# servo/pathfinder

A fast, practical GPU rasterizer for fonts and vector graphics

Repository: https://github.com/servo/pathfinder
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/pathfinder
Language: Rust
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-04-23T11:40:36+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 58/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 78, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3525, "days_push": 132, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 3896, forks 238 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:28.479112+00:00)

## What it is
Pathfinder 3 is a fast GPU-based rasterizer for fonts and vector graphics, usable from Rust or C/C++ via a canvas-like API. It supports OpenGL 3.0+, OpenGL ES 3.0+, WebGL 2, and Metal, with compute-shader and hardware rasterization backends.

## Use cases
- render vector graphics on the GPU in a Rust app
- fast font rendering with subpixel antialiasing
- render SVG efficiently at high performance
- replace CPU rasterizers with GPU-accelerated 2D rendering
- embed canvas-style 2D drawing in a C/C++ application
- render text with hinting and gamma correction on LCD screens

## When to choose
- you need high-performance 2D vector or font rendering accelerated by the GPU
- you want a canvas-like API in Rust or C/C++
- you need high-quality antialiasing or advanced text rendering features
- your workload involves many overlapping vector paths or SVG content

## When to avoid
- you need a fully complete, production-hardened rasterizer - the project is under heavy development and incomplete in areas
- you need Direct3D or Vulkan backends - none exist yet
- you only need simple CPU-based rendering without GPU dependencies
- you need complete C bindings - they are less mature than the Rust API

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: graphics, image-processing, gpu-computing
- domain: graphics, web-development, developer-tools
- platform: rust, cpp, cross-platform
- tags: font-rendering, vector-graphics, rasterization, opengl, metal, webgl, svg, canvas-api, antialiasing, gpu

## Member repositories
- servo/pathfinder (main) score 58

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:28.479112+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 2026-08-29T18:25:35.357471+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/servo/pathfinder (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:28.479112+00:00, sha 151e4ee3aec2)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.