SDF vs MSDF vs Slug vs Rive vs Texture Atlas: GPU Text Rendering Explained
How do I choose a text rendering algorithm between SDF, MSDF, Slug, Texture Atlas or Rive? Text looks simple until you have to draw it yourself. A letter is not a picture, it is a set of outlines: closed loops of straight lines and Bezier curves, filled according to a winding rule. Drawing that on a CPU into a bitmap is a solved problem. Drawing it on a GPU, crisply, at any size, under any 3D transform, while the text changes every frame, is not. Most engines dodge the hard version by baking glyphs into textures ahead of time and living[…]
September 23, 2026
