sdf-text

name	sdf-text
description	Work with Pulp's SDF / MSDF / PSDF glyph atlases — building, sampling via SkSL, and the shared text-layout helpers.

SDF Text

Pulp renders text through a GPU-sampled signed-distance-field pipeline so a single atlas serves every font size with crisp edges. This skill is for when you are touching core/canvas/src/sdf_atlas.cpp, msdf_atlas.cpp, or the shader files, or when you add call-sites that consume pulp/canvas/sdf_text.hpp.

Where things live

• core/canvas/include/pulp/canvas/sdf_atlas.hpp — single-channel atlas
• core/canvas/include/pulp/canvas/msdf_atlas.hpp — multi-channel atlas (RGB/RGBA)
• core/canvas/include/pulp/canvas/psdf_atlas.hpp — pseudo-SDF + vector-fallback policy
• core/canvas/include/pulp/canvas/sdf_text.hpp — SdfPenSnap, SdfTextOptions, build_text_quads<AtlasT>(), fill_text_sdf/msdf/psdf<AtlasT>()
• core/canvas/shaders/sdf_text.sksl — single-channel sampler
• core/canvas/shaders/msdf_text.sksl — median(r,g,b) sampler
• docs/reference/sdf-text.md — rendering pipeline reference
• examples/sdf-text-demo/ — runtime SDF text rendering and bloom demo
• examples/sdf-vs-msdf-demo/ — console SDF/MSDF atlas dump; MSDF RGB output is currently single-channel-equivalent until msdfgen is wired
• examples/sdf-effects-demo/ — enumerates host-side effect presets and writes software-rendered baseline files; visual effects wait for the SkSL draw path

Gotchas

1. Metrics fall back silently when Skia has no default typeface. In headless tests SdfAtlas::build("") can leave advance = base_size and bearing_y = base_size for every glyph. Write tests that assert invariants that hold in both the real and fallback paths, and tighten only when you can detect the real path was taken (gM->advance != gi->advance). See test_sdf_atlas.cpp.
2. fwidth gives you subpixel AA for free. Do not add a second softness uniform for "anti-alias width" — snapping belongs at the pen (host side), not in the shader.
3. include_alpha=true changes the pixel stride from 3 to 4 bytes. Use MsdfAtlas::channels() rather than assuming 3.
4. Templated quad builder. build_text_quads<AtlasT>() only requires that the atlas expose glyph(c), base_size(), and the usual SdfGlyph-shaped fields. That means the same helper works for every atlas variant; do not branch on type.
5. Vector fallback threshold defaults to 8×. should_use_vector_fallback is a pure policy helper; callers decide at draw time whether to hit the Skia path rasterizer instead of the SDF sampler.
6. Always call SkFont via the SkSpan overloads. The historical (pointer, count, ...) forms of unicharsToGlyphs, textToGlyphs, getWidthsBounds, getWidths, getPos, getXPos, getPaths, and getIntercepts are gated behind SK_SUPPORT_UNSPANNED_APIS in include/core/SkFont.h. On Skia builds where that macro is not defined (including some chrome/m144 drops), the overloads vanish and sdf_atlas.cpp fails to compile. On this repo PULP_HAS_SKIA is only set when libskia.a links successfully, so the break can hide behind a headers-only pin — confirm by building pulp-canvas against a tree that ships libskia.a (e.g. SKIA_DIR=<other-worktree>/external/skia-build) so the compile path exercises real Skia libraries, not just headers.

Build + test loop

cmake --build build --target \
  pulp-test-sdf-atlas pulp-test-msdf-atlas pulp-test-psdf-atlas \
  pulp-test-sdf-text pulp-test-sdf-effects \
  pulp-sdf-text-demo pulp-sdf-vs-msdf-demo pulp-sdf-effects-demo \
  -j$(sysctl -n hw.ncpu)

./build/test/pulp-test-sdf-atlas
./build/test/pulp-test-msdf-atlas
./build/test/pulp-test-psdf-atlas
./build/test/pulp-test-sdf-text
./build/test/pulp-test-sdf-effects
./build/examples/sdf-text-demo/pulp-sdf-text-demo
./build/examples/sdf-vs-msdf-demo/pulp-sdf-vs-msdf-demo   # writes /tmp/pulp-*-atlas.{pgm,ppm}
./build/examples/sdf-effects-demo/pulp-sdf-effects-demo   # writes /tmp/pulp-sdf-effects-*.pgm

Future work (deferred, see planning/next-features-plan.md § Feature 4)

• Vendor Chlumský's msdfgen library (MIT) for shape-decomposed channels
• Wire SdfEffectParams through a SkSL-backed draw path so glow / shadow / outline / bevel visibly render
• Runtime atlas growth + LRU eviction