xserver xfs freetype how does it really work
 

Hello,

I'm curretly trying to understand how the font rendering works under linux.
1. How do the fonts get to the application, I mean the rendered bitmaps.
(as I see it today)

[freetype version x.y (/usr/lib/libfreetype)] -> application

[xfont server(xfs) which is build upon a freetype version a.b] -> [xserver] -> application

How does the hinting of font work without xfs (Xfs.hinting Xfs.hintStyle are x font server settings right?)

2. If I use x font server does this mean that the appliction needs to be written for it or does the xserver still hande the requests but it just passes them to xfs?

3. How can I upgrade the freetype library that is used by the xserver.
How do you find out which freetype lib is the xfs build on when not copiling from source?

4. Is there any need to load the freetype module in xserver when I use xfs (99% no:)

Best regards,
Chulio Martinez

Freetype is used by a lot of GTK applications, so I would think you still need it even if you're using Xfs. And anyway, isn't xfs discontinued as of X11R6 version 4.3?