Bitstream Panorama: a line layout engine for worldwide text layout, multi-lingual, multi-language fonts, and complex international scripts

Bitstream Panorama is an easy-to-integrate OEM product that delivers a line layout solution for mobile handsets, smart phones, PDAs, set-top boxes and digital TVs, graphics applications, and embedded systems. A small, fast text composition engine for worldwide text layout, Bitstream Panorama enables developers to draw strings of characters from multilingual, multilanguage fonts and lay out complex international scripts. The product supports international languages including Arabic, Indic, Hebrew, and Thai complex scripts.

• Download our PDF (300 KB): Worldwide Text Composition Engine

Complex Scripts

Arabic (read right-to-left: "Knowledge is light - ignorance is darkness") This animation shows how Bitstream Panorama manages character substitution and character shaping in Arabic. Indic (read left-to-right: "Knowledge is light, ignorance is darkness") This animation shows how Bitstream Panorama manages character substitution and character shaping in Devanagari. Hebrew (read right-to-left: "Knowledge is light, ignorance is darkness")

Contextual Alternates

Ligatures

Old Style Figures

Ornaments

Small Caps

Fractions

Why Use Bitstream Panorama?
Developers today need to move quickly from idea to implementation. Bitstream Panorama shortens the development cycle and accelerates time to market. Offering high-level APIs, the product is easy to integrate. Together with Font Fusion, it offers a complete text composition and font rendering solution for worldwide text layout.

In addition, most developers are thinking globally. Their products and applications need to support languages in each country they are deployed, or have the ability to be easily upgraded in the future. The Bitstream Panorama line layout engine delivers international support for all non-complex languages, including Baltic, Central European, Chinese, Cyrillic, Eastern European, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Western, and WGL4 languages.

It also supports complex scripting languages, including Arabic, Indic, Hebrew, and Thai.

Easy to Integrate with Font Fusion
Bitstream Panorama works with Font Fusion, version 3.x and higher. This complete solution delivers both text composition and font rendering in one easy-to-use product. Rather than using Font Fusion's lower-level APIs, developers can use Bitstream Panorama's high-level APIs to lay out, position, substitute, and render characters in worldwide languages. Whereas Font Fusion allows developers to render only one character at a time, you can use Bitstream Panorama to compose and render strings of characters.

Bitstream Panorama is an SDK. It is object-oriented code written in C and a subset of C++ suitable for small embedded systems and devices.

A small, fast text composition engine, Bitstream Panorama can be ported to any platform.

Overview of Features

• High-level APIs that enable you to compose and render
  character strings in most worldwide languages
• Supports kerning information in OpenType fonts
• Supports key OpenType tables: GDEF, GPOS, and GSUB*
• Supports contextual substitution for scripting languages
  such as Arabic, Indic, Hebrew, and Thai
• Supports glyph substitution: ligatures, swashes, old style figures,
  small caps, superiors, alternates, etc.
• Supports left-right and right-left directional writing

* The Glyph Definition table (GDEF) supplements the GPOS and GSUB tables for positioning and substituting glyphs. The GPOS table (Glyph Positioning) provides control over glyph placement for each script and language system in a font. The Glyph Substitution table (GSUB) contains information for substituting glyphs to render the scripts and language systems supported in a font.