skia2/site/user/tips.md

Tips & FAQ
==========

+   [Bitmap Subsetting](#bitmap-subsetting)
+   [Capture a `.skp` file on a web page in Chromium](#skp-capture)
+   [Capture a `.mskp` file on a web page in Chromium](#mskp-capture)
+   [How to add hardware acceleration in Skia](#hw-acceleration)
+   [Does Skia support Font hinting?](#font-hinting)
+   [Does Skia shape text (kerning)?](#kerning)
+   [How do I add drop shadow on text?](#text-shadow)

* * *

<span id="bitmap-subsetting">Bitmap Subsetting</span>
-----------------------------------------------------

Taking a subset of a bitmap is effectively free - no pixels are copied or
memory is allocated. This allows Skia to offer an API that typically operates
on entire bitmaps; clients who want to operate on a subset of a bitmap can use
the following pattern, here being used to magnify a portion of an image with
drawBitmapNine():

    SkBitmap subset;
    bitmap.extractSubset(&subset, rect);
    canvas->drawBitmapNine(subset, ...);

[An example](https://fiddle.skia.org/c/@subset_example)


* * *

<span id="skp-capture">Capture a `.skp` file on a web page in Chromium</span>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Use the script `experimental/tools/web_to_skp` , *or* do the following:

1.  Launch Chrome or Chromium with `--no-sandbox --enable-gpu-benchmarking`
2.  Open the JS console (Ctrl+Shift+J (Windows / Linux) or Cmd+Opt+J (MacOS))
3.  Execute: `chrome.gpuBenchmarking.printToSkPicture('/tmp')`
    This returns "undefined" on success.

Open the resulting file in the [Skia Debugger](/dev/tools/debugger), rasterize it with `dm`,
or use Skia's `viewer` to view it:

<!--?prettify lang=sh?-->

    out/Release/dm --src skp --skps /tmp/layer_0.skp -w /tmp \
        --config 8888 gpu pdf --verbose
    ls -l /tmp/*/skp/layer_0.skp.*

    out/Release/viewer --skps /tmp --slide layer_0.skp

* * *

<span id="mskp-capture">Capture a `.mskp` file on a web page in Chromium</span>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Multipage Skia Picture files capture the commands sent to produce PDFs
and printed documents.

Use the script `experimental/tools/web_to_mskp` , *or* do the following:

1.  Launch Chrome or Chromium with `--no-sandbox --enable-gpu-benchmarking`
2.  Open the JS console (Ctrl+Shift+J (Windows / Linux) or Cmd+Opt+J (MacOS))
3.  Execute: `chrome.gpuBenchmarking.printPagesToSkPictures('/tmp/filename.mskp')`
    This returns "undefined" on success.

Open the resulting file in the [Skia Debugger](/dev/tools/debugger) or
process it with `dm`.

<!--?prettify lang=sh?-->

    experimental/tools/mskp_parser.py /tmp/filename.mskp /tmp/filename.mskp.skp
    ls -l /tmp/filename.mskp.skp
    # open filename.mskp.skp in the debugger.

    out/Release/dm --src mskp --mskps /tmp/filename.mskp -w /tmp \
        --config pdf --verbose
    ls -l /tmp/pdf/mskp/filename.mskp.pdf

* * *

<span id="hw-acceleration">How to add hardware acceleration in Skia</span>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are two ways Skia takes advantage of specific hardware.

1.  Custom bottleneck routines

    There are sets of bottleneck routines inside the blits of Skia
    that can be replace on a platform in order to take advantage of
    specific CPU features. One such example is the NEON SIMD
    instructions on ARM v7 devices. See [src/opts/](https://skia.googlesource.com/skia/+/master/src/opts/)

* * *

<span id="font-hinting">Does Skia support Font hinting?</span>
--------------------------------------------------------------

Skia has a built-in font cache, but it does not know how to actually render font
files like TrueType into its cache. For that it relies on the platform to
supply an instance of `SkScalerContext`. This is Skia's abstract interface for
communicating with a font scaler engine. In src/ports you can see support
files for FreeType, macOS, and Windows GDI font engines. Other font
engines can easily be supported in a like manner.


* * *

<span id="kerning">Does Skia shape text (kerning)?</span>
---------------------------------------------------------

Shaping is the process that translates a span of Unicode text into a span of
positioned glyphs with the apropriate typefaces.

Skia does not shape text.  Skia provides interfaces to draw glyphs, but does
not implement a text shaper. Skia's client's often use
[HarfBuzz](http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/HarfBuzz/) to
generate the glyphs and their positions, including kerning.

[Here is an example of how to use Skia and HarfBuzz
together](https://github.com/aam/skiaex).  In the example, a
`SkTypeface` and a `hb_face_t` are created using the same `mmap()`ed
`.ttf` font file. The HarfBuzz face is used to shape unicode text into
a sequence of glyphs and positions, and the `SkTypeface` can then be
used to draw those glyphs.

* * *

<span id="text-shadow">How do I add drop shadow on text?</span>
---------------------------------------------------------------

<!--?prettify lang=cc?-->

    void draw(SkCanvas* canvas) {
        const SkScalar sigma = 1.65f;
        const SkScalar xDrop = 2.0f;
        const SkScalar yDrop = 2.0f;
        const SkScalar x = 8.0f;
        const SkScalar y = 52.0f;
        const SkScalar textSize = 48.0f;
        const uint8_t blurAlpha = 127;
        auto blob = SkTextBlob::MakeFromString("Skia", SkFont(nullptr, textSize));
        SkPaint paint;
        paint.setAntiAlias(true);
        SkPaint blur(paint);
        blur.setAlpha(blurAlpha);
        blur.setMaskFilter(SkMaskFilter::MakeBlur(kNormal_SkBlurStyle, sigma, 0));
        canvas->drawColor(SK_ColorWHITE);
        canvas->drawTextBlob(blob.get(), x + xDrop, y + yDrop, blur);
        canvas->drawTextBlob(blob.get(), x,         y,         paint);
    }

<a href='https://fiddle.skia.org/c/@text_shadow'><img src='https://fiddle.skia.org/i/@text_shadow_raster.png'></a>

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