Anecdotal Survey of Variations in Path Stroking among Real-world Implementations

Abstract

Stroking a path is one of the two basic rendering operations in vector graphics standards (e.g., PostScript, PDF, SVG). We survey path stroking rendering results from real-world software implementations of path stroking for anecdotal evidence that such implementations are prone to rendering variances. While our survey is limited and informal, the rendering results we gathered indicate widespread rendering variations for simple-but-problematic stroked paths first identified decades ago. We conclude that creators of vector graphics content would benefit from a mathematically grounded standardization for how a stroked path should be rasterized.