If you are into Java 2D and using OpenJDK, you will appreciate the efforts taken by the Java 9 team. Java 9 is mainly related to a graphics rasterizer, which is part of the current JDK. OpenJDK uses Pisces, whereas Oracle JDK uses Ductus. Oracle's closed-source Ductus rasterizer performs better than OpenJDK's Pisces.
These graphics rasterizers are useful for anti-aliased rendering except fonts. Hence, for a graphics-intensive application, the performance of this rasterizer is very important. However, Pisces is failing in many fronts and its performance problems are very visible. Hence, the team has decided to replace this with a different rasterizer called Marlin Graphics Renderer.
Marlin is developed in Java and, most importantly, it is the fork of the Pisces rasterizer. Various tests have been done on it and the results are very promising. It consistently performs better than Pisces. It demonstrates multithreaded scalability and even outperforms the closed-source Ductus rasterizer for a single-threaded application.
