files, network, etc.)
There are cases where using a file pathname or preloading the file
into memory is simply not sufficient.  With FreeType 2, it is
possible to provide your own implementation of i/o routines.
This is done through the
../reference/ft2-base_interface.html#FT_Open_Face
FT_Open_Face
function, which can be used to open a new
font face with a custom input stream, select a specific driver for
opening, or even pass extra parameters to the font driver when creating
the object.  We advise you to refer to the FreeType 2 reference
manual in order to learn how to use it.
4. Accessing face content
A
face object
models all information that globally describes
the face.  Usually, this data can be accessed directly by dereferencing
a handle, like in
face−>num_glyphs
.
The complete list of available fields in in the
../reference/ft2-base_interface.html#FT_FaceRec
FT_FaceRec
structure description.  However, we describe
here a few of them in more details:
num_glyphs
This variable gives the number of
glyphs
available in
the font face.  A glyph is simply a character image.  It doesn't
necessarily correspond to a
character code
though.
flags
A 32-bit integer containing bit flags used to describe some
face properties.  For example, the flag
FT_FACE_FLAG_SCALABLE
is used to indicate that the face's
font format is scalable and that glyph images can be rendered for
all character pixel sizes.  For more information on face flags,
please read the
../reference/ft2-index.html
FreeType 2 API
Reference
.
units_per_EM
This field is only valid for scalable formats (it is set
to 0 otherwise).  It indicates the number of font units
covered by the EM.
num_fixed_sizes
This field gives the number of embedded bitmap strikes
in the current face.  A
strike
is simply a series of
glyph images for a given character pixel size.  For example, a
font face could include strikes for pixel sizes 10, 12
and 14.  Note that even scalable font formats can have
embedded bitmap strikes!
fixed_sizes
A pointer to an array of
FT_Bitmap_Size
elements.  Each
FT_Bitmap_Size
indicates the horizontal
and vertical
character pixel sizes
for each of the strikes
that are present in the face.
Note that, generally speaking, these are
not
the
cell size
of the bitmap strikes.
5. Setting the current pixel size
FreeType 2 uses
size objects
to model all information
related to a given character size for a given face.  For example, a size
object will hold the value of certain metrics like the ascender or text
height, expressed in 1/64th of a pixel, for a character size of
12 points.
When the
FT_New_Face
function is called (or one of its
cousins), it
automatically
creates a new size object for the
returned face.  This size object is directly accessible as
face−>size
.
NOTE: A single face object can deal with one or more size
objects at a time; however, this is something that few programmers
really need to do.  We have thus decided to simplify the API for the
most common use (i.e., one size per face) while keeping this feature
available through additional functions.
When a new face object is created, its size object defaults to the
character size of 10 pixels (both horizontally and vertically) for
scalable formats.  For fixed-sizes formats, the size is more or less
undefined, which is why you must set it before trying to load a
glyph.
To do that, simply call
../reference/ft2-base_interface.html#FT_Set_Char_Size
FT_Set_Char_Size
.  Here is an example where the character
size is set to 16pt for a 300×300 dpi device:
error = FT_Set_Char_Size(
face,
/* handle to face object           */
0,
/* char_width in 1/64th of points  */
16*64,
/* char_height in 1/64th of points */
300,
/* horizontal device resolution    */
300 );
/* vertical device resolution      */
Some notes:
The character widths and heights are specified in 1/64th of
points.  A point is a
physical
distance, equaling 1/72th
of an inch.  Normally, it is not equivalent to a pixel.
The horizontal and vertical device resolutions are expressed in
dots-per-inch
, or
dpi
.  Normal values are 72 or
96 dpi for display devices like the screen.  The resolution
is used to compute the character pixel size from the character
point size.
A value of 0 for the character width means ‘same as
character height’, a value of 0 for the character height
means ‘same as character width’.  Otherwise, it is
possible to specify different character widths and heights.
Using a value of 0 for the horizontal or vertical
resolution means 72 dpi, which is the default.
The first argument is a handle to a face object, not a size
object.
