v133 · graphics

Secure Rust Font Stack

The Rust font stack for Chrome integrates the Fontations font libraries into Chromium as a safe replacement for FreeType (https://github.com/googlefonts/fontations/). This project is a collaboration between Chrome and Google Fonts.

concepts

  1. Rust Font Stack

    Chrome's font shaping/rasterisation now runs through Rust components. Memory-safety hardening for a historically risky surface.

  2. Glyph render probe

    Six tricky glyph categories (flags, ZWJ, Thai, Devanagari conjuncts, ligatures, OT numerals) plus a canvas render timer and stack probe. The same output Fontations now produces.

  3. Variable font axes

    Slide wght / wdth / slnt and watch the same glyph reshape through Fontations — the hottest interpolation path through the new Rust stack.

  4. Font security explainer

    Side-by-side of FreeType (C) vs Fontations (Rust) vulnerability coverage — buffer overflow, use-after-free, integer overflow, null pointer — with a live Canvas rendering probe showing Devanagari, ZWJ emoji, ligatures, and math symbols rendered through the new safe stack.

why it shipped

The Rust font stack for Chrome integrates the Fontations font libraries into Chromium as a safe replacement for FreeType (https://github.com/googlefonts/fontations/). This project is a collaboration between Chrome and Google Fonts.

references