---
name: "lua-oocairo-fontopt"
section: "3"
platform: "linux"
package: "liblua5.1-oocairo0"
version: "1.4-1.2"
release: "Debian 7 (Wheezy)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/lua-oocairo-fontopt"
---

# lua-oocairo-fontopt(3)

options controlling text rendering

## Name

lua-oocairo-fontopt - options controlling text rendering

## Introduction

A font options object contains options that tell Cairo how to render text on surfaces.  They can be created with the `"font_options_create"` function in the main oocairo module (see [*lua-oocairo*(3)](/lua-oocairo/3.md)), and retrieved from scaled fonts or context objects with `"get_font_options"` methods.

Font options objects can be compared with the `"=="` operator.  Two different objects with the same options set will be considered equal.

## Methods

The following methods are available on font options objects:

- opt:copy ()

  Returns a new font options object, with identical options to *opt*. The two objects will be completely independent, so you can set them to have different options.

- opt:get\_antialias ()

  Get the current antialiasing mode, which will be one of the strings accepted by the `"opt:set_antialias()"` method.

- opt:get\_hint\_metrics ()

  Returns the current hint metrics option, which will be one of the same strings accepted by the `"opt:set_hint_metrics()"` method.

- opt:get\_hint\_style ()

  Get the kind of font hinting done when rendering text.  Returns one of the strings accepted by the `"opt:set_hint_style()"` method.

- opt:get\_subpixel\_order ()

  Returns the current ordering of colour components in pixels used for subpixel rendering, which will be one of the same strings accepted by the `"opt:set_subpixel_order()"` method.

- opt:hash ()

  Return a number which can be used as a hash key identifying the particular options in *opt*.  That is, if you wanted to cache fonts according to the options set on them, you could store them in a table with this hash value as the key.  Two font options objects with the same options will have the same hash value.

- opt:merge (srcopt)

  Add any options which are set to a non-default value in *srcopt* to *opt* if that still has the default value from them.  The options in *srcopt* will be unchanged.  Nothing is returned.

- opt:set\_antialias (antialiastype)

  Set the antialiasing mode used for drawing.  The argument must be a string or boolean value accepted by the `"set_antialias"` method on context objects (see [*lua-oocairo-context*(3)](/lua-oocairo-context/3.md)).

- opt:set\_hint\_metrics (hintmetrics)

  Set the kind of hinting to be applied to the metrics, as opposed to outlines, of the glyphs in a font.  The *hintmetrics* value must be one of the following strings:

  - default

    - off

    - on

    - opt:set\_hint\_style (hintstyle)

  Set the kind of font hinting done when rendering text.  The *hintstyle* value must be one of the following strings:

  - default

    - none

    - slight

    - medium

    - full

    - opt:set\_subpixel\_order (order)

  Used to inform Cairo of the arrangement of colour components in the pixels of a display device like a monitor.  Only applies if subpixel antialiasing is used.  The *order* value must be one of the following strings:

  - default

    - rgb

    - bgr

    - vrgb

    - vbgr

    The last two options refer to vertical arrangements of colours.