What’s New in D-Type 9

Frequently Asked Questions
More Information

New Engine and New Library: D-Type 3D Rasterizer

D-Type 9 supports high-quality 3D rasterization. Our software 3D rasterizer is ultra-fast, runs on any platform producing identical output down to the pixel. The entire 3D rasterization process is fully parallel — D-Type 3D Rasterizer uses a configurable number of worker threads to render concurrently.

D-Type 3D Rasterizer provides many advanced features including perspective and orthographic projections, antialiasing, shading, filtering, transparency and z-buffer, perspective correct texture mapping and more. For details, see the D-Type 3D Rasterizer page.

New Tool: 3D Viewer

D-Type 9 comes with a tool to view and inspect 3D models. For more details, see the D-Type 3D Viewer page.

**FIG 2** Display of 3D Models in D-Type 3D Viewer

D-Type External Format Plugin: Rather Functional SVG Native OpenType Font Support

D-Type External Format Plugin that ships with D-Type 9 comes with rather functional SVG Native OpenType font support. Here are a few examples of D-Type 9 rendering SVG Native fonts:

**FIG 3** Abelone Regular: Standard Outlines and SVG Native Outlines

**FIG 4** Playboy Regular and NT Bixa Color

**FIG 5** EmojiOne Regular: Standard Outlines and SVG Native Outlines

**FIG 6** Gilbert Color Bold: Standard Outlines and SVG Native Outlines

PowerDoc Engine: 3D Rendering, 3D Objects, SVG Fonts and More

Thanks to D-Type 3D Rasterizer, D-Type PowerDoc Engine can now render 3D objects and supports 3 new PowerDoc objects: 3D Model, 3D Model Data and 3D Model Settings.

Thanks to D-Type External Format Plugin, D-Type PowerDoc Engine can now render SVG Native OpenType fonts.

D-Type PowerDoc Engine also supports pdRoundX and pdRoundY properties.

D-Type Font Engine: Better Handling Of TrueType/OpenType Fonts With Broken Contours

Thanks to a smarter contour analysis algorithm, D-Type Font Engine 9 can handle more TrueType/OpenType fonts with broken or problematic contours than earlier releases. For example, the Arenosa Regular font has completely broken contours. On macOS 10.15.7 this font renders as shown below:

**FIG 7** Arenosa Regular on macOS 10.15.7

Under Windows 10 this font does not render at all. The following picture shows this rather nicely:

However, with D-Type Font Engine 9 this font renders just fine, as demonstrated below:

**FIG 9** Arenosa Regular with D-Type Font Engine 9

That’s pretty amazing considering that in this font pretty much every single glyph outline has contour end points that are either completely ill defined or out of bounds!

D-Type Text Layout Extension: HarfBuzz Shaping Library Updated To Version 3.2.0

D-Type Text Layout Extension now includes the latest HarfBuzz 3.2.0 shaping engine.

D-Type Text Layout Extension: New Unicode Script Codes Exposed

Script Codes 167 - 177: adlmScriptCode, bhksScriptCode, marcScriptCode, newaScriptCode, osgeScriptCode, hanbScriptCode, jamoScriptCode, zsyeScriptCode, gonmScriptCode, soyoScriptCode, zanbScriptCode
Script Codes 178 - 184 (Unicode 11.0): dogrScriptCode, gongScriptCode, rohgScriptCode, makaScriptCode, medfScriptCode, sogoScriptCode, sogdScriptCode
Script Codes 185 - 188 (Unicode 12.0): elymScriptCode, nandScriptCode, hmnpScriptCode, wchoScriptCode
Script Codes 189 - 192 (Unicode 13.0): chrsScriptCode, diakScriptCode, kitsScriptCode, yeziScriptCode
Script Codes 193 - 197 (Unicode 14.0): cpmnScriptCode, ougrScriptCode, tnsaScriptCode, totoScriptCode, vithScriptCode

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: What are the main new features in D-Type 9?

A: The most notable new features in D-Type 9 include:

A brand new D-Type 3D Rasterizer library.
Updated D-Type External Format Plugin — SVG Native support.
Updated D-Type PowerDoc Engine — added support for 3D object rendering and OpenType SVG Native fonts.
Updated D-Type Text Layout Extension — HarfBuzz 3.2.0 shaping library, additional Unicode scripts.
Updated D-Type Font Engine — improved handling of TrueType/OpenType fonts with broken contours.

Additionally, D-Type 9 ships with a new tool called D-Type 3D Viewer.

Q2: Is the D-Type 9 upgrade free?

A: Yes, D-Type 9 upgrade is free of charge for existing D-Type 7 and D-Type 8 license holders. However, please note that D-Type 3D Rasterizer is a new optional extension that is licensed separately. You can purchase this extension using our Purchase D-Type License form, just like any other D-Type extension.

Q3: Do I get support with all these new D-Type 9 features?

A: If you have an existing active support contract, yes, you will continue to receive support. Otherwise, if you need assistance, you should purchase one of the available technical support options.

Q4: I’m currently using D-Type PowerDoc Engine and I’ve noticed that the D-Type 3D Rasterizer library (dtyper3d.lib) is now a dependency I must include in my project in order to build my application. Does this mean I must purchase D-Type 3D Rasterizer?

A: No, you don’t need to purchase D-Type 3D Rasterizer if you want to continue using D-Type PowerDoc Engine in the same capacity as before, i.e. to render text and 2D objects. You will only need to purchase D-Type 3D Rasterizer if you decide to start rendering 3D objects in your PowerDoc documents.

Q5: Does D-Type 3D Rasterizer depend on OpenGL or some other 3D library and/or hardware?

A: No, D-Type 3D Rasterizer does not depend on any other 3D graphics library (such as OpenGL or Direct3D) and does not require any specialized hardware or GPU. D-Type 3D Rasterizer is a pure software rasterizer that runs on any CPU and is available for any platform. Having said this, it should be noted that D-Type 3D Rasterizer is massively parallel by design and, on modern hardware, frequently uses 8 or more threads to render concurrently. The more cores or CPU units your hardware has, the better performance the 3D rasterizer can provide.

Q6: I see D-Type PowerDoc Engine now supports OpenType SVG Fonts. Is this support 100% complete and functional?

A: No, it’s not. And due to the evolving nature of the SVG specification this support may never be 100% complete and functional. Additionally, D-Type PowerDoc Engine is designed to handle SVG Native, which is a strict subset of SVG 1.1 and SVG 2.0. This means that OpenType SVG fonts that are not SVG Native may not render correctly. However, at this point D-Type PowerDoc Engine can render a fair number of OpenType SVG fonts.

Q7: I’m currently using D-Type PowerDoc Engine. Do I need to purchase D-Type External Format Plugin to render OpenType SVG Fonts?

A: Yes, D-Type External Format Plugin is necessary to render OpenType SVG Fonts using D-Type PowerDoc Engine.