SIGGRAPH 2018 - Digital typography

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
N. ROUGIER (INRIA) & B. ESFAHBOD (GOOGLE)
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Digital Typography
• Font Types & Formats
• Text Rendering Pipeline 
PART I : TEXTURE BASED
• Rasterization
• Fast & Versatile (but ugly)
• Fast & Beauﬁtul (but only 2D) 
PART II : DISTANCE BASED
• Signed Distance Fields
• Single Channel
• Arc approximation
• Multiple Channels 
PART III : GEOMETRY BASED
• Bézier curves & glyphs
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
• Beyond this course
• Questions & answers
TheLazy
DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
1
25 years of text rendering in computer graphics
Bitmap font (Kilgard, 1994) Stroke font (Kilgard, 1994) Texture font (Kilgard, 1997) Signed Distance Field (Green, 2007)
GPU Bézier (Loop & Blinn, 2005)
Over
Arc SDF (Esfahbod, 2011)
Stencil & Cover (Kilgard & Bolz, 2012)
Dog
Multi-channel SDF (Chlumsky, 2016)
Path Finder (Walton, 2017)
(Boston Journal, 1855)
Higher 2D Quality (Rougier, 2013)
Adaptive Distance Field (Fresken et al., 2000)
GPU glyphs (Lengyel, 2017)
SIGGRAPH '18 Course - August 12-16, 2018 - Vancouver, BC, Canada - 10.1145/3214834.3214837
Copyright 2018 © B.Esfahbod & N.P Rougier Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION
2
A specimen sheet of typefaces and languages,
by William Caslon I, letter founder; dated 1734.
Typography is the art of arranging type to make written
language legible, readable, and appealing when
displayed.
However, for the neophyte, typography is mostly
apprehended as the juxtaposition of characters
displayed on the screen while for the expert,
typography means typeface, scripts, unicode, glyphs,
ascender, descender, tracking, hinting, kerning,
shaping, weight, slant, etc.
Typography is actually much more than the mere
rendering of glyphs and involves many different
concepts.

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
NOPE, NOT ARABIC!
3
From “Nope, not Arabic” tumbler (https://nopenotarabic.tumblr.com/)

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
I UNICODE
4
?

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
BAD KERNING (keming)
5
Disaster is a space away… (FLICK, click, CLINT, FINAL)
click versus dick Apple added an extra space
Rockstar game removed the extra space

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
GIBBERISH CAN BE PRETTY…
6
The Matrix code is actually a sushi recipe…

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
7
Typography is a vast and complex domain with many rules.
You might consider to enforce some basic rules.
The Anatomy of Typography - Janie Kliever

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
UNICODE
8
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the
consistent encoding, representation, and handling
of text expressed in most of the world's writing
systems. The latest version contains a repertoire
of 136,755 characters covering 139 modern and
historic scripts, as well as multiple symbol sets.
UTF-8 (Unicode Transformation Format, RFC
3629) is a variable width character encoding
capable of encoding all 1,112,064 valid code
points in Unicode using one to four 8-bit bytes.
XKCD #1953

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
FAMOUS FONTS
9 1931
1495 17981757
1926
1734
19821957

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
ONE FONT TO RULE’EM ALL
10
When text is rendered by a computer, sometimes characters are displayed as “tofu”. They are little
boxes to indicate your device doesn’t have a font to display the text. Google has been developing a
font family called Noto, which aims to support all languages with a harmonious look and feel.
Noto is Google’s answer to tofu.

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
ITSY BITSY BITMAP FONTS
11

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
BASIC TYPOGRAPHY
12
Kerning is the process of adjusting
the spacing between characters in
a proportional font.
A ligature occurs where two or more graphemes
or letters are joined as a single glyph.
Hinting is the use of instructions to
adjust the display of a font so that
it lines up with a rasterized grid. A various number of face metrics are deﬁned
for all glyphs in a given font.
A diacritic mark is a glyph added to a letter,
or basic glyph.

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
ADVANCED TYPOGRAPHY
13
Text shaping is the process of converting Unicode
text to glyph indices and positions.
द ◌् ध ◌् र ◌् य
The set of rules applied to produce the correct order at the time
of display are described by the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm.
The title is ‫الويب‬ ‫معايير‬ ‫مفتاح‬ in Arabic.
द्ध्र्यComplex text layout (CTL) refers to
the typesetting of writing systems in
which the shape or positioning of a
grapheme depends on its relation to
other graphemes (wikipedia).Stylistic alternate allows to replace
a glyph by some variant.
Etc.

