# Chlumsky/msdfgen

Multi-channel signed distance field generator

Repository: https://github.com/Chlumsky/msdfgen
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/msdfgen
Language: C++
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-05-17T16:36:04+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 66/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 82, release rhythm 27, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3783, "days_push": 108, "days_rel": 276, "gap_med": 182, "n_releases_24m": 2}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 4912, forks 513 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:02.293405+00:00)

## What it is
A C++ library and console tool that generates multi-channel signed distance fields (MSDFs) from vector shapes and font glyphs. The resulting textures allow real-time graphics to reproduce shapes with sharp corners and high-quality scaling.

## Use cases
- generate signed distance field textures for game UI text rendering
- render crisp scalable font glyphs in OpenGL or Vulkan
- convert SVG vector shapes to SDF textures
- generate multi-channel SDFs with sharp corners
- create distance field atlases for real-time graphics

## When to choose
- you need high-quality scalable text or shape rendering in a game engine
- you want to generate MSDF textures from fonts or SVG files
- you need a dependency-free core library with optional extensions for FreeType and PNG output

## When to avoid
- you need full font atlas generation out of the box (use msdf-atlas-gen instead)
- your project does not involve real-time graphics or texture-based rendering

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: graphics, image-processing, cli
- domain: graphics, developer-tools
- platform: cpp, cross-platform, cli, windows
- tags: signed-distance-field, sdf, msdf, font-rendering, text-rendering, vector-graphics, real-time-graphics, game-development

## Member repositories
- Chlumsky/msdfgen (main) score 66

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:02.293405+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:18:04.070466+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/Chlumsky/msdfgen (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:02.293405+00:00, sha 35ee8f652aa4)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.