I Need Some Font Guidance...

Mindstormscreator · 2012-09-01 20:45:41

Hello,

I've looked though the wiki and through some posts here and I'm trying to get a nice standard system font, but I'm having some trouble. I'm on Arch64 with Xfce using Verdana 10 currently, and I don't know if the font rendering is "good" or not. I'm using the Ubuntu rendering patch set instead of Infinality as I couldn't make it look very good, but maybe I just need some help there. I have screenshots:

Chromium on the front of Youtube (is it just me or is the font too small?)

Chromium header close up:

Chromium on Arch Forums:

Thunar:

Thanks for the help! This is like the "final step" in setting up Arch for me.

EDIT: Improved image quality.

Last edited by Mindstormscreator (2012-09-01 20:53:52)

George · 2012-09-01 21:32:11

Well I expect we'll have no trouble arguing over aspects for font rendering long enough to end up in Topics Going Nowhere

You're the person who's going to be looking at your screen for hours on end... if you think the fonts are too small then they're too small... if you can read the text on screen easily without finding it unclear then its rendering fine. That's all there is there is to it.

EDIT: If on the other hand there's something you don't like about it, even if its just that it looks "odd" to you then by all means tell us, I'm sure there'll be someone who can help you tweak it to your liking. My point was aiming to be that you won't benefit from tweaking it to someone else's liking.

Last edited by George (2012-09-01 21:34:44)

bohoomil · 2012-09-01 21:54:41

Mindstormscreator wrote:

...and I don't know if the font rendering is "good" or not.

Can your eyes see a good image, or a bad one? Your very own eye is your best judge.

If you have some spare time to experiment, however, you can pull my font configs and check if the difference really matters to you.

Last edited by bohoomil (2012-09-01 22:03:22)

graysky · 2012-09-01 22:20:40

Had the same issues on my machine. Here is how I solved it:

Install from the AUR:

fontconfig-infinality
freetype2-infinality
ttf-droid-sans

Then:

# /etc/fonts/infinality/infctl.sh setstyle

Select a style:
1) debug       3) linux	      5) osx2	     7) win98
2) infinality  4) osx	      6) win7	     8) winxp
#? 6
conf.d -> styles.conf.avail/win7

Setup 'Driod Sans/10' as your default font and make sure the DPI you setup matches that of your monitor. Find the "right" anti-aliasing and hinting settings for your monitor. Restart X. Look better?

Last edited by graysky (2012-09-01 22:21:13)

bwat47 · 2012-09-02 00:03:57

I use infinality with the default infinality settings with segoe UI for my main and consolas for myconsole font (also have the rest of the XP/vista fonts installed), and it looks just great IMO:

http://ompldr.org/vZmJyZA
http://ompldr.org/vZmJyYw
http://ompldr.org/vZmJyYg

Last edited by bwat47 (2012-09-02 00:06:00)

cfr · 2012-09-02 01:30:43

One way to tell whether the fonts look "good" (for you) is to use the system to do some work or play - whatever you usually use the system for whether that's typing text, reading documents, browsing, whatever. If you find the fonts distracting and they bug you, tweaking is in order. If you don't notice them once you're absorbed in what you are doing, they are probably a reasonably good fit for your tastes.

It is different when it comes to printing a document for others etc. Or using a laptop to present slides or whatever. Then it matters that the fonts are "good" for other people, too!

Last edited by cfr (2012-09-02 01:31:42)

Mindstormscreator · 2012-09-02 21:21:26

First off, thanks for all of the replies so far. I've tried a lot of what was said, but so far I haven't really found the "perfect" configuration. It seems that whatever rendering style or font I try there's always blurred edges or slightly colored edges or something, and it's pretty annoying. I'll keep playing with Infinality settings for now I guess.

bwat47 · 2012-09-03 03:24:06

Mindstormscreator wrote:

First off, thanks for all of the replies so far. I've tried a lot of what was said, but so far I haven't really found the "perfect" configuration. It seems that whatever rendering style or font I try there's always blurred edges or slightly colored edges or something, and it's pretty annoying. I'll keep playing with Infinality settings for now I guess.

In addition to the infctl customization tips posted by graysky, infinality also provides additional customization in the following file:

/etc/profile.d/infinality-settings.sh

That file contains many things to tweak and multiple presets. To find the optimal rendering you will probably want to tweak with both infctl and /etc/profile.d/infinality-settings.sh. There are multiple settings in infinality-settings.sh that deal with color fringing and how sharp the fonts render (you can try tweaking the LCD filter setting for example, the default stronger gibson filter can be too blurry for some, there are multiple sharper filters to choose from.)

The infinality forums are also a good place to ask for help if you have any specific problems with the rendering, the infinality author is an active poster there and is very helpful.

Last edited by bwat47 (2012-09-03 03:31:24)

unknwn · 2012-09-03 07:00:24

Mindstormscreator wrote:

First off, thanks for all of the replies so far. I've tried a lot of what was said, but so far I haven't really found the "perfect" configuration. It seems that whatever rendering style or font I try there's always blurred edges or slightly colored edges or something, and it's pretty annoying. I'll keep playing with Infinality settings for now I guess.

