Yes, pretty much (I think all) of the sub-pixel rendering ideas predate any 
of the patents, so they are all moot. (And BTW, this is true for defining 
fonts as curves (Patrick Baudelaire at PARC did it first, and then Knuth 
did a lot). Apple did virtually all of the TType work and then shared with 
MS in a deal, which MS has been abusing. The idea of hinting for small 
fonts goes back to PARC (and I think was part of the general heuristic of 
hinting that Butler Lampson formulated for lots of things).

The earliest use of "color picking" as it was known back then was done at 
MIT in Negroponte's lab in the early 70s. Later and independently Woz came 
up with an interesting scheme that picked colors to get more resolution on 
a color CRT. However, no one has done the work to strike down the patents 
(this is one of the reasons why this broken process today is so pernicious).

Cheers,

Alan


At 04:29 AM 3/30/2006, Andrew Tween wrote:
>Sure.
>There are a number of patents, held/applied for by Microsoft, covering various
>aspects of sub-pixel rendering of text/images. Here is an example, though a
>search engine will discover more...
>
>http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=WO0021068&F=0
>
>Some argue that these patents are un-enforcable due to prior art. See
>http://www.grc.com/ctwho.htm  for an overview.
>
>Microsoft indicates that it will license their implementation of sub-pixel
>antialiasing (a.k.a. ClearType ) for between one and three US Dollars per
>device. See here for more details...
>
>http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/ip/tech/cleartype.asp
>
>Apple hold patents for portions of the TrueType hinting mechanisms. The 
>Freetype
>library source code is distributed in such a manner that it may be 
>compiled with
>or without the patent restricted code. When compiled without, a patent-free
>auto-hinting mechanism is employed, which is not as good as the patented code,
>but far better than nothing. For more information, see...
>
>http://www.freetype.org/patents.html
>
>So, it seems acceptable to distribute patent restricted stuff in source form,
>and let the user decide what they compile/install/use. The new BitBlt mode 
>does
>not use any patented code. And so a VM with Freetype plugin/library 
>compiled to
>use the non-patented auto-hinter, and the modified BitBlt, will be patent 
>free.
>The sub-pixel stuff, entirely in Smalltalk, and distributed as source, would
>then be an optional install.
>
>But, of course, I'm not a lawyer :)
>Cheers,
>Andy
>
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "stéphane ducasse" <ducasse at iam.unibe.ch>
>Newsgroups: gmane.comp.lang.smalltalk.squeak.general
>Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2006 9:11 AM
>Subject: Re: Henrik antialising
>
>
> > Hi andy
> >
> > could you explain a bit more the issues with the patents and the
> > license?
> >
> > Stef
> > On 29 mars 06, at 16:55, Andrew Tween wrote:
> >
> > > I'll see if I can package up a modified Windows VM with Freetype
> > > plugin, the new
> > > BitBlt mode for sub-pixel, and a semi-stable 3.8Full image. That
> > > way, at least
> > > the people
> > > with Windows can have a play.
> > > I think I need to remove the sub-pixel code from the image and make
> > > it a
> > > changeset, due to
> > > the patent issue.
> > > I also need to double check that when I built the freetype lib, I
> > > didn't compile
> > > it with the
> > > patented truetype hinting enabled.
> > > Patents, don't you just love 'em :)
> > >
> > > Does anybody know if it would be ok to put this stuff on
> > > ftp.squeak.org ?
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > > Andy
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Lord ZealoN" <lordzealon at gmail.com>
> > > Newsgroups: gmane.comp.lang.smalltalk.squeak.general
> > > Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 3:16 PM
> > > Subject: Re: Henrik antialising
> > >
> > >
> > > I can have this in 3.8?
> > >
> > > 2006/3/29, Diego Gomez Deck <DiegoGomezDeck at consultar.com>:
> > >> Great!
> > >>
> > >> I can't wait to get a version running on my Squeak.
> > >>
> > >> Cheers,
> > >>
> > >> -- Diego
> > >>
> > >>> Here is a screenshot similar to the one Bert posted, but this
> > >>> time with
> > >>> sub-pixel anti-aliasing applied.
> > >>> This will only look o.k. on an LCD monitor with vertical striping
> > >>> in RGB
> > > order.
> > >>> Cheers,
> > >>> Andy
> > >>>
> > >>> ----- Original Message -----
> > >>> From: "Diego Gomez Deck" <DiegoGomezDeck at consultar.com>
> > >>> Newsgroups: gmane.comp.lang.smalltalk.squeak.general
> > >>> Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 1:11 PM
> > >>> Subject: Re: Henrik antialising
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>> Hi Andrew,
> > >>>>
> > >>>>> I've now got everything installed (in a 3.8 image), and the
> > >>>>> Vera fonts
> > > are
> > >>>>> rendering correctly.
> > >>>>> It looks very good.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Please send the mandatory screenshot.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Cheers,
> > >>>>
> > >>>> -- Diego
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > >
> > > ::Mi blog::
> > > http://blog.lordzealon.com
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >