From 709805c26f567b7fa90d04e701ccbf1cccc34da7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Carl Worth Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:33:51 -0700 Subject: NEWS: Add notes for 1.6.0 release --- NEWS | 198 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--- 1 file changed, 190 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-) diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS index 1c7c7cdb..589b2702 100644 --- a/NEWS +++ b/NEWS @@ -1,3 +1,193 @@ +Release 1.6.0 (2008-04-10 Carl Worth ) +========================================================= +The cairo community is quite pleased to announce the 1.6.0 release of +the cairo graphics library. This is a major update to cairo, with new +features and enhanced functionality which maintains compatibility for +applications written using cairo 1.4, 1.2, or 1.0. We recommend that +anybody using a previous version of cairo upgrade to cairo 1.6.0. + +The most significant new features in this release are dramatically +improved PDF and PostScript[*] output, support for arbitrary X server +visuals (including PseudoColor), a new Quartz backend, and and a new +"win32 printing" backend. See below for more details on these and +other new features. + +New dependency on external pixman library (Thanks, Søren!) +---------------------------------------------------------- +As of cairo 1.6, cairo now depends on the pixman library, for which +the latest release can be obtained alongside cairo: + + http://cairographics.org/releases/pixman-0.10.0.tar.gz + +This library provides all software rendering for cairo, (the +implementation of the image backend as well as any image fallbacks +required for other backends). This is the same code that was +previously included as part of cairo itself, but is now an external +library so that it can be shared by both cairo and by the X server, +(which is where the code originated). + +Improved PDF, PostScript, and SVG output (Thanks, Adrian!) +---------------------------------------------------------- +Users of the cairo-pdf, cairo-ps, and cairo-svg should see a dramatic +improvement from cairo 1.2/1.4 to 1.6. With this release there are now +almost no operations that will result in unnecessary rasterization in +the PDF and PostScript. Rasterized "image fallbacks" are restricted +only to minimal portions of the document where something is being +drawn with cairo that is beyond the native capabilities of the +document, (this is rare for PDF or SVG, but occurs when blending +translucent objects for PostScript). + +This means that the final output will be of higher quality, and will +also be much smaller, and therefore will print more quickly. The +machinery for doing analysis and minimal fallbacks also benefits the +win32-printing surface described below. + +In addition to doing less rasterization, the PostScript and PDF output +also has several other improvements to make the output more efficient +and more compatible with specifications. + +[*] Note: Just before this release, a bug has been reported that the +PostScript output from cairo can crash some printers, (so far the +following models have been reported as problematic Xerox Workcentre +7228 or 7328 and Dell 5100cn). We will implement a workaround as soon +as we can learn exactly what in cairo's output these printers object +to, (and we could use help from users that have access to misbehaving +printers). This bug is being tracked here: + + Printing some PDFs from evince is crashing our Xerox printer + http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15348 + +New support for arbitrary X server visuals (Thanks, Keith and Behdad!) +---------------------------------------------------------------------- +As of cairo 1.6, cairo should now work with an arbitrary TrueColor or +8-bit PseudoColor X server visual. Previous versions of cairo did not +support these X servers and refused to draw anything. We're pleased to +announce that this limitation has been lifted and people stuck with +ancient display systems need no longer be stuck with ancient software +just because of cairo. + +New, supported Quartz backend for Mac OS X (Thanks, Brian and Vladimir!) +------------------------------------------------------------------------ +As of cairo 1.6, the cairo-quartz backend is now marked as "supported" +rather than "experimental" as in previous cairo releases. Its API now +has guarantees of API stability into future cairo releases, and its +output quality is comparable to other backends. There have been +significant improvements to cairo-quartz since 1.4. It now uses many +fewer image fallbacks, (meaning better performance), and has greatly +improved text rendering. + +New, "win32 printing" backend (Thanks, Adrian and Vladimir!) +------------------------------------------------------------ +A new win32-printing surface has been added with an interface very +similar to the original win32 surface, (both accept an HDC +parameter). But this new surface 