Font hinting

This page applies to Harlequin v13.1r0 and later; both Harlequin Core and Harlequin MultiRIP.

Font hinting is the process by which fonts are adjusted for maximum readability on computer monitors. In some cases, even when fonts are hinted the resulting display is still not guaranteed, because the various font technologies approach hinting differently. Additionally, the hinting in some fonts may be broken.

To overcome issues with font hinting the Harlequin RIP provides a \SW\Sys\ExtraStart file called FontOverrides. This allows you to define an array of TrueType font names (PostScript language names or strings) for which hinting is ignored. For example:

statusdict /FontOverrides <<
  /IgnoreTrueTypeHinting [
    % Add font names here to ignore hinting
    /IgnoredFont1 
    (IgnoredFont2)
  ]
 >> put

A monitor message is issued when any of these fonts occur in jobs, providing confirmation that hinting is being ignored.

As an aid to identifying fonts to potentially add to this list, the relevant warning messages have been extended to include the font name:

%%[ Warning: Ignoring invalid hinting in TrueType font: <fontname> ]%%
%%[ Warning: Error during glyph hinting: <fontname> ]%%