Image library with advanced text effects?

Question

What would be the best Python library to use when producing text-based images requiring things such as leading, kerning, outlines, drop-shadows, etc?

I've worked with PIL before for resizing images, but the methods for working with text seem rather limited. Is there a better alternative?

Answer 1

What you seem to want to do is exactly what LaTeX was designed for. With plasTeX, you can convert LaTeX markup to an image. Here's an example of what you can do with this (from the plasTeX documentation) .

Notice the shadows and text effects.

Answer 2

Cairo is very capable, and there are Python bindings to Cairo. Though, when I used it, I had to look into C documentation too.