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
ADVANCED TYPOGRAPHY
14
Anatomy of the Hindi Font by Aditya Dipankar.

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
OTHER FORMS OF COMPLEX LAYOUT
15
kX
n=1
1
n
>
Z k+1
1
1
x
dx = ln(k + 1)
1X
n=0
( 1)n
2n + 1
= 1
1
3
+
1
5
1
7
+ · · · =
⇡
4
Z b
a
f(x)dx = F(b) F(a)
f0
(a) = lim
h!0
f(a + h) f(a)
h
(z/w) = ¯z/ ¯w
r = |z| =
p
x2 + y2

1 2
3 4

0 1
0 0
=

0 1
0 3<latexit sha1_base64="6IszZoljZhpuB0XoQyi7/Qt6ekc=">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</latexit><latexit sha1_base64="6IszZoljZhpuB0XoQyi7/Qt6ekc=">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</latexit><latexit sha1_base64="6IszZoljZhpuB0XoQyi7/Qt6ekc=">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</latexit><latexit sha1_base64="6IszZoljZhpuB0XoQyi7/Qt6ekc=">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</latexit>
Made with Latex (what else?)

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
FONT FORMATS
16
Types
Type 1(.pfm, .pfb): glyphs are described with cubic Bézier curves
True Type (.ttf): glyphs are described with quadratic Bézier curves
Open Type (.otf): glyphs are described with quadratic or cubic Bézier curves
Web Open Font (.woff): compressed TrueType or Open Type
And many more actually…
Cubic Bézier curves Quadratic Bézier curves
The Missing Guide to Font Formats

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
A PRIMER ON BÉZIER CURVES
17
Sergei Natanovich Bernstein (1912) / Paul de Casteljau (1959) / Pierre Bézier (1962)
A Bézier curve is deﬁned by a set of control points P0 through Pn, where n is called its order. The
ﬁrst and last control points are always the end points of the curve.
Some related problems: signed distance, thick curves, subdivision, bounding box, linear speed,
self-intersection, curve splitting, arc length, approximation of a cubic with quadratics, etc.
Pomax (2017) A primer on Bézier curves
Linear (n=1): BP0/P1(t) = (1-t)P0 + tP1
Quadratic (n=2): BP0/P1/P2(t) = (1-t)BP0/P1(t) + tBP1/P2(t)
Cubic(n=3): BP0/P1/P2/P3(t) = (1-t)BP0/P1/P2(t) + tBP1/P2/P3(t)
P1
P0
P2
P3P0
P1
P2P0
P1

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
A PRIMER ON BÉZIER CURVES
18
Cubic Bézier curves have a lot of corner cases: inflection points, cusp, loop, overlap
Pomax (2017) A primer on Bézier curves
P1
P0
P2
P3
P1
P0
P2
P3
P1
P0
P2
P3
P1
P0
P2
P3
P1
P0
P2
P3
P1
P0
P2
P3

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
ANATOMY OF A GLYPH
19
Vector fonts are collections of vector images, consisting of lines and curves deﬁning the
boundary of glyphs (wikipedia). Type 1 and Type 3 Postscript fonts are described with cubic
Bézier curves. Truetype fonts are described with quadratic Bézier curves.
Images by The Australian Graphic Supply Co Images by FontLab

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
FONT TABLES
20
Open Type Tables
BASE: Baseline data
CMAP: Character to glyph mapping
GDEF: Glyph definition data
GSUB: Glyph substitution data
Single: Replaces one glyph with one glyph.
Multiple: Replaces one glyph with more than one glyph.
Alternate: Replaces one glyph with one of many glyphs.
Ligature: Replaces multiple glyphs with one glyph.
Context: Replaces one or more glyphs in context.
Chaining: Replaces one or more glyphs in chained context.
GPOS: Glyph positioning data
JSTF: Justification data  
and many more…
Libraries
STB_truetype (single header file, basic support)
→ https://github.com/nothings/stb
FreeType (standard support without text shaping)
→ https://www.freetype.org
HarfBuzz (advanced support with text shaping)
→ https://harfbuzz.github.io

