DirectWrite

Hello – my name is Sriram Subramanian and I am a Senior Program Manager on Windows 7 for text. As you can see from the updated title – this blog will start discussing the new DirectWrite text APIs in Windows 7 in addition to the WPF text and layout functionality. While I was at it, I thought it would be a good idea to update the theme also.

DirectWrite is being introduced in Windows 7 and is one of the new additions to the DirectX family of APIs. It provides the ease of use and the layered programming model for application developers to improve the text experience for their Windows applications. This is largely driven by the fact that modern Windows applications have sophisticated requirements for text in their UI and documents. These include better readability, support for a large variety of languages and scripts, and superior rendering performance. In addition, most existing applications require a way to carry forward existing investments in the Win32® code base. DirectWrite addresses these requirements. Check out the DirectWrite whitepaper that was distributed at the PDC.

-Sriram