mr_ped Messages: 826 Registered: November 2005 Location: Czech Republic - Praha
Experienced Contributor
I think ImageDraw does use OS API to draw fonts whenever possible, which looks to be in both GTK and NOGTK case of your test.
Painter is complete SW renderer from U++, so it is not affected by OS libraries, but on the other hand the level of features supported like using all the info out of font is limited.
With Painter you can anytime jump into the source, and suggest patches to improve it or just bend it for your custom needs.
With classic ImageDraw you can just take it or leave it, the code is inside OS, not U++. (maybe you can patch slightly the way how OS font rendering is called)