RESOLVED Fonts on some websites on Firefox are pixelated in KDE Plasma

K4LCIFER · 2023-05-10 02:24:26

Solution

As found in this comment, the solution was to delete the following xorg fonts as they were being chosen over the proper ones:

xorg-fonts-100dpi
xorg-fonts-alias-100dpi
xorg-fonts-75dpi
xorg-fonts-alias-75dpi

Original Post

For example:

Firefox, and Chromium installed via Flatpak (I also tested the non flatpak version, and it had the issue as well)
Arch Linux
KDE Plasma v5.27.4, X11

Last edited by K4LCIFER (2023-05-10 16:04:41)

seth · 2023-05-10 05:54:13

Look at the uppercase "Q" - FF and Chrome do not resolve the same font, check what font the webpage uses and tehn your fontconfig itr.
Mozilla uses an internal fontconfig implementation that differs in its error handling (ie. every fontconfig you wrote is highly suspicious. Last time somebody had a bash-style comment "#" in there)

K4LCIFER · 2023-05-10 06:23:51

The original example that I gave of the Linux Mint Forums apparently needed Trebuchet MS, so I installed ttf-ms-win11-auto and that fixed the fonts for that; however, ebay is still lacking fonts. It claims that it needs Helvetica Neue; however, I should have that either through ttf-ms-win11-auto or ttf-liberation. I find it weird that I have to do this in the first place anyways, as I thought that webpages pull in the fonts that they need, and they don't rely on the user to have the fonts installed locally.

seth · 2023-05-10 06:39:00

I find it weird that I have to do this in the first place anyways, as I thought that webpages pull in the fonts that they need, and they don't rely on the user to have the fonts installed locally.

No. There's a fallback cascade and the page **CAN** use webfonts

The mint forum uses

"Trebuchet MS", Helvetica, Arial, Sans-serif;

so check

fc-match "Trebuchet MS"
fc-match Helvetica
fc-match Arial
fc-match Sans-serif

But again: the resolution of different fonts suggests that there's either an ill-formatted fontconfig statement or that you simply configured different sans-serif defaults in the browsers (which are going to be used if the specific fonts cannot be resovled)

Somehow you seem to be resolving some bitmap font.

K4LCIFER · 2023-05-10 06:46:40

seth wrote:

so check

fc-match "Trebuchet MS"
fc-match Helvetica
fc-match Arial
fc-match Sans-serif

$fc-match "Trebuchet MS"
trebuc.ttf: "Trebuchet MS" "Regular"

$fc-match Helvetica
arial.ttf: "Arial" "Regular"

$fc-match "Helvetica Neue"
NotoSans-Regular.ttf: "Noto Sans" "Regular"

$fc-match Arial
arial.ttf: "Arial" "Regular"

$fc-match Sans-serif
NotoSans-Regular.ttf: "Noto Sans" "Regular"

seth wrote:

But again: the resolution of different fonts suggests that there's either an ill-formatted fontconfig statement or that you simply configured different sans-serif defaults in the browsers

I haven't done any custom fontconfig, nor have I made any customizations to browser fonts. All that I have done is install fonts.

seth · 2023-05-10 06:49:36

fc-list | grep -i arial

Since Arial has the "\" crossing the "O" in the capital "Q", that's likely what you see.

K4LCIFER · 2023-05-10 06:51:28

seth wrote:

fc-list | grep -i arial
Since Arial has the "\" crossing the "O" in the capital "Q", that's likely what you see.

$fc-list | grep -i arial
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/arialbd.ttf: Arial:style=Bold,Negreta,tučné,fed,Fett,Έντονα,Negrita,Lihavoitu,Gras,Félkövér,Grassetto,Vet,Halvfet,Pogrubiony,Negrito,Полужирный,Fet,Kalın,Krepko,đậm,Lodia
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/arialbi.ttf: Arial:style=Bold Italic,Negreta cursiva,tučné kurzíva,fed kursiv,Fett Kursiv,Έντονα Πλάγια,Negrita Cursiva,Lihavoitu Kursivoi,Gras Italique,Félkövér dőlt,Grassetto Corsivo,Vet Cursief,Halvfet Kursiv,Pogrubiona kursywa,Negrito Itálico,Полужирный Курсив,Tučná kurzíva,Fet Kursiv,Kalın İtalik,Krepko poševno,nghiêng đậm,Lodi etzana
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/ariblk.ttf: Arial,Arial Black:style=Black,Regular,Normal,obyčejné,Standard,Κανονικά,Normaali,Normál,Normale,Standaard,Normalny,Обычный,Normálne,Navadno,Arrunta
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/ariali.ttf: Arial:style=Italic,Cursiva,kurzíva,kursiv,Πλάγια,Kursivoitu,Italique,Dőlt,Corsivo,Cursief,Kursywa,Itálico,Курсив,İtalik,Poševno,nghiêng,Etzana
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/arial.ttf: Arial:style=Regular,Normal,obyčejné,Standard,Κανονικά,Normaali,Normál,Normale,Standaard,Normalny,Обычный,Normálne,Navadno,thường,Arrunta

