[Mapserver-users] TrueType Font and Label Angle

[Jonathan W. Lowe]

Steve,

These responses cleared up my confusion and moved things forward--thanks
for the clarification.  FYI: there does seem to be a difference in label
angles and placement between mapserver-3.6.3 and mapserver-3.7 (from
yesterday's nightly build.

Specifically, when labeling lines with the "ANGLE AUTO" parameter,
mapserver-3.6.3 (w/ freetype-1.3.1 and gd-1.8.4) places line labels
exactly along and on top of the lines. Mapserver-3.7 (w/ freetype-2.1.3
and gd-2.x) places the labels (sometimes) slightly different from the
angle of the lines and slightly askew from the lines.

Comparisons appear at the following (temporary) URL:

	http://www.giswebsite.com/labels/

The labels generated by mapserver-3.6.3 look cleaner cartographically
(to my eye). Certainly not a show stopper--but I thought you might like
to know in case it's an easy fix.

Thanks again,
Jonathan

On Thu, 2003-01-16 at 21:00, Steve Lime wrote:
> 1) Who knows. Since there is an easy work around I've not felt the need
> to poke around the GD code- that's where the problem is. The pain is on
> those systems that have a particular version of GD and/or Freetype
> pre-installed (life is fine on Solaris for example).
> 
> 2) Um, no need to blame anyone. It really shouldn't have been until GD
> 2.0 was stable, so prior to 3.7 only Freetype 1 should be looked for.
> The good news is that recent versions of GD 2.0 have had major updates
> to TTF support and are believed to work just fine. Bottom line is to use
> freetype 1.3.1/gd 1.8.4 with MapServer 3.6.x and either that combination
> or freetype 2.0/gd 2.x with MapServer 3.7.
> 
> 3) The bug(s) is in the GD interface to Freetype, not in Freetype
> itself. Freetype 2 support in GD has not been stable until recently.
> 
> Steve
> 
> 
> Stephen Lime
> Data & Applications Manager
> 
> Minnesota DNR
> 500 Lafayette Road
> St. Paul, MN 55155
> 651-297-2937
> >>> "Jonathan W. Lowe" <jlowe at giswebsite.com> 01/16/03 21:38 PM >>>
> Questions (for Daniel?) about the freetype1 vs. freetype2 problem:
> 
> 1) Why does the same version of gd + freetype2 result in a successful
> mapserver compilation (i.e. no label angle problems) on RedHat 8.0, but
> not on FreeBSD?
> 
> 2) If freetype2 is a problem, why is it the default in the mapserver
> Makefile?
> 
> 3) And, if there is a bug in freetype2, rather than avoiding freetype2
> altogether (an endeavor raising its own set of problems), why not get
> the bug fixed?  Is it a known bug?  Has anyone from the list identified
> the bug and/or contacted the freetype developer(s) to report it?  
> 
> (If this is much easier said than done, please forgive my naivete.)
> 
> Thank you,
> Jonathan Lowe
> 
> On Tue, 2003-01-14 at 21:42, Daniel Morissette wrote:
> > "Jonathan W. Lowe" wrote:
> > > 
> > > For what it's worth, my installation on RedHat 8.0 didn't have the
> label angle
> > > problems, so it is possible to successfully compile the software on
> Linux.  At
> > > one point in my efforts to overcome the label angle problems, I
> found a
> > > reference that said the mere presence of freetype2 might force the
> compiler to
> > > use freetype2 (the supposed culprit in the label angle problem)
> rather than
> > > freetype1.  Do you have root access to the system on which you are
> compiling?  I
> > >  had to isolate libraries like gd and freetype in a local directory
> in order to
> > > be sure my compilation used exactly the libraries I intended it to
> use.
> > > 
> > 
> > FYI there is a --enable-force-freetype1 configure switch in 3.6.x and
> > 3.7 to try to force detection of Freetype 1 in priority over freetype
> 2
> > when a system has both.  Starting with RH 7.x and 8.x this is very
> > useful if you want to compile with your own custom GD with freetype
> 1.3.
> > 
> > Daniel
> > -- 
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> >  Daniel Morissette               morissette at dmsolutions.ca
> >  DM Solutions Group              http://www.dmsolutions.ca/
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > 
> 
> 
> 
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