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author | Carl Worth <cworth@cworth.org> | 2007-10-30 21:57:47 -0700 |
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committer | Carl Worth <cworth@cworth.org> | 2007-10-30 21:57:47 -0700 |
commit | f09f02a6e82df0efb66696fca857a412e7d12672 (patch) | |
tree | 36624b128c8f42fd94a1849c040323913c72da40 /NEWS | |
parent | 448c9314252bba779194d2b01950b8738b26fd13 (diff) |
Add notes for 1.5.2 snapshot
Diffstat (limited to 'NEWS')
-rw-r--r-- | NEWS | 252 |
1 files changed, 252 insertions, 0 deletions
@@ -1,3 +1,255 @@ +Snapshot 1.5.2 (2007-10-30 Carl Worth <cworth@cworth.org>) +========================================================== +This is the first snapshot in cairo's unstable 1.5 series. It comes 4 +months after the 1.4.10 release. This snapshot includes significant +improvements to PDF and PostScript output, which is one of the things +in which we're most interested in getting feedback. There are a couple +of minor API additions, and several optimizations, (primarily in the +"print/vector" backends). And there are dozens of bug fixes and +robustness improvements. + +New dependency on external pixman library +----------------------------------------- +A significant change in this snapshot compared to all previous cairo +releases is that cairo now depends on an external "pixman" library for +its software rendering. Previously this same code was compiled +internally as part of cairo, but now the code is separate so that both +cairo and the X server can now share common code, (thanks very much to +Søren Sandmann for his work on separating pixman and maintaining it). + +So users will need to acquire and build pixman before being able to +build cairo. The current release is 0.9.6 and can be obtained from +here: + + http://cairographics.org/releases/pixman-0.9.6.tar.gz + + which can be verified with: + + http://cairographics.org/releases/pixman-0.9.6.tar.gz.sha1 + 66f01a682c64403a3d7a855ba5aa609ed93bcb9e pixman-0.9.6.tar.gz + + http://cairographics.org/releases/pixman-0.9.6.tar.gz.sha1.asc + (signed by Carl Worth) + +Major PDF/PostScript improvements +--------------------------------- +Adrian Johnson has done some long-awaited work to make cairo's PDF and +PostScript output more interesting than ever before. First, many +operations that previously triggered image fallbacks will now be +rendered as native vectors. These operations include: + + PDF: cairo_push_group, cairo_surface_create_similar, + cairo_mask, A8/A1 surface sources, repeating/reflecting linear + gradients. + + PostScript: cairo_push_group, cairo_surface_create_similar, + gradients, bilevel alpha masks, (for example, all values either 0 or + 255 for an A8 mask). + +Not only that, but when an image fallback is required, it will now be +limited to only the necessary region. For example, a tiny translucent +image overlaying a small portion of text would previously caused an +entire PostScript page to be rendered as a giant image. Now, the +majority of that page will be nice text, and there will only be a tiny +image in the output. + +Additionally, the PostScript output now carefully encodes text so that +if it is subsequently converted to PDF, the text will be +selectable. + +This is very exciting progress, and we're hoping to hear from users +during the 1.5 series about how things have improved, (for example, +inkscape users doing cairo-based PDF export: please let us know how +things look). And feel free to pass your thanks along to Adrian for his excellent work. + +NOTE: This much improved PDF output makes more sophisticated use of +functionality in the PDF specification. This means that cairo's output +will sometimes expose bugs in some free software PDF viewers, (evince, +poppler, and xpdf, for example), that are not yet ready for such PDF +files. We're working with the poppler maintainers to get these bugs +fixed as quickly as possible. In the meantime, please double-check +with other PDF viewers if cairo-generated PDF files are not being +rendered correctly. It may be due to a bug in the viewer rather than +in the PDF file that cairo has created. + +Robustness improvements +----------------------- +Chris Wilson has made the largest contribution by far to cairo 1.5.2, +(in number of commits). His more than 150 commits include a huge +number of fixes to increase cairo's robustness. These fixes make cairo +more robust against invalid and degenerate input, (NaN, empty path, +etc.), against size-0 malloc calls, against memory leaks on +error-recovery paths, and against other failures during error +handling. He also implemented atomic operations to cairo, and used +them to fix cairo's previously non-thread-safe reference counting, +again improving robustness. + +Chris has put a tremendous amount of time and effort into writing +analysis tools for this work, and in running those tools and fixing +the problems they report. We're very grateful for this work, and hope +that all cairo users appreciate the more robust implementation that +results from it. + +This work is largely thankless, so it might make sense to notice +sometime that cairo has been running quite smoothly for you, and when +you do, send a quick "thank you" off to Chris Wilson, since it +is all definitely running smoother thanks to his work. + +New API +------- +There are no major additions to cairo's core API. The only new, +generic functions are: + + void + cairo_surface_copy_page (cairo_surface_t *surface); + + void + cairo_surface_show_page (cairo_surface_t *surface); + +which can now be used much more