This function computes the character pixel size that corresponds to
the character width and height and device resolutions.  However, if you
want to specify the pixel sizes yourself, you can simply call
../reference/ft2-base_interface.html#FT_Set_Pixel_Sizes
FT_Set_Pixel_Sizes
, as in
error = FT_Set_Pixel_Sizes(
face,
/* handle to face object */
0,
/* pixel_width           */
16 );
/* pixel_height          */
This example will set the character pixel sizes to
16×16 pixels.  As previously, a value of 0 for one of
the dimensions means ‘same as the other’.
Note that both functions return an error code.  Usually, an error
occurs with a fixed-size font format (like FNT or PCF) when trying to
set the pixel size to a value that is not listed in the
face->fixed_sizes
array.
6. Loading a glyph image
a. Converting a character code into a glyph index
Usually, an application wants to load a glyph image based on its
character code
, which is a unique value that defines the
character for a given
encoding
.  For example, the character
code 65 represents the ‘A’ in ASCII encoding.
A face object contains one or more tables, called
charmaps
, that are used to convert character codes to glyph
indices.  For example, most TrueType fonts contain two charmaps.  One
is used to convert Unicode character codes to glyph indices, the other
is used to convert Apple Roman encoding into glyph indices.  Such
fonts can then be used either on Windows (which uses Unicode) and
Macintosh (which uses Apple Roman).  Note also that a given
charmap might not map to all the glyphs present in the font.
By default, when a new face object is created, it selects a
Unicode charmap.  FreeType tries to emulate a Unicode charmap if the
font doesn't contain such a charmap, based on glyph names.  Note that
it is possible that the emulation misses glyphs if glyph names are
non-standard.  For some fonts, including symbol fonts and (older)
fonts for Asian scripts, no Unicode emulation is possible at all.
We will describe later how to look for specific charmaps in a face.
For now, we will assume that the face contains at least a Unicode
charmap that was selected during a call to
FT_New_Face
.  To
convert a Unicode character code to a font glyph index, we use
FT_Get_Char_Index
, as in
glyph_index = FT_Get_Char_Index( face, charcode );
This will look the glyph index corresponding to the given
charcode
in the charmap that is currently selected for the
face.  If no charmap was selected, the function simply returns the
charcode.
Note that this is one of the rare FreeType functions that do not
return an error code.  However, when a given character code has no
glyph image in the face, the value 0 is returned.  By convention,
it always correspond to a special glyph image called the
missing
glyph
, which is commonly displayed as a box or a space.
b. Loading a glyph from the face
Once you have a glyph index, you can load the corresponding glyph
image.  The latter can be stored in various formats within the font
file.  For fixed-size formats like FNT or PCF, each image is a bitmap.
Scalable formats like TrueType or Type 1 use vectorial shapes,
named
outlines
to describe each glyph.  Some formats may have
even more exotic ways of representing glyphs (e.g., MetaFont —
but this format is not supported).  Fortunately, FreeType 2 is
flexible enough to support any kind of glyph format through a simple
API.
The glyph image is always stored in a special object called a
glyph slot
.  As its name suggests, a glyph slot is simply a
container that is able to hold one glyph image at a time, be it a
bitmap, an outline, or something else.  Each face object has a single
glyph slot object that can be accessed as
face->glyph
.
Its fields are explained by the
../reference/ft2-base_interface.html#FT_GlyphSlotRec
FT_GlyphSlotRec
structure documentation.
Loading a glyph image into the slot is performed by calling
../reference/ft2-base_interface.html#FT_Load_Glyph
FT_Load_Glyph
as in
error = FT_Load_Glyph(
face,
/* handle to face object */
glyph_index,
/* glyph index           */
load_flags );
/* load flags, see below */
The
load_flags
value is a set of bit flags used to
indicate some special operations.  The default value
FT_LOAD_DEFAULT
is 0.
This function will try to load the corresponding glyph image
from the face:
If a bitmap is found for the corresponding glyph and pixel
size, it will be loaded into the slot.  Embedded bitmaps are
always favored over native image formats, because we assume that
they are higher-quality versions of the same glyph.  This can be
changed by using the
FT_LOAD_NO_BITMAP
flag.
Otherwise, a native image for the glyph will be loaded.  It
will also be scaled to the current pixel size, as well as hinted
for certain formats like TrueType and Type 1.
