SDF vs. MSDF vs. Slug: GPU Text Rendering

GPU text rendering requires balancing speed and quality across multiple techniques: texture atlases are fast and compatible but blur when scaled, while newer methods like SDF, MSDF, and Slug render text directly from vector outlines for crispness at any size. Slug, an algorithm published in 2017 and recently released to public domain, represents the most advanced approach by rendering glyphs directly in the fragment shader without texture atlases or per-frame tessellation, eliminating the compromises of earlier methods.