conveniently than the existing +cairo_copy_page and cairo_show_page functions in some +situations. These functions act identically, but require only a +cairo_surface_t* and not a cairo_t*. + +All other API additions are specific to particular backends. + +New cairo-win32 API (new font face function and "win32 printing" surface) +------------------------------------------------------------------------- +There is a new function for creating a win32 font face for both a +logfontw and an hfont together. This complements the existing +functions for creating a font face from one or the other: + + cairo_font_face_t * + cairo_win32_font_face_create_for_logfontw_hfont (LOGFONTW *logfont, + HFONT font); + +There is also a new "win32 printing" surface: + + cairo_surface_t * + cairo_win32_printing_surface_create (HDC hdc); + +This interface looks identical to the original +cairo_win32_surface_create, (both accept and HDC), but the behavior of +this new surface is very different. It should only be called with a +printing DC, and will result in all drawing commands being stored into +a meta-surface and emitted after each page is complete, with analysis +to do as minimal image-based fallbacks as necessary. The behavior and +implementation shares much with the PDF and PostScript backends. + +New cairo-ps API (EPS and PostScript level control) +--------------------------------------------------- +An often requested feature has been the ability to generate +Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) with cairo. We have that now with the +following very simple API. Just do cairo_ps_surface_create as usual +then call this function with a true value: + + void + cairo_ps_surface_set_eps (cairo_surface_t *surface, + cairo_bool_t eps); + +[NOTE: As always with snapshots, it's possible---though not very +likely---that the API could still be modified before a final +release. For example, this is the first public cairo function that +accepts a Boolean parameter. I'm generally opposed to Boolean +parameters, but this is probably the one case where I'm willing to +accept one, (namely a "set" function that accepts a single Boolean).] + +Also, it is now possible to control what PostScript level to target, +(either level 2 or level 3), with the following new API: + + typedef enum _cairo_ps_level { + CAIRO_PS_LEVEL_2, + CAIRO_PS_LEVEL_3 + } cairo_ps_level_t; + + void + cairo_ps_surface_restrict_to_level (cairo_surface_t *surface, + cairo_ps_level_t level); + + void + cairo_ps_get_levels (cairo_ps_level_t const **levels, + int *num_levels); + + const char * + cairo_ps_level_to_string (cairo_ps_level_t level); + +Improvement for cairo-quartz +---------------------------- +Brian Ewins had contributed several improvements to cairo-quartz. These +include an implementation of EXTEND_NONE for linear and radial +gradients, (so this extend mode will no longer trigger image fallbacks +for these gradients), as well as native surface-mask clipping, (only +on OS X 10.4+ where the CGContextClipToMask function is available). + +He also fixed a semantic mismatch between cairo and quartz for dashing +with an odd number of entries in the dash array. + +We're grateful for Brian since not many quartz-specific improvements +to cairo would be happening without him. + +Optimizations +------------- +Optimize SVG output for when the same path is both filled and stroked, +and avoid unnecessary identity matrix in SVG output. (Emmanuel Pacaud). + +Optimize PS output to take less space (Ken Herron). + +Make PS output more compliant with DSC recommendations (avoid initclip +and copy_page) (Adrian Johnson). + +Make PDF output more compact (Adrian Johnson). + +Release glyph surfaces after uploading them to the X server, (should +save some memory for many xlib-using cairo application). (Behdad +Esfahbod). + +Optimize cairo-win32 to use fewer GDI objects (Vladimir Vukicevic). + +win32-printing: Avoid falling back to images when alpha == 255 +everywhere. (Adrian Johnson). + +win32-printing: Avoid falling back for cairo_push_group and +cairo_surface_create_similar. (Adrian Johnson) + +Bug fixes +--------- +Avoid potential integer overflows when allocating large buffers +(Vladimir Vukicevic). + +Preparations to allow the 16.16 fixed-point format to change to +24.8 (Vladimir Vukicevic). + +Fix bugs for unsupported X server visuals (rgb565, rgb555, bgr888, and +abgr8888). (Carl Worth and Vladimir Vukicevic) + +Fix bugs in PDF gradients (Adrian Johnson). + +Fix cairo-xlib to build without requiring Xrender header +files (Behdad Esfahbod). + +Make cairo more resilient in the case of glyphs not being available in +the current font. (Behdad Esfahbod) + +Prevent crashes when both atsui and ft font backends are compiled in +(Brian Ewins). + +Make font subsetting code more robust against fonts that don't include +optional tables (Adrian Johnson). + +Fix CFF subsetting bug, (which manifested by generating PDF files that +Apple's Preview viewer could not read) (Adrian Johnson). + +Fixed error handling for quartz and ATSUI backends (Brian Ewins). + +Avoid rounding problems by pre-transforming to avoid integer-only +restrictions on transformation in GDI (Adrian Johnson). + +Fixed an obscure bug (#7245) computing extents for some stroked +paths (Carl Worth). + +Fix crashes due to extreme transformation of the pen, (seems to show +up in many .swf files for some reason) (Carl Worth). + Release 1.4.10 (2007-06-27 Carl Worth <cworth@cworth.org>) ========================================================== This is the fifth update in cairo's stable 1.4 series. It comes |