Processing 1.0.9
Mac 10.6.2, MacBook Pro

//CODE
PFont font, font2;
void setup() {
size(400,150);
font = loadFont("Tahoma-48.vlw");
font2 = createFont("Tahoma", 48, true);
fill(255);
smooth();
}
void draw() {
background(0);
textFont(font,16);
text("The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog", 20, height/2-20);
textFont(font2,16);
text("The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog", 20, height/2+10);
}


// Creating a vlw font with the PDE using the Smooth option does not
produce the same quality font. Using createFont produces a much cleaner
and level font than using loadFont.

This is covered in the reference for createFont().

Could you have loadFont check for a native font as does createFont? Your
syntax is easy enough to parse. Tahoma-48.vlw = ("Tahoma", 48) Add a
boolean at the end for smoothing... loadFont("Tahoma-48.vlw", true); =
("Tahoma", 48, true)

It would be nice to have the native font option without having to create
the font at start. It would also reduce the ambiguity between the two methods.

Read the reference for loadFont().

Excellent! Thanks... Guess I should RTFM. :-)
Might be nice if "hint(ENABLE_NATIVE_FONTS);" was the default. From your
documentation, it appears to perform and look better.