14 DAY TRIAL // Bitstream Inc has recently announced the launch of Bitstream Panorama 5.0, a text composition engine that allows developers to compose and render text in all languages. The new version adds some new APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), brings support for fractional sizes and positions, and it also integrates performance improvements. Furthermore, Bitstream has also released Font Fusion 5.0 and this upgrade features a smaller and faster PFR format, as well as enhancements for increasing the usage of the company's font subsystem – it is designed to render high-quality characters in all formats, regardless of resolution, platform or device.
Bitstream Panorama is a comprehensive text composition engine that is used by developers or OEMs (Original Equipment manufacturers) for positioning, replacing and rendering characters in any international language through one single compact API. This task is valuable since the Eastern scripts (including Arabic, Thai, Devanagari and Hebrew), unlike the Latin-based ones, require complex care for composing text layouts, and this is where Bitstream Panorama comes in handy, with all its functions contained in a simple compact package.
Among the features of the new version of Bitstream Panorama there is support for rendering text on paths and for floating, objects, but also for fractional sizes and positions, thus allowing developers to integrate fractional point sizes to fit text into any area. Another important addition to the software is that it included Unicode to Image Mapping, meaning that developers will have the possibility to map any Unicode sequence to an image; therefore, apps can feature automatic translation of Unicode sequences to basic emoticon images that can be used for text messages. Besides several improvements for increasing rendering flexibility, Bitstream Panorama 5.0 offers low level access APIs for all FontFusion objects, as well as demo optimizations for Windows and Mac platforms.
On the other hand, Bitstream's other piece of software, namely Font Fusion, was created to provide high-quality and fast text output on any device, with any resolution level. Although it seems more suitable for mobile devices due to its small footprint, it can also be employed in operating systems, high-definition television screens (HDTVs), set-top boxes, low-resolution screen devices, printers, software apps, PDAs (personal digital assistants), as well as other embedded systems. Font Fusion can easily render all font formats, ranging from bitmap to OpenType and TrueType.
The version 5.0 of Font Fusion also adds support for using fractional point sizes to fit texts into any region. In addition, it brings an improved PFR format enabling smaller and faster PFR fonts (when compared to the performance of Bitstream’s previously most compact PFR format). The latest upgrade of Font Fusion will offer not only support for 2D leveraged outline emboldening or for vertical processing, but also format 16 font headers and improved printer support.
“Bitstream Panorama and Font Fusion 5.0 are designed for today’s global marketplace – supporting for all of the world’s languages via a single compact API,” said Anna Chagnon, president and CEO of Bitstream. “This release represents another step in Bitstream’s long line of innovations designed to improve rendering speed, readability and portability on resource-constrained systems with limited memory and screen resolution.”