The field
face−>glyph−>format
describes
the format used to store the glyph image in the slot.  If it is not
FT_GLYPH_FORMAT_BITMAP
, one can immediately convert it to a
bitmap through
../reference/ft2-base_interface.html#FT_Render_Glyph
FT_Render_Glyph
as in:
error = FT_Render_Glyph( face->glyph,
/* glyph slot  */
render_mode );
/* render mode */
The parameter
render_mode
is a set of bit flags used to
specify how to render the glyph image.  Set it to
FT_RENDER_MODE_NORMAL
to render a high-quality anti-aliased
(256 gray levels) bitmap, as this is the default.  You can
alternatively use
FT_RENDER_MODE_MONO
if you want to generate
a 1-bit monochrome bitmap.
Once you have a bitmapped glyph image, you can access it directly
through
glyph->bitmap
(a simple bitmap descriptor), and
position it through
glyph->bitmap_left
and
glyph->bitmap_top
.
Note that
bitmap_left
is the horizontal distance from the
current pen position to the leftmost border of the glyph bitmap, while
bitmap_top
is the vertical distance from the pen position (on
the baseline) to the topmost border of the glyph bitmap.
It is
positive to indicate an upwards distance
.
The next section will give more details on the contents of a glyph
slot and how to access specific glyph information (including
metrics).
c. Using other charmaps
As said before, when a new face object is created, it will look for
a Unicode charmap and select it.  The currently selected charmap is
accessed via
face->charmap
.  This field is NULL when no
charmap is selected, which typically happens when you create a new
FT_Face
object from a font file that doesn't contain a
Unicode charmap (which is rather infrequent today).
There are two ways to select a different charmap with
FreeType 2.  The easiest is when the encoding you need already
has a corresponding enumeration defined in
FT_FREETYPE_H
, for
example
FT_ENCODING_BIG5
.  In this case, you can simply call
../reference/ft2-base_interface.html#FT_Select_CharMap
FT_Select_CharMap
as in:
error = FT_Select_CharMap(
face,
/* target face object */
FT_ENCODING_BIG5 );
/* encoding           */
Another way is to manually parse the list of charmaps for the face;
this is accessible through the fields
num_charmaps
and
charmaps
(notice the ‘s&rsquo) of the face object.  As
you could expect, the first is the number of charmaps in the face,
while the second is
a table of pointers to the charmaps
embedded in the face.
Each charmap has a few visible fields used to describe it more
precisely.  Mainly, one will look at
charmap->platform_id
and
charmap->encoding_id
that define a pair of values
that can be used to describe the charmap in a rather generic way.
Each value pair corresponds to a given encoding.  For example, the
pair (3,1) corresponds to Unicode.  The list is defined in the
TrueType specification but you can also use the file
FT_TRUETYPE_IDS_H
which defines several helpful constants to
deal with them.
To select a specific encoding, you need to find a corresponding
value pair in the specification, then look for it in the charmaps
list.  Don't forget that there are encodings which correspond to
several value pairs due to historical reasons.  Here some code to do
it:
FT_CharMap  found = 0;
FT_CharMap  charmap;
int         n;
for ( n = 0; n < face->num_charmaps; n++ )
{
charmap = face->charmaps[n];
if ( charmap->platform_id == my_platform_id &&
charmap->encoding_id == my_encoding_id )
{
found = charmap;
break;
}
}
if ( !found ) { ... }
/* now, select the charmap for the face object */
error = FT_Set_CharMap( face, found );
if ( error ) { ... }
Once a charmap has been selected, either through
FT_Select_CharMap
or
FT_Set_CharMap
, it is used by
all subsequent calls to
FT_Get_Char_Index
.
d. Glyph transformations
It is possible to specify an affine transformation to be applied to
glyph images when they are loaded.  Of course, this will only work for
scalable (vectorial) font formats.
To do that, simply call
../reference/ft2-base_interface.html#FT_Set_Transform
FT_Set_Transform
, as in:
error = FT_Set_Transform(
face,
/* target face object    */
&matrix,
/* pointer to 2x2 matrix */
&delta );
/* pointer to 2d vector  */
This function will set the current transform for a given face
object.  Its second parameter is a pointer to a simple
../reference/ft2-basic_types.html#FT_Matrix
FT_Matrix
structure that describes a 2×2 affine
matrix.  The third parameter is a pointer to a
../reference/ft2-basic_types.html#FT_Vector
FT_Vector
structure that describes a simple
two-dimensional vector that is used to translate the glyph image
after
the 2×2 transformation.
