[AmitMY]

Fixes #16.

Root cause

pixel_renderer/__init__ → processor → font_configurator.font_configurator imports gi.repository.Pango at module level. GI opens Pango (and with it the system libfreetype.so.6 / libharfbuzz.so.0) with RTLD_GLOBAL. renderer imports Pillow's ImageFont only afterwards, so when _imagingft loads, the dynamic linker resolves its FT_* / hb_* symbols against the system libraries, which are already in the global scope. Pillow's bundled FreeType even resolves its own internal exported calls (e.g. TT_RunIns) there.

So Pillow's FreeType 2.14 faces end up handled by system FreeType 2.13 functions. That's undefined behavior, and on CI it appears as a garbage getbbox and a SignWriting image hundreds of thousands of pixels wide.

Evidence (Ubuntu 24.04 container matching CI, LD_DEBUG=bindings):

	features.version("freetype2")	md5 of getbbox over all 62,592 SignWriting symbols
Pillow alone	2.14.3	91da38dd…
import pixel_renderer first (main)	2.13.2	a92a822b… (different bboxes)
import pixel_renderer first (this PR)	2.14.3	91da38dd…

Fix

Import PIL.ImageFont immediately before gi.repository in both modules that load Pango: font_configurator/font_configurator.py and pixel_renderer/renderer.py. (The first version only guarded pixel_renderer/__init__.py. CI still failed because on xdist worker gw1 the tests/font_configurator/* modules import font_configurator directly, before pixel_renderer.)

Test

tests/pixel_renderer/test_freetype_isolation.py runs subprocesses and checks that Pillow reports the same FreeType version after importing pixel_renderer, pixel_renderer.renderer or font_configurator.font_configurator as it does alone. It fails on main and passes here. The full suite passes (458).

Note: code that imports gi.repository.Pango itself before pixel_renderer will still hit this. Import order is the only lever available from Python.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

https://claude.ai/code/session_01Fy1wuWdqcKuebgj3St8dME

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Note

Low Risk
Import-order-only change with no API or runtime behavior change beyond fixing incorrect FreeType binding; residual risk if callers import Pango before these modules.

Overview
Fixes SignWriting rendering corruption on CI caused by a dynamic-linker clash: GObject Introspection loads Pango with RTLD_GLOBAL, so if Pango loads first, Pillow’s bundled FreeType/HarfBuzz can bind to the system libraries instead of its own, breaking getbbox and producing huge bogus images.

The PR forces PIL.ImageFont to import before gi.repository Pango in font_configurator.font_configurator and pixel_renderer.renderer, with comments pointing to issue #16.

A new regression test test_freetype_isolation.py spawns subprocesses and asserts Pillow still reports the same FreeType version after importing pixel_renderer, pixel_renderer.renderer, or font_configurator.font_configurator.

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