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
TEXT RENDERING PIPELINE
21
Itemization
Reordering Shaping
Justiﬁcation
Rendering
Text Buffer
45 6E 67 6C 69 73 68 20 D9 8A
D8 A8 D8 B1 D8 B9 20 31 32 33
English ‫ع‬ ‫ر‬ ‫ب‬ ‫ي‬ 123
‫ع‬ ‫ر‬ ‫ب‬ ‫ي‬English 123
‫ع‬ ‫ر‬ ‫ب‬ ‫ي‬English 123
‫عربي‬English 123
‫عربي‬
English
123
1
2
3 4
5
6
‫ي‬‫ب‬‫ر‬‫ع‬
English
123
Latin Shortcut

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
PART I
22
Image by Daniel Ullrich
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Threedots
Near the end of the last century (1997), Mark
Kilgard introduced a simple OpenGL-based API
for texture mapped text.
The method packed many rasterized glyphs into
a single alpha-only texture map and used a
lookup table to assign texture coordinates to a
quadrilateral to extract a glyph when rendering.

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
2D RASTERIZATION
23
Same input, different outputs
FreeType Native CFF Rasterizer
FreeType Light Auto Hint Rasterizer
FreeType using the New Adobe CFF Rasterizer (2013)

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
2D RASTERIZATION
24
GDI rendering of FacitWeb (above) and Minion Pro (below) with no antialiasing.
(Source Adobe Typekit Blog)

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
2D RASTERIZATION
25
GDI rendering of FacitWeb (above) and Minion Pro (below) with standard antialiasing.

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
2D RASTERIZATION
26
Core text rendering of FacitWeb (above) and Minion Pro (below).

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
2D RASTERIZATION
27
DirectWrite rendering of FacitWeb (above) and Minion Pro (below).

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
2D RASTERIZATION
28
GDI rendering of FacitWeb (above) and Minion Pro (below) with ClearType enabled.

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
2D RASTERIZATION
29
Gamma correction, hinting, energy distribution, etc.

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
TEXTURE FONT I
30
Texture mapping is well suited for rendering text because textures can be rendered quickly with
current 3D hardware and even via clever programming of today's fast CPUs. Textures can be
stretched. rotated, scaled, and even projected (assuming the texture mapping is perspective
correct) so that texture mapped text looks reasonable in 3D scenes.
https://github.com/rougier/freetype-gl
Kilgard (1997) A Simple OpenGL-based API for Texture Mapped Text

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
BIN PACKING ALGORITHMS
31
Several algorithms that can be used to solve the problem of packing rectangles into two-
dimensional ﬁnite bins. Most of the algorithms have well been studied in literature, but some of
the variants are less known and some are apparently regarded as "folklore" and no previous
reference is known. Different variants are presented and compared.
Naïve packing Skyline-BL packing
Jylänky (2010) A Thousand Ways to Pack the Bin

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
TEXTURE FONT II
32
When displaying text on low-resolution devices (DPI < 150), one typically has to decide if one
wants to respect the pixel grid (e.g., Cleartype technology / Microsoft / native hinting) for crisp
rendering or, to privilege glyph shapes (Quartz technology / Apple / no hinting) at the cost of
blurring. There is, however, a third way that may combine the best of the two technologies (vertical
hinting).
No hinting Native hinting Auto hinting Vertical hinting
Rougier (2013) Higher Quality 2D Text Rendering

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
TEXTURE FONT II
33
i. Use horizontal RGB sub-pixel anti-aliasing for LCD flat panels.
ii. Use vertical hinting only and completely discard the horizontal one.
iii. Use accurate glyph advance values from unhinted glyph
iv. Use accurate, high resolution values from the kerning table.

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
TEXTURE FONT II
34
Subpixel rendering on the CPU
Subpixel positioning on the GPU

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
PART II
35
Work & image by Xavier Casalta
casaltaxavier.com
Distance based rendering takes advantage of a
signed distance function (that can be
approximated) to compute the individual
coverage for each pixel.
The coverage can be selected to implement
various effects (stroke, thinner, thicker, shadow,
etc)

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
DISTANCE BASED RENDERING
36
Distance based rendering takes advantage of a signed distance function (that can be
approximated) to compute the individual coverage for each pixel. The coverage can be selected
to implement various effects (stroke, thinner, thicker, shadow, etc)

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
COMPUTING SDF
37
We present a modified distance measure for use with distance transforms of anti-aliased, area
sampled grayscale images of arbitrary binary contours. The modified measure can be used in any
vector-propagation Euclidean distance transform. Our test implementation in the traditional
SSED8 algorithm shows a considerable improvement in accuracy and homogeneity of the
distance field compared to a traditional binary image transform.
See also http://contourtextures.wikidot.com
Gustavson & Strand (2011) Anti-Aliased Euclidean distance transform

