[Solved] KDE Apps 14.12, Plasma 5.2 & font rendering (Qt5 vs Qt4)

kostas213 · 2015-01-28 15:05:28

So today, I decided to install Plasma 5.2 to migrate from KDE Workspace 4. I had already noticed that some Qt5-based applications (like Kate) do not render the fonts exactly the same as the other Qt4-based applications (like Dolphin). Now that I have upgraded to Plasma 5.2, and I reconfigured the fonts from the system settings of Plasma 5.2, the issue remains. As you can see the anti-aliasing of Dolphin and Kate is different.

(Ignore the bilingual hell, this is due to some configuration that I have not yet done.)

Has anybody else noticed something similar? I have realized that both Qt4 and Qt5 applications read the ~.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf file, but I do not realize why the result is different.

Last edited by kostas213 (2015-03-01 10:36:08)

MekkaGodzilla · 2015-01-28 15:45:22

I had the same issue, before switching to plasma-next a couple of days ago (fonts in qt5 apps looked fuzzy).
Once upgraded, I went to system settings and changed the default font to DejaVu sans instead of oxygen, and it seems to have done the trick.

kostas213 · 2015-01-28 15:50:00

Yeah, I have also change to Droid Sans (my personal favorite) but still there is a difference.

I edited the first post with the picture I forgot to upload.

arojas · 2015-01-28 16:00:26

May be related to this
https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-41590
which will be fixed in Qt 5.4.1

kostas213 · 2015-01-28 16:45:40

Thanks! I'll check it again whet Qt 5.4.1. is released and I'll report back here.

shaurz · 2015-01-28 19:31:55

On a side note, has anyone noticed that Chrome has changed font rendering again? I wonder if this is due to running it under Plasma 5.2 or if this was a change in Chrome, because I updated both at the same time.

smirky · 2015-01-28 19:58:58

It's because of Plasma 5.2. I was lucky to have a second PC from which I copied my ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf. Plasma overwrites this file every time I try changing font size or something font related.

sokuban · 2015-02-06 11:57:32

I have the same problem as well. I don't use any special rendering, but I use fonts.conf to select preferred fonts. The screenshot also includes the relevant fonts.conf info. I then select "Sans" as my font, and that font is DejaVu Sans, followed by various versions of Noto Sans if a glyph that DejaVu doesn't have is needed. The screenshot highlights how Qt5 applications (konsole, in the middle) are different from Qt4 or gtk applications (dolphin at the top or leafpad at the bottom). Qt5 is clearly using a different font (I'm not sure which), while Qt4 and gtk are using the Noto Sans Korean for the Chinese characters (expected behaviour).

So to me it seems like Qt5 is basically ignoring my fonts.conf. Not sure what to do about this. No, my fonts.conf hasn't been overwritten by Plasma.

(Sorry about the blurriness of the picture, I had to resize it to upload it so that the letters wouldn't be too big.)

EDIT: Well, I have found a hack that solves my personal problem, but doesn't really address the issue. It turns out that Google (the maker of the fonts I use) was nice enough to create new versions of the fonts with a different default glyph style of your choosing. It turns out what was happening earlier was that Qt5 must have been understanding that I wanted Noto Sans, but it didn't let me choose Korean because something was telling it that the text was in Traditional Chinese, so it used the Noto Sans Traditional Chinese font. Now instead, I installed a different version of the font package where Noto Sans Korean is the default, and everything works perfectly. Actually even better, this nice font package uses Korean style glyphs for /all/ characters, even ones are aren't deemed Korean. I really like it.

Not sure if that makes any sense to anyone, but basically, I didn't find a real solution as to how to get Qt5 to listen to fontconfig, but thanks to Google's new version of the font I use, I have basically solved my aesthetic problems.

Last edited by sokuban (2015-02-27 07:23:30)

kostas213 · 2015-03-01 10:35:35

And yes, it's fixed with qt 5.4.1. Now the font rendering is correct. I mark the thread as solved.

firewalker · 2015-06-10 11:15:43

I still haven't migrated to the new KDE. Every Qt-5 application has fuzzy fonts. Any hints?

Qt 5.4.2

pb · 2015-06-10 12:57:17

Try to use infinality-bundle fonts. Look at: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Infinality

Arch Linux

#1 2015-01-28 15:05:28

[Solved] KDE Apps 14.12, Plasma 5.2 & font rendering (Qt5 vs Qt4)

#2 2015-01-28 15:45:22

Re: [Solved] KDE Apps 14.12, Plasma 5.2 & font rendering (Qt5 vs Qt4)

#3 2015-01-28 15:50:00

Re: [Solved] KDE Apps 14.12, Plasma 5.2 & font rendering (Qt5 vs Qt4)

#4 2015-01-28 16:00:26

Re: [Solved] KDE Apps 14.12, Plasma 5.2 & font rendering (Qt5 vs Qt4)

#5 2015-01-28 16:45:40

Re: [Solved] KDE Apps 14.12, Plasma 5.2 & font rendering (Qt5 vs Qt4)

#6 2015-01-28 19:31:55

Re: [Solved] KDE Apps 14.12, Plasma 5.2 & font rendering (Qt5 vs Qt4)

#7 2015-01-28 19:58:58

Re: [Solved] KDE Apps 14.12, Plasma 5.2 & font rendering (Qt5 vs Qt4)

#8 2015-02-06 11:57:32

Re: [Solved] KDE Apps 14.12, Plasma 5.2 & font rendering (Qt5 vs Qt4)

#9 2015-03-01 10:35:35

Re: [Solved] KDE Apps 14.12, Plasma 5.2 & font rendering (Qt5 vs Qt4)

#10 2015-06-10 11:15:43

Re: [Solved] KDE Apps 14.12, Plasma 5.2 & font rendering (Qt5 vs Qt4)

#11 2015-06-10 12:57:17

Re: [Solved] KDE Apps 14.12, Plasma 5.2 & font rendering (Qt5 vs Qt4)

Board footer