Fonts in Mageia

[zugunder]

Hi,
I have really ugly looking fonts in GTK applications (and in Opera and MCC as well). I looked through the forum - is it correct that the current lib64freetype doesn't have subpixel hinting support?
Is it possible to install a package with this library from any other distro, eg Suse or Mandriva?
Thank you.

[jkerr82508]

There's a package in /tainted/updates_testing. You'll probably need to enable that repo. It's disabled by default.

Jim

[zugunder]

Oh, forgot about that testing repo...
Installed from there - looks much better.
Thanks a lot!

[zugunder]

BTW, what is the difference between lib64freetype2 and lib64freetype6? Do they support hinting in different applications? I have the both of them installed and curious if they are both are necessary...
Thank you.

[David_Batson]

I found installing lib64freetype6-2.4.4-5.1.mga1.tainted and enabling sub-pixel rendering RGB with hinting set at slight (in Configure Your Desktop > Application Appearance > Fonts) using Force fonts DPI: 96 DPI made a big improvement on my system.

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=396&p=5706&hilit=fonts#p5706

[zugunder]

I found installing lib64freetype6-2.4.4-5.1.mga1.tainted and enabling sub-pixel rendering RGB with hinting set at slight (in Configure Your Desktop > Application Appearance > Fonts) using Force fonts DPI: 96 DPI made a big improvement on my system.

I have done exactly the same (well, maybe not that 96 DPI thingie...) and the fonts are definitely far better than before, but still, they are much worse than I had in Mandriva 2010.2. I still have "smudged" edges and non-white background between the letters. It looks like the lib64 has very aggressive hinting because normal or full hinting result in weird font effects, only slight is acceptable. In Mandriva (same laptop) I used to set it to full, and fonts looked just perfect.
And, BTW, LibreOffice fonts are quite bad too...

[martinw]

I found I had to do two things to get font rendering the same as on Mandriva 2010.0. One was to install a version of lib64freetype6 with sub-pixel rendering enabled (I built this myself, as there wasn't one in tainted at the time). The other was to disable the byte code interpreter for all fonts and use the auto-hinter instead. I did this by creating a file named "60-autohint.conf" in the directory "/etc/fonts/conf.d" with the contents:

Code: Select all

<match target="font">
  <edit mode="assign" name="autohint">
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
</match>


The combination of the byte code interpreter and anti-aliasing/sub-pixel rendering seems to lead to truly horrible results...

I use "medium" hinting - it seems to give nicer results at small font sizes.

[zugunder]

martinw
Thank you a lot! It worked for me.
With disabled bytecode interpreter all the deformations of the letters that were very well seen at normal and full hinting disappeared.
However, it seems that the yellowish "shade" from the letters is still present at certain sub-pixel rendering orders and that shade appears in different applications under different settings... But probably it is a matter of fonts that I use, will try to change them.
Thank you.

[martinw]

You're welcome.

I don't think it is possible to totally eliminate the slight colour fringing (I get blue shadows, not yellow) - you just have to pick fonts and settings that minimise it. I find the Liberation fonts work well for me.

[David_Batson]

Here is some good information on font configuration.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo ... on#Hinting

[zugunder]

Here is some good information on font configuration.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo ... on#Hinting

Well, it says that autohinting is not compatible with subpixel rendering...
I replaced the 60-autohint.conf in the directory /etc/fonts/conf.d with 60-hinting.conf:

Code: Select all

<match target="font">
  <edit mode="assign" name="hinting">
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
</match>

The results are pretty bad... Slight hinting gives too blurry letters, medium and full bring to distortions of the letters, mostly a, r and s... Color fringes are back too. Maybe I did something wrong?
BTW, how to set up the LCD filter mentioned in that wiki? I did not find any settings in /etc/fonts/conf.d...

Thank you.

UPD. Rolled back to initial settings - just deleted everything I put manually into /etc/fonts/conf.d.
Fonts in applications like LibreOffice and Akregator are OK, only in Opera they are unacceptable... Konqueror looks much better than Opera. FF is about the same as Opera though... Looks like the GTK browser is a problem.