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
SINGLE CHANNEL SDF
38
A distance ﬁeld is generated from a high resolution image, and then stored into a channel of a
lower-resolution texture. In the simplest case, this texture can then be rendered simply by using
the alpha- testing and alpha-thresholding feature of modern GPUs, without a custom shader. This
allows the technique to be used on even the lowest-end 3D graphics hardware. With the use of
programmable shading, the technique is extended to perform various special effect renderings,
including soft edges, outlining, drop shadows, multi-colored images, and sharp corners.
Alpha blended Alpha tested (no shader) Alpha tested (shader)64x64 64x64 64x64
Green (2007) Improved Alpha-Tested Magniﬁcation for Vector Textures

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
SDF: MULTIPLE CHANNELS
39
Plane partioningEdge Coloring Decomposition Padded DecompositionInner padding
Chlumsky (2015) Shape Decomposition for Multi-channel Distance Fields

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
SDF: MULTIPLE CHANNELS
40
Chlumsky (2015) Shape Decomposition for Multi-channel Distance Fields
Texture Single channel SDF Multi channel SDF

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
ARC APPROXIMATION
41
Since distance to arbitrary Bézier curves is hard, we can instead ﬁrst convert a glyph into
(approximated) circular arc splines and upload this converted vector glyph to the GPU. Distance
are then computed onto the GPU. Corner cases are overlapping contours, tangent arcs and float
precision.
Esfahbod (2012) Glyphy
Mean size is ~25 segments
Mean size is ~8 arcs

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
ARC APPROXIMATION
42
SDF-based antialiasing + subpixel positioning + random access (coarse grid).

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
ARC APPROXIMATION
43
Drawback: Memory and speed are font dependent

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
PART III
44
Image by Black[Foundry]
black-foundry.com
Charles Loop and Jim Blinn introduced in 2005
a new approach for resolution-independent
rendering of quadratic and cubic spline curves.
By tessellating a glyph the proper way, they
offered de facto a method for resolution
independent rendering of a glyph with good
rendering quality.
AA

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
GPU FRIENDLY
45
We present a method for resolution independent rendering of paths and bounded regions, deﬁned
by quadratic and cubic spline curves, that leverages the parallelism of programmable graphics
hardware to achieve high performance. Our result is a mechanism for rendering vector geometry
that has the following properties: resolution independence, compact geometric representation,
high performance.
Loop & Blinn (2005) Resolution Independent Curve Rendering

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
GPU FRIENDLY
46
We determine if the pixel is inside or outside the curve by evaluating f(u, v) = u² − v in a pixel
shader program. If f (u, v) < 0 then the pixel is inside the curve, otherwise it is outside.
See also
"Rendering Vector Art on the GPU" (Charles Loop & Jim Blinn, GPU Gems 3, Chapter 25)
“Easy Scalable Text Rendering on the GPU” (Evan Wallace Medium)
Loop & Blinn (2005) Resolution Independent Curve Rendering

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
This sketch presents a new method for resolution independent rendering of vector images
suitable for programmable graphics hardware. We have enhanced a previous method [Loop and
Blinn 2005] by using a stencil buffer and transparency multisampling.
GPU FRIENDLY
47
Kokojima et al (2006) Resolution Independent Rendering of Deformable Vector Objects(a) (b) (c)
(d) (e) (f)
Color Buffer
Processing
Stencil
Image
(Figure 1(f))
Vector
Object
(Figure 1(a))
Curve-Edged
Triangles
(Figure 1(c))
Line-Edged
Triangle Fans
(Figure 1(b))
CPU Process GPU Process
Alpha
Image Alpha to
Coverage
Stencil Buffer
Processing
Alpha
Assignment
Triangulation
(a) (b) (c)
(d) (e) (f)
Color Buffer
Processing
Stencil
Image
(Figure 1(f))
Vector
Object
(Figure 1(a))
Curve-Edged
Triangles
(Figure 1(c))
Line-Edged
Triangle Fans
(Figure 1(b))
Alpha
Image Alpha to
Stencil Buffer
Processing
Alpha
Triangulation
(a) (b) (c)
(d) (e) (f)
Color Buffer
Processing
Stencil
Image
(Figure 1(f))
Vector
Object
(Figure 1(a))
Curve-Edged
Triangles
(Figure 1(c))
Line-Edged
Triangle Fans
(Figure 1(b))
CPU Process GPU Process
Alpha
Image Alpha to
Coverage
Stencil Buffer
Processing
Alpha
Assignment
Triangulation

