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Freetype Lands In... Microsoft Office?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the share-well-everyone dept.

phy_si_kal writes "Now Microsoft must love free software. Indeed, Office 2011 for Mac (beta 5 at least) uses Freetype! Somehow they figured out the free software 'clean room implementation' of their own (patented) TrueType technology must better suit their needs."

12 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. Must burn. by Zarf · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't know who wrote TrueType but MS using FreeType must burn them up. I know it would tick me off.

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    1. Re:Must burn. by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why would it burn them up? There is no financial justification for porting Cleartype when they can just use for Freetype for their Mac version. If they were switching the Windows version to Freetype that would actually be a story.

    2. Re:Must burn. by Zarf · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If they were switching the Windows version to Freetype that would actually be a story.

      Good point. I was presuming there already was a Mac version of TrueType. If there isn't one already, you are absolutely right.

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    3. Re:Must burn. by ConfusedVorlon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      are you sure?

      it certainly used to be built by a Mac group within MS. I have heard stories of the crazy corporate environment that surrounded them...

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  2. Overblown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is an overblown summary. Come back to us when they switch the version of Office for Windows to using Freetype over Cleartype. This is clearly nothing but a way to save money by leveraging Freetype that already runs on Macs instead of wasting time and money porting Cleartype.

  3. Am I missing something? by mayberry42 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Where's the link to the source article? Or is this yet another anti-MS rant?

    1. Re:Am I missing something? by A12m0v · · Score: 4, Insightful

      How is this anti-Microsoft? I think it is a good thing that Microsoft is using Freetype.

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    2. Re:Am I missing something? by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes it is. The implication is quite clear in this sentence:

      Somehow they figured out the free software "clean room implementation" of their own (patented) TrueType technology must better suit their needs."

      This is nothing but Microsoft saving time and money by using Freetype that is already ported to the Mac instead of doing the work to port Cleartype. This a non-story at best.

    3. Re:Am I missing something? by xtracto · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes it is. The implication is quite clear in this sentence:

      Somehow they figured out the free software "clean room implementation" of their own (patented) TrueType technology must better suit their needs."

      This is nothing but Microsoft saving time and money by using Freetype that is already ported to the Mac instead of doing the work to port Cleartype. This a non-story at best.

      You mean, it is like FreeType "suits better Microsoft's needs" when porting MS Office to OSX??

      And they indeed dumped ClearType for Freetype for this OSX version; that is a true assertion. The fact that they decided to compile others code instead of use their own is exactly that.

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  4. You misread his comment. by Chirs · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The OP was talking about the authors of TrueType, not FreeType.

  5. ATSUI is not for Windows 7 by tepples · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What I find odd is that they don't just use ATSUI – apple's built in true type font rendering, which is rather better than both freetype and cleartype.

    ATSUI and the Core Text that replaced it in Tiger are Mac-exclusive. If Microsoft used it for Office, it wouldn't be able to ensure consistent document appearance between Mac and Windows versions of Office.

  6. Re:TrueType in Mac OS 7 by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 3, Insightful

    *cough*Helvetica 14px "mnr"*cough*

    Ok, I'm going to get modded down, but could we stop with the "cough cough" thing? Just say, "like Helvetica 14px." Like a normal human being writing a normal forum post. The "cough cough* thing, assuming it was ever funny, hasn't been funny in years. Now it does nothing but make your post harder to read, and make me think you have no actual sense of humor.

    That said, good, informative, post.

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