Note that the matrix pointer can be set to NULL, in which case the
identity transform will be used.  Coefficients of the matrix are
otherwise in 16.16 fixed float units.
The vector pointer can also be set to NULL (in which case a delta
of (0,0) will be used).  The vector coordinates are expressed in
1/64th of a pixel (also known as 26.6 fixed floats).
NOTE: The transformation is applied to every
glyph that is loaded through
FT_Load_Glyph
and is
completely independent of any hinting process
.  This means
that you won't get the same results if you load a glyph at the size of
24 pixels, or a glyph at the size at 12 pixels scaled
by 2 through a transform, because the hints will have been
computed differently (except you have disabled hints).
If you ever need to use a non-orthogonal transformation with
optimal hints, you first have to decompose your transformation into a
scaling part and a rotation/shearing part.  Use the scaling part to
compute a new character pixel size, then the other one to call
FT_Set_Transform
.  This is explained in details in a later
section of this tutorial.
Note also that loading a glyph bitmap with a non-identity transform
will produce an error.
7. Simple text rendering
We will now present a very simple example used to render a string of
8-bit Latin-1 text, assuming a face that contains a Unicode charmap
The idea is to create a loop that will, on each iteration, load one
glyph image, convert it to an anti-aliased bitmap, draw it on the target
surface, then increment the current pen position.
a. Basic code
The following code performs our simple text rendering with the
functions previously described.
FT_GlyphSlot  slot = face->glyph;
/* a small shortcut */
int           pen_x, pen_y, n;
... initialize library ...
... create face object ...
... set character size ...
pen_x = 300;
pen_y = 200;
for ( n = 0; n < num_chars; n++ )
{
FT_UInt  glyph_index;
/* retrieve glyph index from character code */
glyph_index = FT_Get_Char_Index( face, text[n] );
/* load glyph image into the slot (erase previous one) */
error = FT_Load_Glyph( face, glyph_index, FT_LOAD_DEFAULT );
if ( error )
continue;
/* ignore errors */
/* convert to an anti-aliased bitmap */
error = FT_Render_Glyph( face->glyph, ft_render_mode_normal );
if ( error )
continue;
/* now, draw to our target surface */
my_draw_bitmap( &slot->bitmap,
pen_x + slot->bitmap_left,
pen_y - slot->bitmap_top );
/* increment pen position */
pen_x += slot->advance.x >> 6;
pen_y += slot->advance.y >> 6;
/* not useful for now */
}
This code needs a few explanations:
We define a handle named
slot
that points to the
face object's glyph slot.  (The type
FT_GlyphSlot
is
a pointer).  That is a convenience to avoid using
face->glyph->XXX
every time.
We increment the pen position with the vector
slot->advance
, which correspond to the glyph's
advance width
(also known as its
escapement
).
The advance vector is expressed in 1/64th of pixels, and is
truncated to integer pixels on each iteration.
The function
my_draw_bitmap
is not part of FreeType
but must be provided by the application to draw the bitmap to the
target surface.  In this example, it takes a pointer to a
FT_Bitmap descriptor and the position of its top-left corner as
arguments.
The value of
slot->bitmap_top
is positive for an
upwards
vertical distance.  Assuming that the coordinates
taken by
my_draw_bitmap
use the opposite convention
(increasing Y corresponds to downwards scanlines), we
substract it from
pen_y
, instead of adding to it.
b. Refined code
The following code is a refined version of the example above.  It
uses features and functions of FreeType 2 that have not yet been
introduced, and which are explained below:
FT_GlyphSlot  slot = face->glyph;
/* a small shortcut */
FT_UInt       glyph_index;
int           pen_x, pen_y, n;
... initialize library ...
... create face object ...
