FreeType is a software library that implements a font engine. It is used to rasterize characters into bitmaps and provides support for other font-related operations. Software development is the translation of a user need or marketing goal into a software product. ... A software release is the distribution, whether public or private, of an initial or new and upgraded version of a computer software product. ... is the 183rd day of the year (184th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... // An operating system (OS) is the software that manages the sharing of the resources of a computer. ... A cross-platform (or platform independent) programming language, software application or hardware device works on more than one system platform (e. ... Computer software can be organized into categories based on common function, type, or field of use. ... Font rasterization is the process of converting text from a vector description (as found in scalable fonts such as TrueType fonts) to a raster or bitmap description. ... A software license is a legal agreement which may take the form of a proprietary or gratuitous license as well as a memorandum of contract between a producer and a user of computer software. ... The GNU logo The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a widely-used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. ... A website (alternatively, Web site or web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos and other digital assets that is hosted on one or several Web server(s), usually accessible via the Internet, cell phone or a LAN. A Web page is a document, typically written in HTML... Illustration of an application which may use libvorbisfile. ... Font rasterization is the process of converting text from a vector description (as found in scalable fonts such as TrueType fonts) to a raster or bitmap description. ...

FreeType is a font service and doesn't provide APIs to perform higher-level features, like text layout or graphics processing (e.g., colored text rendering, "hollowing", etc.). However, it greatly simplifies these tasks by providing a simple, easy to use and uniform interface to access the content of font files. The software that provides the functionality described by an API is said to be an implementation of the API. The API itself is abstract, in that it specifies an interface and does not get involved with implementation details. ... Rendering has several different usages: Rendering (computer graphics) is the process of producing the pixels of an image from a higher-level description of its components. ... The user interface is the part of a system exposed to users. ... For the origin and evolution of fonts, see History of western typography. ...

As of July 2007, the latest version of FreeType is FreeType 2.3.5, which supports an assortment of font formats, including TrueType, Type 1, and OpenType. July 2007 is the seventh month of that year. ... TrueType is an outline font standard originally developed by Apple Computer in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobes Type 1 fonts used in PostScript. ... PostScript (PS) is a page description language used primarily in the electronic and desktop publishing areas. ... OpenType is a scalable computer font format initially developed by Microsoft, later joined by Adobe Systems. ...

FreeType is released under two free software licenses: the GNU General Public License or a license similar to the original BSD license (with the advertising clause). The library can thus be used by any kind of project, be they proprietary or not. Free software is software which grants recipients the freedom to modify and redistribute the software. ... The GNU logo The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a widely-used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. ... The BSD license is a permissive license and is one of the most widely used free software licenses. ... Proprietary indicates that a party, or proprietor, exercises private ownership, control or use over an item of property, usually to the exclusion of other parties. ...

References

External links

• FreeType homepage