[David_Batson]

I replaced the 60-autohint.conf in the directory /etc/fonts/conf.d with 60-hinting.conf:

I am in Fedora 15 Gnome at the moment using Opera. Got fonts looking pretty good here by using the following patches from infinality. I do not appear to have any 60-autohint.conf or 60-hinting.conf in Fedora (at least after installing infinality).

EDIT: Well I do have the following in Fedora.

Code: Select all

$ cat 10-autohint.conf
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
<!--  Use the Autohinter -->
  <match target="font">
    <edit name="autohint" mode="assign"><bool>true</bool></edit>
  </match>
</fontconfig>


I am using infinality's /etc/fonts/local.conf (see Recommendations in link below).

http://www.infinality.net/blog/

I also installed the XP and Vista webcore fonts from the link below:
http://avi.alkalay.net/linux/docs/font- ... ml#msfonts

[zugunder]

David_Batson
Thank you for information. As far as I understood from the description, the patch affects system-wide settings. I am not sure, but in my case it looks like the Qt applications are fine, only GTK (particularly, Opera and FF) have problems with rendering. I have installed lib64freetype6-2.4.4-5.1.mga1.tainted, but the fonts are still no good.
I tried to use autohint as suggested by martinw, but though I can improve Opera fonts a little, the fonts in Qt applications become too bad...
Here I attached the screenshots taken from Opera and Konqueror under the same conditions: RGB sub-pixel rendering and full hinting. As you can see, in Opera there are severe deformations of the letters... while Konqueror looks fine. (I'd even use Konqeror instead of Opera and FF, but because of the very old bug it can't open e-mails in Hotmail...)

[wobo]

Hmm, I just looked at Opera (normally I use Firefox) and I do not see real problems. I don't use Hotmail so I can not show the very same screenshot. I selected a page we all know. This screenshot shows Firefox in Mageia 1 without any change to the standard fonts display:

[zugunder]

Wobo, what are the font settings in use?

[zugunder]

The same page in Opera and Konqueror (RGB, slight hinting)
This is the best I can get from Opera... Increased hinting makes Konqueror look slightly better, Opera (and FF) get rid of yellowish shades, but the letters get deformed...
Once again, in Konqueror at any settings there are neither coloration nor letter deformations present. Never.
And take a look at the address bars and tabs - can you see the differences in fonts there?
And BTW, the same Dejavu Sans is in use in the both browsers.

Konqueror

konqueror1.png (40.82 KiB) Viewed 13211 times

[wobo]

Wobo, what are the font settings in use?

Standard installation, never cared to change anything. I would have to search for the place where this is set.

[zugunder]

It is in System Settings/Application Appearance/Fonts

[wobo]

Ok, here is (in German but you may understand the screenshot, hopefully)

[zugunder]

Aber natuerlich, Ich kann...
But the important settings are located here, under "Configure":

[wobo]

Yes, but the "configure" dialogue is available only if you enable anti-aliasing, which is not the case here. As I am quite content with the fonts display I see no reason to change anything.

[isadora]

Use droid-sans here, anti-aliasing: enabled, force fonts dpi: 96 dpi, no rendering, hinting style: medium.
Am satisfied in every way.

[zugunder]

And one more thing...
Reading the Archlinux manual, posted above by David_Batson, I realized that I can't find anything about LCD filter in font settings in Mageia.
So I created 10-lcd-filter.conf file in /etc/fonts/conf.d as recommended:

Code: Select all

<match target="font">
    <edit mode="assign" name="lcdfilter">
      <const>lcddefault</const>
    </edit>
  </match>

Almost all fringing is gone! At any settings.
Do you think Mageia teem should take care of that - I mean, to make it default?

[zugunder]

Yes, but the "configure" dialogue is available only if you enable anti-aliasing, which is not the case here. As I am quite content with the fonts display I see no reason to change anything.

You're tough... My eyes ache when I see fonts like yours.

[wobo]

Yes, but the "configure" dialogue is available only if you enable anti-aliasing, which is not the case here. As I am quite content with the fonts display I see no reason to change anything.

You're tough...

No, I wear glasses when working on my computers.