[Mapserver-users] TrueType Font and Label Angle

[Steve Lime]

Interesting. I'll still blame the GD code ;-) I need to make sure the
angle computation code is consistent but I believe no changes have been
made there. The other place to look is at the font metrics being caughed
up by FT via GD. If they have changed or their interpretation has
changed then that could affect label placement (but not angle). If you
would, please file you report and images in bugzilla.

Now that John Ellison has *stable* FT code in GD it may be the time to
poke around it. I have a couple of old mods that may still be applicable
to him.

BTW Have you experimented with different fonts? I've noticed real
differences between fonts and wonder how much can be put on that.

Steve

>>> "Jonathan W. Lowe" <jlowe at giswebsite.com> 01/17/03 10:08 AM >>>
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/
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Mapserver-users mailing list
> Mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu
> http://lists.gis.umn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mapserver-users
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Mapserver-users mailing list
> Mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu
> http://lists.gis.umn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mapserver-users
> 


_______________________________________________
Mapserver-users mailing list
Mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu
http://lists.gis.umn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mapserver-users