title: Tools for creating text as bitmaps (anti-aliased text, custom spacing, transparent background)
body: <p>I need to batch create images with text. Requirements:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>arbitrary size of bitmap</li>
  <li>PNG format</li>
  <li>transparent background</li>
  <li>black text anti-aliased against transparency</li>
  <li>adjustable character spacing</li>
  <li>adjustable text position (x and y coordinates where text begins)</li>
  <li>TrueType and/or Type1 support</li>
  <li>Unix command line tool or Python library</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>So far I've evaluated the following:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><a href="http://www.pythonware.com/library/pil/" rel="noreferrer">Python Imaging Library</a>: fails 5.</li>
  <li><a href="http://www.imagemagick.org/" rel="noreferrer">ImageMagick</a> ("caption" option): hard to figure out 6.</li>
  <li><a href="http://www.cairographics.org/documentation/pycairo/" rel="noreferrer">PyCairo</a>: fails 5.</li>
  <li><a href="http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/" rel="noreferrer">SVG</a> + <a href="http://www.imagemagick.org/script/convert.php" rel="noreferrer">ImageMagick convert</a>: most promising, although requires multiple tools</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>The problem with PIL is that e.g. the default spacing for Verdana is way too sparse. I need the text to be a bit tighter, but there's no way to adjust it in PIL.</p>
  
  <p>In ImageMagick I haven't found an easy way to specify where in the image the text begins (I'm using -size WIDTHxHEIGHT and caption:'TEXT'). Adding a transparent border will move the text away from the corner it's achored to, but</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>image size needs to be adjusted accordingly since border adds to the extents</li>
  <li>it's not possible to adjust horizontal and vertical offset independently</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Have I missed some obvious alternatives or failed to find necessary features from the above mentioned?</p>