Poor font quality with SDL_ttf regardless of antialiasing

SDL Development
1

When rendering text using SDL_ttf, the result is always awful-looking, even when I use the TTF…Blended() functions (I’m running Windows 8.1, if that matters).
I’ve tried with 6+ different fonts and none work well. The text is rendered to a 640x480 texture, which is then rendered to a window of the same resolution. Why is the text quality turning out so poor?

Example screenshot with the GNU free fonts (24 pt font):
(Fast = solid mode, Quality = blended mode)

[Image: http://i.imgur.com/ZuhoKdM.png ]

Relevant code:

Code:

void renderText() {
int step = 64; // space out the lines
mc.textureLoader.drawTextFast(“GNU FreeMono Fast.”, 0, 0, mono, fontColor);//format("%s", worldClock.checkSeconds()) ~ “s”, 0, 0, font, fontColor);
mc.textureLoader.drawTextQuality(“GNU FreeMono Quality.”, 0, step, mono, fontColor);//format("%s", worldClock.checkSeconds()) ~ “s”, 0, 0, font, fontColor);
mc.textureLoader.drawTextFast(“GNU FreeSans Fast.”, 0, step2, sans, fontColor);
mc.textureLoader.drawTextQuality(“GNU FreeSans Quality.”, 0, step3, sans, fontColor);
mc.textureLoader.drawTextFast(“GNU FreeSerif Fast.”, 0, step4, serif, fontColor);
mc.textureLoader.drawTextQuality(“GNU FreeSerif Quality.”, 0, step5, serif, fontColor);
}

void drawTextFast(string text, int x, int y, TTF_Font* font, SDL_Color fg) {
if (font is null)
return;
SDL_Surface* surf = TTF_RenderText_Solid(font, text.toStringz(), fg);
SDL_Texture* tex = SDL_CreateTextureFromSurface(mc.rend, surf);
drawTexture(tex, x, y);
SDL_FreeSurface(surf);
SDL_DestroyTexture(tex);
return;
}

void drawTextQuality(string text, int x, int y, TTF_Font* font, SDL_Color fg) {
if (font is null)
return;
SDL_Surface* surf = TTF_RenderText_Blended(font, text.toStringz(), fg);
SDL_Texture* tex = SDL_CreateTextureFromSurface(mc.rend, surf);
drawTexture(tex, x, y);
SDL_FreeSurface(surf);
SDL_DestroyTexture(tex);
return;
}

void drawTexture(SDL_Texture* img, int x, int y) {
SDL_Rect pos;
pos.x = x;
pos.y = y;
SDL_QueryTexture(img, null, null, &pos.w, &pos.h);
SDL_RenderCopy(mc.rend, img, null, &pos);
return;
}

2

Shouldn’t the second load parameter for TTFLoadBlended be the font size in points, and not a colour? It does give very good results, so will need to check against my loading and printing system.

3

No problem!

4

Well, this is embarassing. [Embarassed]

Turns out the texture I rendered to was 640x640, instead of 640x480. When it got stretched to the window, the text was cut off and distorted in wierd ways. I fixed it and now the text looks fine:

[Image: http://i.imgur.com/zk4iPZT.png ]

Thanks anyway!