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
This sketch presents a new method for resolution independent rendering of vector images
suitable for programmable graphics hardware. We have enhanced a previous method [Loop and
Blinn 2005] by using a stencil buffer and transparency multisampling.
GPU FRIENDLY
48
Kokojima et al (2006) Resolution Independent Rendering of Deformable Vector Objects
Animations by Evan Wallace (Easy Scalable Text Rendering on the GPU)

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
GPU FRIENDLY
49
We present a vector graphics representation suitable for real-time rendering on GPUs. Our
representation can be used in place of a texture map, and renders precise antialiased edges at any
magniﬁcation. A combination of texture data and procedural computation is used to evaluate an
exact signed distance to a contour and its gradient.
Anisotropic antialiasing technique + GPU-based representation of contours + Packed grid
accelerator structure based + Sprite mapping technique + Special effects
Qin et al (2006) Real-Time Texture-Mapped Vector Glyphs

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
We introduce a two-step “Stencil, then Cover” (StC) programming interface. Our GPU-based
approach builds upon existing techniques for curve rendering using the stencil buffer, but we
explicitly decouple in our programming interface the stencil step to determine a path’s ﬁlled or
stroked coverage from the subsequent cover step to rasterize conservative geometry intended to
test and reset the coverage determinations of the ﬁrst step while shading color samples within the
path.
GPU FRIENDLY
50
Kilgard & Bolz (2012) GPU-accelerated Path Rendering

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
GPU ONLY
51
This paper describes a method for rendering antialiased text directly from glyph outline data on
the GPU without the use of any precomputed texture images or distance ﬁelds. This capability is
valuable for text displayed inside a 3D scene because, in addition to a perspective projection, the
transform applied to the text is constantly changing with a dynamic camera view. Our method
overcomes numerical precision problems that produced artefacts in previously published
techniques and promotes high GPU utilization with an implementation that naturally avoids
divergent branching.
See demo at sluglibrary.com
See also GPU-Centered font rendering & GPU font rendering
Lengyel (2017) GPU-Centered Font Rendering Directly from Glyph Outlines

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
GPU ONLY
52
“Today I’m pleased to announce Pathfinder, a Rust library for OpenType font rendering. The goal is
nothing less than to be the fastest vector graphics renderer in existence, and the results so far are
extremely encouraging. Not only is it very fast according to the traditional metric of raw
rasterization performance, it’s practical, featuring very low setup time (end-to-end time superior to
the best CPU rasterizers), best-in-class rasterization performance even at small glyph sizes,
minimal memory consumption (both on CPU and GPU), compatibility with existing font formats,
portability to most graphics hardware manufactured in the past five years (DirectX 10 level), and
security/safety.”
Walton (2017) Pathfinder, a fast GPU-based font rasterizer in Rust

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
GPU ONLY
53
PathFinder algorithm takes advantage of compute shaders (GL 4.3) & post-transform cache and
rasterization occurs on the fly on the GPU. CPU setup time is minimal. Subpixel antialiasing &
positionning, 2D, 3D, outline, etc.
It is mostly a (highly efﬁcient) translation of CPU rasterization onto the GPU.
Walton (2017) Pathﬁnder, a fast GPU-based font rasterizer in Rust
Rasterization time, Arial
Pathfinder (GPU)
Loop-Blinn (GPU)
GLyphy (GPU)
font.rs (CPU)
FreeType (CPU)
stb_truetype (CPU)
40 80 120 160 200
0
12.5
25
37.5
50
Font size (px)
Rasterizationtime(µs/glyph)
Setup and rasterization time, Arial 24px
Setup time Rasterization time
Pathfinder (GPU) Loop-Blinn (GPU) GLyphy (GPU) font.rs (CPU) FreeType (CPU) stb_truetype (CPU)
0
1.5
3
4.5
6
7.5
Time(µs/glyph)

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
BEYOND MERE GEOMETRY
54
We present an algorithm for creating digital micrography images, or micrograms, a special type of
calligrams created from minuscule text. These attractive text-art works successfully combine
beautiful images with readable meaningful text.
Maharik et al (2011) Digital Micrography

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
• Questions & answers 
CONCLUSION
55
Television typography by Offstock
www.flickr.com/photos/126275939@N05
Offset lithography Gravure
Flexography Electrophotographic
(laser)
Inkjet Engraving
Thermography LCD Display
Many available techniques. Choice is dependent
of usage (2D or 3D, dynamic or static, memory
vs speed vs accuracy, etc).
PathFinder and Slug library seem to be the main
players in 2018. Loop & Blinn still competitive.
Hinting and anti-aliasing still needed until we (all)
get screen with dpi > 600.
Complex text layout is (really, really) difﬁcult, you
don’t want to do it yourself: github.com/HOST-
Oman/libraqm
Lot of patents around !

