[autofit] Redesign the recognition algorithm of strong points.

In particular, local extrema without horizontal or vertical segments
are better recognized:

  + A                + D
   \                /
    \              /
     \            /
      \          /
       \        + C
        \    /
       B +/

If the distances AB and CD are large, point B wasn't previously
detected as an extremum since the `ft_corner_is_flat' function
`swallowed' BC regardless of its direction, tagging point B as weak.
The next iteration started at B and made `ft_corner_is_flat' swallow
point C, tagging it as weak also, et voilà.

To improve that, another pass gets now performed before calling
`ft_corner_is_flat' to improve the `topology' of an outline: A
sequence of non-horizontal or non-vertical vectors that point into
the same quadrant are handled as a single, large vector.

Additionally, distances of near points are now accumulated, which
makes the auto-hinter handle them as if they were prepended to the
next non-near vector.

This generally improves the auto-hinter's rendering results.

* src/autofit/afhints.c (af_glyph_hints_reload): Implement it.

* src/autofit/afhints.h (AF_FLAGS): Remove no longer used flag
`AF_FLAG_NEAR'.

1 files changed, 2 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/src/autofit/afhints.h b/src/autofit/afhints.h
index 5f1507f80..6e1b1ff99 100644
--- a/src/autofit/afhints.h
+++ b/src/autofit/afhints.h
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 /*                                                                         */
 /*    Auto-fitter hinting routines (specification).                        */
 /*                                                                         */
-/*  Copyright 2003-2008, 2010-2012 by                                      */
+/*  Copyright 2003-2008, 2010-2012, 2014 by                                */
 /*  David Turner, Robert Wilhelm, and Werner Lemberg.                      */
 /*                                                                         */
 /*  This file is part of the FreeType project, and may only be used,       */
@@ -236,10 +236,7 @@ FT_BEGIN_HEADER
     AF_FLAG_WEAK_INTERPOLATION = 1 << 8,
 
     /* all inflection points in the outline have this flag set */
-    AF_FLAG_INFLECTION = 1 << 9,
-
-    /* the current point is very near to another one */
-    AF_FLAG_NEAR = 1 << 10
+    AF_FLAG_INFLECTION = 1 << 9
 
   } AF_Flags;