Xft (2.0) provides a client-side font API for X applications. It uses
Fontconfig to select fonts and the X protocol for rendering them. When
available, Xft uses the Render extension to accelerate text drawing.
When Render is not available, Xft uses the core protocol to draw
client-side glyphs. This provides completely compatible support of
client-side fonts for all X servers.

Xft (2.0) hides most of the underlying system details so that developers
can confidently use its API to access client-side fonts in any X
environment.