Version 1.0

Part of the FreeType Project

Motto: "Don't ask what OS/2 can do for you, ask what you can do for OS/2!"

What's new in Ver. 1.0:

Support for kerning
Latest version (1.3.1) of the FreeType library used
Times New Roman is mapped to Tms Rmn - you can remove the ATM version
Few bugs fixed
Several entirely new, unexpected and amusing bugs probably added...

FreeType/2 is an OS/2 TrueType Font Driver DLL based on the FreeType engine. It replaces IBM's TRUETYPE.DLL in Warp 4, but it can be installed on older versions of OS/2 too - but see below!

Some features of FreeType/2

Seamless integration with OS/2.
Supports outlines for further glyph manipulation
Supports national characters (if provided in the font). Now works with all Latin and Cyrillic languages and Greek. Other languages are being worked on (esp. Chinese, Japanese and Korean).
Traditional Chinese should work. NEW
Kerning now supported, although not extensively tested NEW
Works with older releases of OS/2, but see below!!
It's free
And last but not least, it looks great!

And some limitations of the current version:

No grayscaling a.k.a. antialiasing. Actually the FreeType engine supports it, but the OS/2 Graphics Engine doesn't. If you really want this, tell IBM. I can add this feature in about five minutes then (if the interface is OK).
Note: It might help if your uncle is manager of one of those large banks with zillions of OS/2 licenses. He should be able to convince IBM easily <grin>
More about antialiasing: Things have started moving on this front very recently but right now I absoultely can't say if or when anything might happen so don't hold your breath.
Only partial support for DBCS languages. I'm working on it, but I have no idea how long it will take before it's complete.

The source code for the OS/2 font driver is part of the FreeType distribution which is available here in case you're interested.

Binary packages, with simple install/uninstall scripts are available here.

Before installing FreeType/2, you'd certainly like to see FreeType/2 in action.
Click here to see the difference between the original Font Driver and FreeType/2 (both portions of text use Times New Roman at 12 pt).
Here you can see what this very page looked like at the time of first Beta.
Note: FreeType/2 is compared to TRUETYPE.DLL form Warp 4 GA here. The latest version (FP5 and later) gives a lot better results, but it is still no match for FreeType/2.

Installation is quite simple, just run the approppriate REXX script. It is very advisable to archive your system files first although there shouldn't be problems.
It is a good practice to make regular backups of system files. I usually don't and then I'm always sorry :-)
For more info please see the included README.TXT and the FAQ.

There are two versions of the package, one for OS/2 Warp 3 and 4 and the other for OS/2 2.1 (possibly even 2.0). Actually the 2.1 version works fine on OS/2 Warp, the only difference is different compression used for the DLL (i.e. the 2.1 version is a little bigger).

Note: because Warp 4 (preferably with FP5 or above) has full international support, it is now the target platform. But this doesn't mean that FreeType/2 won't run on Warp 4 GA or Warp 3! It only means you won't be able to use, say, Korean fonts on your Warp US. You might also run into problems if you use certain exotic fonts. If so, let me know!
Please note that to use Times New Roman MT 30 or other large Unicode fonts on Warp 3 you probably need to install one of the later fixpacks. You should also have the required functionality if you have Java 1.1 installed.
Note: The OS/2 2.1 version hasn't been updated. If that's a problem for you, don't hesitate to mail!

Bug reports, Comments and Suggestions can be sent to os2@freetype.org.
Of course try to read the available documentation (FAQ, README) before you complain.

Simple greetings can also be sent directly to me at : mike@freetype.org :-)

FREETYPE/2 can now be downloaded HERE. Enjoy !

My big thanks go to:
David Turner, the brain behind FreeType, for his hard work without any compensation other than making the world a better place ;-)
IBM, the company we love to hate, for their imperfect TrueType driver and for making all the necessary tools and documentation available publicly and free of charge.
Marc L Cohen, Ken Borgendale and Tetsuro Nishimura from IBM for providing me with lots of information I could never obtain otherwise. Without them I'd never get this far.

Back to the FreeType HomePage.

"OS/2 is dead? Again? Thanks for telling me, I'd never notice!"