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. This allows +cairo to analyze the contents, (as it does with PDF, PostScript, and +SVG backends), and to do minimal image-based fallbacks as +necessary. The analysis keeps things as efficient as possible, while +the presence of fallbacks, (when necessary), ensure the consistent, +high-quality output expected from cairo. + +Robustness fixes (Thanks, Chris!) +--------------------------------- +There has been a tremendous number of improvements to cairo's +robustness. Areas that have been improved include: + + * Proper reporting of errors + + * Responding correctly to invalid input + + * Avoiding integer overflows + + * Avoiding memory leaks on error-recovery paths + + * Making reference counting thread safe + + * Exhaustive testing of memory allocation points + +Other fixes (Thanks, everybody!) +-------------------------------- +Cairo's internal fixed-point representation has been changed from +16.16 to 24.8. This has a direct impact on applications as it allows +much larger objects to be drawn before internal limits in cairo make +the drawing not work. + +The CAIRO_EXTEND_PAD mode is now fully supported by surface +patterns. This mode allows applications to use cairo_rectangle and +cairo_fill to draw scaled images with high-quality bilinear filtering +for the internal of the image, but without any objectionably blurry +edges, (as would happen with the default EXTEND_NONE and cairo_paint). + +Rendering with CAIRO_ANTIALIAS_NONE has been fixed to be more +predictable, (previously image rendering and geometry rendering would +be slightly misaligned with respect to each other). + +The reference manual at http://cairographics.org/manual now documents +100% of the functions and types in cairo's public API. + +API additions +------------- +Several small features have been added to cairo with new API functions: + +cairo_format_stride_for_width + + Must be called to compute a properly aligned stride value before + calling cairo_image_surface_create_for_data. + +cairo_has_current_point + + Allows querying if there is a current point defined for the + current path. + +cairo_path_extents + + Allows querying for path extents, (independent of any fill or + stroke parameters). + +cairo_surface_copy_page +cairo_surface_show_page + + Allow beginning a new document page without requiring a cairo_t + object. + +cairo_ps_surface_restrict_to_level +cairo_ps_get_levels +cairo_ps_level_to_string +cairo_ps_surface_set_eps + + Allow controlling the Post PostScript level, (2 or 3), to + target, as well as to generate Encapsulated PostScript (EPS). + +cairo_quartz_font_face_create_for_cgfont + + Create a quartz-specific cairo_font_face_t from a CGFontRef. + +cairo_win32_font_face_create_for_logfontw_hfont + + Create a win32-specific cairo_font_face from a LOGFONTW and an + HFONT together. + +Thanks, Everyone! +----------------- +I've accounted for 32 distinct people with attributed code added to +cairo between 1.4.14 and 1.6.0, (their names are below). That's an +impressive number, but there are certainly dozens more that +contributed with testing, suggestions, clarifying questions, and +encouragement. I'm grateful for the friendships that have developed as +we have worked on cairo together. Thanks to everyone for making this +all so much fun! + +Adrian Johnson, Alp Toker, Antoine Azar, Behdad Esfahbod, +Benjamin Otte, Bernardo Innocenti, Bertram Felgenhauer, +Boying Lu, Brian Ewins, Carl Worth, Chris Heath, Chris Wilson, +Claudio Ciccani, Emmanuel Pacaud, Jeff Muizelaar, Jeremy Huddleston, +Jim Meyering, Jinghua Luo, Jody Goldberg, Jonathan Gramain, +Keith Packard, Ken Herron, Kouhei Sutou, Kristian Høgsberg, +Larry Ewing, Martin Ejdestig, Nis Martensen, Peter Weilbacher, +Richard Hult, Shailendra Jain, Søren Sandmann Pedersen, +Vladimir Vukicevic + Snapshot 1.5.20 (2008-04-04 Carl Worth ) =========================================================== This is the tenth snapshot in cairo's unstable 1.5 series. It comes @@ -155,7 +345,6 @@ lack of coverage in our test suite): CGFont backend returns 0 font extents https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15319 - Snapshot 1.5.16 (2008-04-01 Carl Worth ) =========================================================== This is the eighth snapshot in cairo's unstable 1.5 series. It comes @@ -385,13 +574,6 @@ fixes the following bug: Cairo doesn't support 8-bit pseudocolor visuals https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4945 -Unresolved issues (must be fixed before cairo 1.6) --------------------------------------------------- -XXX: Need to decide if cairo_image_surface_create_for_data should be -documented and tested as supporting an image with a negative -stride. Also need to decide the correct return value for -cairo_format_stride_for_width in case of any error. - Snapshot 1.5.12 (2008-02-28 Carl Worth ) =========================================================== This is the sixth snapshot in cairo's unstable 1.5 series. It comes 1 -- cgit v1.2.3