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Chlumsky/msdfgen

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Multi-channel signed distance field generator

17 mentions on Hacker News by 15 people: 1 story, 16 comments · first 2019-05-27 · latest 2026-06-12

Mentions per year 17 mentions · busiest year 2022 (5)
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  1. …feeling lucky and lazy". After 10 minutes it had: - Installed msdf_gen library (great library btw https://github.com/chlumsky/msdfgen ) - Created a CLI tool to convert TTF to SDF JSON/XML - Ran the tool, did smoke tests on the resulting…
    comment by bel8 · 2026-06-12 · in Claude Fable is relentlessly proactive
  2. MSDF is worth looking at: https://github.com/Chlumsky/msdfgen and https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/apps/valve/2007/SIGGRAPH2007... The context is GPU's, things like three.js But yes, drawing text is hard.
    comment by talkingtab · 2025-11-11 · in Drawing Text Isn't Simple: Benchmarking Console vs. Graphical Rendering
  3. …and SDF are new to me and very interesting. Another example of what is being done is MSDF here: https://github.com/Chlumsky/msdfgen .
    comment by talkingtab · 2025-08-04 · in Perfecting anti-aliasing on signed distance functions
  4. …it a bit by having multiple distance fields and rendering the intersection of them. See e.g. https://github.com/Chlumsky/msdfgen
    comment by account42 · 2025-06-13 · in Rendering Crispy Text on the GPU
  5. This very well explained here https://github.com/Chlumsky/msdfgen and with more details in linked pdfs. Basically, signed distance fields allow high resolution renders from low resolution rasters which represent character shape. It's used…
    comment by febusravenga · 2023-12-11 · in Shader Park Is Kinda Neat
  6. …separate parts, albeit the colors losing their sharpness above the texture's 1:1 resolution. [1] https://github.com/Chlumsky/msdfgen
    comment by FrostKiwi · 2023-07-21 · in Sub-pixel distance transform
  7. …rounding sharp corners. This is known as a “multi-channel signed distance field”, or “msdf”. https://github.com/Chlumsky/msdfgen
    comment by dorkwood · 2023-03-09 · in Leveraging Rust and the GPU to render user interfaces at 120 FPS
  8. Look into msdf rendering for text in WebGL. https://github.com/Chlumsky/msdfgen
    comment by dorkwood · 2022-12-21 · in MelonJS – a fresh and lightweight JavaScript game engine
  9. …scaling up before looking bad That problem has been solved by multi-channel signed distance fields https://github.com/Chlumsky/msdfgen
    comment by johndough · 2022-08-10 · in Vector graphics on GPU
  10. What I was referring is SDFs/MSDFs as in https://github.com/Chlumsky/msdfgen . Of course you can implement smooth circles directly in a shader the way you describe, but note that there are Vector outline shapes that are not circles...…
    comment by jstimpfle · 2022-08-10 · in Vector graphics on GPU
  11. …in practice. Seems like it would fix, or at least minimize the scaling/offset issues quite nicely. https://github.com/Chlumsky/msdfgen
    comment by dubiousconst281 · 2022-07-28 · in Adventures in Text Rendering: Kerning and Glyph Atlases
  12. …consideration but this project uses real time Multi-channel signed distance field generation : [1] https://github.com/Chlumsky/msdfgen
    comment by jimmySixDOF · 2022-02-14 · in Text Rendering Hates You (2019)
  13. ….com/drawing-text-with-signed-distance-fi... MIT-licensed open-source multi-channel glyph generation: https://github.com/Chlumsky/msdfgen The only remaining issue would be the kerning/layout, which is admittedly far from simple.
    comment by pvidler · 2021-03-15 · in 2D Graphics on Modern GPU (2019)
  14. msdfgen : https://github.com/Chlumsky/msdfgen
    comment by srgpqt · 2020-03-16 · in Getting started with shaders: signed distance functions
  15. …somewhat recently a great improvement was made to SDF using multiple channels of information: https://github.com/Chlumsky/msdfgen I wonder how they both compare. I am guessing Slug is more accurate but certainly also much more intensive,…
    comment by jchw · 2019-07-19 · in Slug: Dynamic GPU Font Rendering and Advanced Text Layout
  16. …as you tend to get sharp edges and artefacts [1]. [0] https://github.com/VALIS-software/GPUText [1] https://github.com/Chlumsky/msdfgen/issues/67
    comment by haxiomic · 2019-05-27 · in Text rendering using multi channel signed distance fields