IIUC, experts in this discussion (2024) agree that cairo_show_text_glyphs is the most recommended way to draw text. This function works for all cairo surfaces, but the recommendation is especially for vectorized surfaces (e.g. to export a PDF). I wrote bindings to that function in an experimental class: AeCairoTextToGlyphShaping>>#showTextGlyphsOn:, but we don't use it from AeCanvas.