Rendering 2D Vector Graphics on Mobile GPU Devices

Abstract

Designers and artists world-wide rely on vector graphics to design and edit 2D artwork, illustrations and typographic content. There is a recent trend of vector graphic applications moving to mobile platforms such as iPads, iPhone and mobile phones and with that there is new interest in optimised techniques of rendering vector graphics on these devices. These vector applications are not read only but also requires real time vector editing experience. Our solution builds upon standard 'stencil then cover' paradigm and develops an algorithm targeted for GPUs based on tile based deferred rendering architecture. Our technique provides an efficient way to use signed distance based anti-aliasing techniques with 'stencil then cover' paradigm by employing a state machine during the fragment shader stage of graphics pipeline.