Pure rust font render library feature comparison

rust-font-libs.md

Pure rust font rendering related library comparison

Update time: 2024-05-11

Dev related

	read-fonts	skrifa	ttf-parser	rustybuzz	ab_glyph	glyph_brush	fontdue	allsorts	swash	cosmic-text
API Level	L	M	L/M	L	H	H	H	H	M/H	H
Minimal Deps	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	×	✓	×	✓	×
No Std	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	×	✓	×	×	×
WASM	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	×	✓	×	×	✓
Tests	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	×	✓	✓	×	✓
Good Document	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	×	✓	×

Steps

	read-fonts	skrifa	ttf-parser	rustybuzz	ab_glyph	glyph_brush	fontdue	allsorts	swash	cosmic-text
Loading	✓	read-fonts	✓	ttf-parser	ttf-parser	ttf-parser	ttf-parser	✓	read-fonts	swash
Shaping	×	×	×	✓	×	×	×	✓	✓	rustybuzz or swash
Layout	×	×	×	×	×	glyph_brush_layout	✓	×	×	✓
Rasterize	×	×	×	×	ab_glyph_rasterizer	ab_glyph	✓	×	zeno	swash

Note: that layout step is very depends on the info the shaping step gives. Layout API of one package may even do not accept shaping info if does not support shaping internally, so you can't glue two crates easily between those two step like other steps.

Loading

	read-fonts	skrifa	ttf-parser	allsorts	swash
Zero allocation	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
OpenType	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
TrueType	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
WOFF	×	×	×	✓	×
WOFF2	×	×	×	✓	×
Variable	✓	✓	✓	×	✓

Note1: fontdue uses ttf-parser for parsing font, but then builds a more convenient format from tables, which make allocations.

Note2: fontdue uses ttf-parser for parsing font, but do not provide an API to set variable axis, see fd#121.

Note3: cosmic-text uses swash for parsing font, but do not provide an API to set variable axis, see ct#4.

Shaping

TODO: Complicated scripts? LTR, RTL?

Layout

TODO: Auto word break? Wierd screen shape?

Rasterize

• ×: means do not support a glyph data table.
• R: means only give raw image data, you need process it according to it's format.
• C: means only give curves, you need rasterize it.
• M: means render to bitmap array automatically, you can directly render it.

Outline

	read-fonts	skrifa	ttf-parser	ab_glyph	fontdue	allsorts	swash
glyf	R	C	C	M	M	C	M
CFF	R	C	C	M	M	C	M
CFF2	R	C	C	M	M	×	×

Bitmap

	read-fonts	skrifa	ttf-parser	ab_glyph	fontdue	allsorts	swash
EBDT/EBLC	R	R	M	M	×	M	M
CBDT/CBLC	R	R	M	M	×	M	M

Image

	read-fonts	skrifa	ttf-parser	ab_glyph	fontdue	allsorts	swash
sbix PNG	R	R	R	R	×	R	M
sbix JPEG	R	R	×	×	×	R	×
sbix TiFF	R	R	×	×	×	R	×
SVG	×	×	R	×	×	R	×

Color glyph

	read-fonts	skrifa	ttf-parser	ab_glyph	fontdue	allsorts	swash
COLR/CPAL v0	R	C	C	×	×	×	M
COLR/CPAL v1	R	C	C	×	×	×	×

Hinting

	read-fonts	skrifa	ttf-parser	ab_glyph	fontdue	allsorts	swash
TrueType Hinting	✓	✓	×	×	×	×	✓

Render

	glyph_brush	cosmic-text
Cache	glyph_brush_draw_cache	✓
Output Type	Texture and draw coords	colored rectangles