[bjourne]

Small nitpick: Freetype works on Windows too. So the same code can be used to render fonts there. Though it is perhaps easier to use the native DirectWrite api.

[kevingadd]

DirectWrite isn't necessarily much easier, but it has many perks you don't get from freetype - kerning, combining characters, etc - and supports hardware acceleration, which is pretty cool.

Because integrating pango/harfbuzz is so difficult I'm tempted to replace my freetype usages with DirectWrite...

[mmmrk]

What makes integration of HarfBuzz difficult?

[vetinari]

I guess it is part 1, building up the stage to Harfbuzz/Pango.

[aquabeagle]

And every other Unix. There's nothing Linux-specific about this post.