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
FURTHER READING
56
Web
Texts Rasterization Exposures - Maxim Shemanarev (2006)
The Technology of Text - Kevin Larson (2007)
Treatise on Font Rasterisation - Freddie Witherden (2010)
State of Text Rendering - Behdad Esfahbod (2012)
CS 354 Typography - Mark Kilgard (2012)
High-DPI, Subpixel Text Positioning, Hinting - Behdad Esfahbod (2012)
Android’s Font Renderer - Romain Guy (2014)
Complex Text on Simple Devices - Pedro Navarro (2016)
Introducing DirectWrite - Microsoft (2017)
A Primer on Bézier curves - Pomax (2017)
Papers
Mark Kilgard. A Simple OpenGL-based API for Texture Mapped Text (1997)
Sarah F. Frisken, et al. Adaptively sampled distance ﬁelds (2000) 
Charles Loop and Jim Blinn. Resolution Independent Curve Rendering (2005)  
Zhipei Qin et al, Real-Time Texture-Mapped Vector Glyphs (2006)
Chris Green. Improved Alpha-Tested Magniﬁcation for Vector Textures and Special Effects (2007)
Behdad Esfahbod. Glyphy (2011) 
Ron Maharik et al. Digital Micrography (2011) 
Stefan Gustavson. 2D Shape Rendering by Distance Fields (2012) 
Mark Kilgard and Jeff Bolz. GPU-Accelerated Path Rendering (2012)
Nicolas P. Rougier. Higher Quality 2D Text Rendering (2013)
Viktor Chlumsky. Shape Decomposition for Multi-channel Distance Fields (2015)
Eric Lengyel. GPU-Centered Font Rendering Directly from Glyph Outlines (2017)
Patrick Walton. Path Finder (2017)

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
RELATED SHADERTOYS
57
www.shadertoy.com/view/MdycWh www.shadertoy.com/view/Mt2GWD www.shadertoy.com/view/4s3XDn
www.shadertoy.com/view/4sVyWh www.shadertoy.com/view/ldXyRn www.shadertoy.com/view/llyXDV
www.shadertoy.com/view/4dfXDn www.shadertoy.com/view/XdXGRB www.shadertoy.com/view/4ts3DB

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
QUESTIONS?
58
• Where to ﬁnd good fonts? dafont.com, fontsquirrel.com
• When does cleartype patent end ? Not clear (ha ha)
• Are hinting and aliasing still needed? Yes
• What are the most complete font families? Noto, DejaVu
• How many languages in the world? Around 7000
• How many scripts in latest unicode (11.0)? 146
• How many characters in latest unicode (11.0)? 137,439
• Is there any forthcoming support for text in Vulkan ? No
• Should I tell my colleagues I love Comic Sans? No
• Are there any open source tools to design fonts? FontForge
• Why “ff” & “ﬁ” disappear when I copy text ? Ligatures
• Should I apply AA before or after gamma correction? Before
• Should I stay or should I go? stay (a few more minutes)
Any other questions?

DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
/60
INTRODUCTION
• Rasterization
• Single Channel
• GPU friendly
• GPU only 
CONCLUSION
DIGITAL TYPOGRAPHY
59
Between art & design.
Raghed Abu HamdanGary Hustwit Unknown artist

Digital Typography Rendering - Nicolas P. Rougier & Behdad Esfahbod
SIGGRAPH '18 Course - August 12-16, 2018 - Vancouver, BC, Canada - 10.1145/3214834.3214837
Copyright 2018 © N.P Rougier & B.Esfahbod - Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

SIGGRAPH 2018 - Digital typography

More Related Content

What's hot(20)

Similar to SIGGRAPH 2018 - Digital typography(7)

More from Nicolas Rougier(11)

Recently uploaded(20)

SIGGRAPH 2018 - Digital typography