With the library you have the choice between following creators. Each creator has different requirements and restrictions.
This creator use the SDL_ttf library to create the glyphs of the chars.
SDL in version 1.2 (libSDL-1.2.so.0) or SDL-devel (libSDL.so). Or under windows only an compatible SDL binary library.
SDL_ttf in version 2.0 (libSDL_ttf-2.0.so.0) or SDL_ttf-devel (libSDL_ttf.so). Or under windows only an compatible SDL_ttf binary library.
It's not possible to query the styles of an font file (TS_FONT_FILE_STYLE). You allways get TS_STYLE_NORMAL (zero) for the styles of the font.
SDL_ttf dosn't support the values for the underline (TS_FONT_UNDERLINE_POSITION, TS_FONT_UNDERLINE_SIZE) and the strikeout line (TS_FONT_STRIKEOUT_POSITION, TS_FONT_STRIKEOUT_SIZE). These values are getting calculated by the TextSuite library and this may looks much more different then other librarys.
The Copyright (TS_FONT_COPYRIGHT) is always nil / NULL.
If you are using an normal font and set the style italic the advances between the chars are not correct. It's probable that the printed text looks a bit strange. I allway pefer the use off real italic fonts.
This creator uses the functions from the Windows GDI.
Microsoft Windows (TM) NT or above. Windows 9x isn't supported yet. And Windows Vista (TM) isn't tested but it should work.
The creation of fonts allways must use the windows font manager so it's possible that he gave us an better matching font. For example. We want to use the font file "xyz.ttf" which contains the font with the name "XYZ" and the normal style. For the creation we set the italic style so the GDI should transform the font. But if an font is installed in windows with the same name an the italic style we get this font instead our font.
The patented Grid-Fitting and Hinting technics from the GDI sometimes may result in some jumps in fontweight if you increase the fontsize. For an example. If you increase the font Arial from size 17 to 18 the letters has an double weight. The letter i has two pixel width instead one.
It's simmilar to TS_CREATOR_GDI. But it use the name of the face instead of the filename. This is the typical way to access the fonts under the Windows operating system.
If you want to load an image with tsImageLoad the different librarys has different requirements. At this moment only SDL_image is supported als image loader. But it's possible to tranfer loaded images into the image objects.
Using SDL_image to load pictures into the image objects.
SDL in version 1.2 (libSDL-1.2.so.0) or SDL-devel (libSDL.so). Or under windows only an compatible SDL binary library.
SDL_image in version 1.2 (libSDL_image-1.2.so.0) or SDL_image-devel (libSDL_image.so). Or under windows only an compatible SDL_image binary library.
No important restrictions.
There are different objects they are able to render the Text. Primary of course opengl and the other is an output object which dosn't output anything. This can be used to perform calculations in threads.
The opengl renderer is the main renderer in the libary and it dosn't depends on any operating system.
OpenGL in version 1.1 (libGL.so.1) or under windows the opengl32.dll. Normally they are included in the operating system.
At this moment no addinional extensions are required.
No restrictions.
This renderer is included in the library and he don't makes anything and he requires nothing. And he also don't has any restrictions.