Can you post a screenshot of your fonts after installing fontconfig-infinality freetype2-infinality?

dejavu · 2012-09-03 12:34:38

So now I have also invested some time to get a good font rendering.
At the end I have done this so far:
- Installed ttf-dejavu, ttf-droid, ttf-ms-fonts
- Installed fontconfig-infinality, freetype2-infinality, lib32-freetype2-infinality
- Set with infctl setstyle: 2) infinality
- Set in Gnome Tweak Tool:
- Fonts: Droid Sans equivalents
- Hinting: Full
- Antialising: Rgba

I'm pretty happy with this setup.
But now my question:
In the wiki it is mentioned that the local.conf file isn't needed for infinality.
Regarding my last step: Isn't this already set by choosing a infinality style? If this is not so, where can I set this setting when using openbox window manager?

Thanks

Last edited by dejavu (2012-09-03 17:31:46)

Mindstormscreator · 2012-09-03 13:40:48

dejavu wrote:

So now I have also invested some time to get a good font rendering.
At the end I have done this so far:
- Installed some ttf fonts
- Installed fontconfig-infinality, freetype2-infinality, lib32-freetype2-infinality
- Set with infctl setstyle: 2) infinality
- Set in Gnome Tweak Tool: Hinting: Slight and Antialising: Rgba
I'm pretty happy with this setup.

What fonts did you install exactly? It seems fonts are still tripping me up.

And I'm not exactly sure if choosing an infinality style is the same as changing the hinting and anti-aliasing, but I think you may be able to change those in Openbox without ridiculous dependencies with lxappearance, not completely sure though.

dejavu · 2012-09-03 17:35:39

Mindstormscreator wrote:

dejavu wrote:
So now I have also invested some time to get a good font rendering.
At the end I have done this so far:
- Installed some ttf fonts
- Installed fontconfig-infinality, freetype2-infinality, lib32-freetype2-infinality
- Set with infctl setstyle: 2) infinality
- Set in Gnome Tweak Tool: Hinting: Slight and Antialising: Rgba
I'm pretty happy with this setup.
What fonts did you install exactly? It seems fonts are still tripping me up.
And I'm not exactly sure if choosing an infinality style is the same as changing the hinting and anti-aliasing, but I think you may be able to change those in Openbox without ridiculous dependencies with lxappearance, not completely sure though.

Updated previous post (fonts and hinting).
Thanks for the lxappearance tip. So it seems that hinting and antialiasing have also to be set.

EDIT: Still not totally happy with that.

Last edited by dejavu (2012-09-03 17:38:23)

cfr · 2012-09-03 22:20:32

The infinality style should set some hinting and antialiasing and certain font substitutions. Similarly for the other styles available.

But it maybe that you don't like any of the styles perfectly and want to tweak one. You can do this using the config for infanility and fontconfig under /etc/fonts by creating custom copies of files, for example, and editing them. You can do this either as global defaults or for particular fonts, for example. So I don't think any further tweaking tool is essential - it is probably just doing what you could do with config files.

brebs · 2012-09-03 22:40:33

dejavu wrote:

- Set in Gnome Tweak Tool:
...
- Hinting: Full

Ignore Gnome's settings. Use fontconfig, with the usual cairo-respect-fontconfig.patch (finally in Gentoo also), so that hinting can be tweaked with the full flexibility of fontconfig's rules.

Mindstormscreator · 2012-09-06 21:18:12

I found a good starting point is to install vanilla freetype2 packages instead of the infinality ones and completely copy over Chakra Linux's font configuration from /etc/fonts. I'm guessing it isn't the neatest thing you could do (I'm getting errors whenever the font cache is updated), but it seems to work pretty well.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-09-01 20:45:41

I Need Some Font Guidance...

#2 2012-09-01 21:32:11

Re: I Need Some Font Guidance...

#3 2012-09-01 21:54:41

Re: I Need Some Font Guidance...

#4 2012-09-01 22:20:40

Re: I Need Some Font Guidance...

#5 2012-09-02 00:03:57

Re: I Need Some Font Guidance...

#6 2012-09-02 01:30:43

Re: I Need Some Font Guidance...

#7 2012-09-02 21:21:26

Re: I Need Some Font Guidance...

#8 2012-09-03 03:24:06

Re: I Need Some Font Guidance...

#9 2012-09-03 07:00:24

Re: I Need Some Font Guidance...

#10 2012-09-03 12:34:38

Re: I Need Some Font Guidance...

#11 2012-09-03 13:40:48

Re: I Need Some Font Guidance...

#12 2012-09-03 17:35:39

Re: I Need Some Font Guidance...

#13 2012-09-03 22:20:32

Re: I Need Some Font Guidance...

#14 2012-09-03 22:40:33

Re: I Need Some Font Guidance...

#15 2012-09-06 21:18:12

Re: I Need Some Font Guidance...

Board footer