1) with Fontin Sans installed (otf font), text is converted to an outlined path
2) ...-noclip.svg with Bitstream Vera Sans: produces very pixellated pdf output.
I don't have other otf fonts on my system, so ATM I cannot compare how pango/cairo handle other fonts in this format. On OS X pango has (had?) issues with fonts in dfont and other (apple) font formats.
Without clipping, the results look similarly bad as described above by ezrakatz.
I get the same results as you now:
1) with Fontin Sans installed (otf font), text is converted to an outlined path
2) ...-noclip.svg with Bitstream Vera Sans: produces very pixellated pdf output.
I don't have other otf fonts on my system, so ATM I cannot compare how pango/cairo handle other fonts in this format. On OS X pango has (had?) issues with fonts in dfont and other (apple) font formats.
Without clipping, the results look similarly bad as described above by ezrakatz.