Real-time Vector Glyph Rendering: Beyond SDFs, Towards High-Precision Anti-aliasing
2025-06-13
Frustrated with limitations in existing real-time text rendering solutions, like the blurring and texture issues of SDFs, the author embarked on a new approach. The subpixel structure problems of his new OLED monitor served as the final push. He abandoned SDFs and instead rasterizes glyph Bézier curves directly on the GPU, employing temporal accumulation to refine anti-aliasing quality over time. Clever atlas packing and Z-order algorithms efficiently manage glyph data, while subpixel anti-aliasing resolves color fringing on OLED screens. The result is high-quality, high-performance real-time text rendering, especially impressive when dealing with thin lines and intricate glyphs.
(osor.io)