Fast, memory efficient and resolution independent rendering of cubic Bézier curves using tessellation shaders

Abstract

Cubic Bézier curves are an integral part of vector graphics. Standard formats such as Adobe Postscript, SVG, Font definitions and PDF describe Path objects as a composition of cubic Bézier curves. Drawing cubic Bézier curves often requires drawing strokes which are less than one device pixel in width. Such strokes, commonly referred to as thin strokes, are very common in creative workflows but rendering them, being computationally expensive, slows down creative content process. Conventionally, thin strokes were rendered with CPU techniques. However, the advent of GPU programming in the last decade or so, has led to development of SIMD techniques suitable for rendering thin strokes on GPUs. These GPU