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| Bitstream Releases Panorama 4.0 and Font Fusion 4.0 Bitstream announces the release of version 4.0 of Bitstream Panorama, the worldwide text composition engine that enables developers to compose and render text in any international language. This upgrade includes features that provide support for transparency and enable better performance, and also provides several new APIs. In addition, Bitstream also announces the release of Font Fusion 4.0, and upgrade that extends the functionality of the company's font subsystem that renders high-quality characters in any format, at any resolution, on any platform or device. Bitstream Panorama enables developers to draw strings of characters and lay out complex lines of text, including the composing, positioning and rendering of text. Bitstream Panorama supports all international languages, including Arabic, Hebrew, Indic, and Thai scripts. This release of Panorama includes several new important features including: - Support for transparency in all modes. Panorama offers users two configurations in which this can be done: the universal ARGB mode and the separate alpha channel buffer for all color configurations. This new technology enables the users of Panorama to render the text on varying backgrounds, moving or static pictures, etc. - Critical language-related enhancements so users can apply rules with less computation than before, resulting in better performance for complex languages that need OTF rules applications, such as Arabic and Indic. - Enhanced support for the Macintosh platform, including the ability to zoom and magnify. Panorama also includes support for Mac font suitcases; enabling users render Mac fonts on Panorama. - Support for multiple Panorama instances sharing the same cache and font resources. This feature enables an OEM to run many instances of Panorama in one program. - Changes in Panorama to support more platforms, including Binary Runtime Environment. Offering more APIs to iterators provides more control over cursor positioning, addition/selection/deletion of strings. Included in Panorama 4.0 are several new APIs, including an API that offers support for getting outlines, adding string, and adding paragraphs. Now, users can get the outline vectors of any character through Panorama. In addition, many APIs have been added to support more editor-like applications, resulting in the ability to add text dynamically. This makes layout and render phases very fast, and defines Panorama as a suitable candidate for making platform free editors. In addition, these APIs extend the support for paragraphs so every paragraph can have the individual properties such as alignment, indentation etc. There is also more support for dynamic behavior, such as changing properties of consecutive runs, more control for paragraphs as intercharacter space, line indents, and line gap for a particular paragraph. In addition, Panorama includes APIs that can enumerate the font specific properties as enumerating the PlatformID/PlatformSpecific ID pairs. This allows OEMs to enumerate and choose the platforms supported by the font. Bitstream's Font Fusion is a font subsystem that allows developers to render high-quality characters in any format, at any resolution, on any device. It is designed to support operating systems, software applications, Web applications, low-resolution screen devices, multimedia servers, high-definition television screens, set-top boxes, continuous tone printers, personal digital assistants, and other embedded systems and Internet appliances. Version 4.0 of Font Fusion includes new features designed to extend the functionality of the product, including adding extensions for Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless, and a new function for creating outline characters. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Computing News :: home page |