... set character size ...
pen_x = 300;
pen_y = 200;
for ( n = 0; n < num_chars; n++ )
{
/* load glyph image into the slot (erase previous one) */
error = FT_Load_Char( face, text[n], FT_LOAD_RENDER );
if ( error )
continue;
/* ignore errors */
/* now, draw to our target surface */
my_draw_bitmap( &slot->bitmap,
pen_x + slot->bitmap_left,
pen_y - slot->bitmap_top );
/* increment pen position */
pen_x += slot->advance.x >> 6;
}
We have reduced the size of our code, but it does exactly the
same thing:
We use the function
FT_Load_Char
instead of
FT_Load_Glyph
.  As you probably imagine, it is equivalent
to calling
FT_Get_Char_Index
then
FT_Get_Load_Glyph
.
We do not use
FT_LOAD_DEFAULT
for the loading mode,
but the bit flag
FT_LOAD_RENDER
.  It indicates that the
glyph image must be immediately converted to an anti-aliased
bitmap.  This is of course a shortcut that avoids calling
FT_Render_Glyph
explicitly but is strictly
equivalent.
Note that you can also specify that you want a monochrome
bitmap instead by using the addition
FT_LOAD_MONOCHROME
load flag.
c. More advanced rendering
Let us try to render transformed text now (for example through a
rotation).  We can do this using
FT_Set_Transform
.  Here is how
to do it:
FT_GlyphSlot  slot;
FT_Matrix     matrix;
/* transformation matrix */
FT_UInt       glyph_index;
FT_Vector     pen;
/* untransformed origin */
int           n;
... initialize library ...
... create face object ...
... set character size ...
slot = face->glyph;
/* a small shortcut */
/* set up matrix */
matrix.xx = (FT_Fixed)( cos( angle ) * 0x10000L );
matrix.xy = (FT_Fixed)(-sin( angle ) * 0x10000L );
matrix.yx = (FT_Fixed)( sin( angle ) * 0x10000L );
matrix.yy = (FT_Fixed)( cos( angle ) * 0x10000L );
/* the pen position in 26.6 cartesian space coordinates */
/* start at (300,200)                                   */
pen.x = 300 * 64;
pen.y = ( my_target_height - 200 ) * 64;
for ( n = 0; n < num_chars; n++ )
{
/* set transformation */
FT_Set_Transform( face, &matrix, &pen );
/* load glyph image into the slot (erase previous one) */
error = FT_Load_Char( face, text[n], FT_LOAD_RENDER );
if ( error )
continue;
/* ignore errors */
/* now, draw to our target surface (convert position) */
my_draw_bitmap( &slot->bitmap,
slot->bitmap_left,
my_target_height - slot->bitmap_top );
/* increment pen position */
pen.x += slot->advance.x;
pen.y += slot->advance.y;
}
Some remarks:
We now use a vector of type
FT_Vector
to store the pen
position, with coordinates expressed as 1/64th of pixels, hence a
multiplication.  The position is expressed in cartesian space.
Glyph images are always loaded, transformed, and described in the
cartesian coordinate system in FreeType (which means that
increasing Y corresponds to upper scanlines), unlike the system
typically used for bitmaps (where the topmost scanline has
coordinate 0).  We must thus convert between the two systems
when we define the pen position, and when we compute the topleft
position of the bitmap.
We set the transformation on each glyph to indicate the rotation
matrix as well as a delta that will move the transformed image to
the current pen position (in cartesian space, not bitmap space).
As a consequence, the values of
bitmap_left
and
bitmap_top
correspond to the bitmap origin in target space
pixels.  We thus don't add
pen.x
or
pen.y
to their
values when calling
my_draw_bitmap
.
The advance width is always returned transformed, which is why it
can be directly added to the current pen position.  Note that it is
not
rounded this time.
A complete source code example can be found
example1.c
here
.
It is important to note that, while this example is a bit more
complex than the previous one, it is strictly equivalent for the case
where the transform is the identity.  Hence it can be used as a
replacement (but a more powerful one).
It has however a few shortcomings that we will explain, and solve, in
the next part of this tutorial.
Conclusion
In this first section, you have learned the basics of
FreeType 2, as well as sufficient knowledge how to render rotated
text.
The next section will dive into more details of the API in order
to let you access glyph metrics and images directly, as well as
how to deal with scaling, hinting, kerning, etc.
The third section will discuss issues like modules, caching and a few
other advanced topics like how to use multiple size objects with a
single face.  [This part hasn't been written yet.]
step2.html
FreeType 2 Tutorial Step 2
