Библиотека Pango перешла от использования FreeType для получения информации о шрифтах к HarfBuzz, а разработчики последнего приняли решение не поддерживать такой метод сглаживая шрифтов.
Пользователи, которые перешли с версии Pango 1.43 на 1.44 заметили, что отображение некоторых семейств шрифтов ухудшилось или полностью сломалось.
В ответ на критику разработчики HarfBuzz ответили: «Вы можете попытаться привыкнуть к «мыльному» рендерингу или попытаться найти что-то еще. Вы же используете Open Source, понимаете? И те кого не устраивает текущее состояние могут создать форк Pango.»
Upd: Подробный ответ автора: https://github.com/harfbuzz/harfbuzz/issues/2394#issuecomment-626254448
The challenge between the pixelated rendering vs scalable layout is nothing new. Here’s a treatise from almost 20 years ago: http://rastertragedy.com/ Here's my writeup about some of those same challenges I had to find solution to for Chrome back in 2012: http://goo.gl/yf3M7
LibreOffice switched to HarfBuzz to benefit from a single unified shaping-engine, same decision that Chrome and Firefox took as well. These are engineering decisions. It also meant LibreOffice dropped support for Type1 fonts. There were of course the vocal minority complaining and wanting old features back. I asked Adobe if they are willing to contribute support for Type1 to HarfBuzz, they said even Adobe products are dropping Type1 support next year. Same thing about bitmap fonts, people want their bitmap fonts back, we told them to wrap them in OpenType containers.
And same change arrived at Pango. Again, loud minority roars, throwing tantrums and unwilling to listen. The world moves forward. We do what we can with our limited resources. We cannot keep your 20-year old favorite feature working forever. It’s not on us. Find someone to maintain it and pay them to do for you if you cannot get over it.