seth · 2023-05-10 07:01:14

So where is this coming from…

pacman -Qo /usr/share/fonts/TTF/arial.ttf

K4LCIFER · 2023-05-10 07:02:46

seth wrote:

So where is this coming from…
pacman -Qo /usr/share/fonts/TTF/arial.ttf

$ pacman -Qo /usr/share/fonts/TTF/arial.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/arial.ttf is owned by ttf-ms-win11-auto 10.0.22621.525-1

seth · 2023-05-10 07:10:36

The package likely skewed the results, wrt ebay

fc-list | grep -i helvetica

and do you have any of the xorg-fonts-* packages installed?

K4LCIFER · 2023-05-10 07:13:27

seth wrote:

The package likely skewed the results, wrt ebay
fc-list | grep -i helvetica

$ fc-list | grep -i helvetica
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvBO18.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvBO18-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvR14.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvO18-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvBO18.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvR24-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvBO08.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvBO10.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvR24-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvB18.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvR14.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvR24.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvO12.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvB08.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvB10.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvBO24-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvO12.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvR12-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvB24-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvB12-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvR24.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvR14-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvR08-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvR10-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvB12-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvB24-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvB08-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvB10-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvB14-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvR12-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvR14-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvR08-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvR10-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvB14.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvBO12.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvB08-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvB10-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvB14-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvB24.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvBO14.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvO08.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvO10.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvR18-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvB18-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvO08.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvO10.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvO24-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvO18.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvR18-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvO18.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvB18-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvR08.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvR10.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvBO18-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvBO24.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvR18.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvBO12-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvB12.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvBO14.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvBO14-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvBO08-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvBO10-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvBO24.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvO24-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvR08.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvR10.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvBO12.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvB14.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvR18.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvB24.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvO12-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvBO24-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvO14-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvO08-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvO10-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvR12.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvO12-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvB18.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvO14-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvO08-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvO10-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvO18-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvB08.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvB10.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvO24.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvO24.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvBO08-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvBO10-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvBO14-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvR12.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvBO08.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvBO10.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvB12.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvO14.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvBO12-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvO14.pcf.gz: Adobe Helvetica:style=Oblique

seth wrote:

and do you have any of the xorg-fonts-* packages installed?

$ yay -Qs xorg-fonts
local/xorg-font-util 1.4.0-1 (xorg-fonts xorg)
    X.Org font utilities
local/xorg-fonts-100dpi 1.0.4-2 (xorg)
    X.org 100dpi fonts
local/xorg-fonts-75dpi 1.0.4-1 (xorg)
    X.org 75dpi fonts
local/xorg-fonts-alias-100dpi 1.0.5-1
    X.org font alias files - 100dpi font familiy
local/xorg-fonts-alias-75dpi 1.0.5-1
    X.org font alias files - 75dpi font familiy
local/xorg-fonts-encodings 1.0.7-1 (xorg-fonts xorg)
    X.org font encoding files

seth · 2023-05-10 07:22:34

I suspect that FF resolves a font (Helvetica) out of xorg-fonts-*dpi
You could try to remove those packages and see whether it changes anything.
The alternative would be nimbus from gsfonts.

K4LCIFER · 2023-05-10 07:26:13

seth wrote:

I suspect that FF resolves a font (Helvetica) out of xorg-fonts-*dpi
You could try to remove those packages and see whether it changes anything.
The alternative would be nimbus from gsfonts.

Solved! After uninstalling the following, the issue was immediately resolved:

xorg-fonts-100dpi
xorg-fonts-alias-100dpi
xorg-fonts-75dpi
xorg-fonts-alias-75dpi

Thank you so much!!

Last edited by K4LCIFER (2023-05-10 07:26:48)

seth · 2023-05-10 11:21:18

Please always remember to mark resolved threads by editing your initial posts subject - so others will know that there's no task left, but maybe a solution to find.
Thanks.

In case you find yourself in need for those fonts, you may try the 70-no-bitmaps.conf rule

fc-conflist|grep -i bitmap

Or look out for a better Helvetica font - or that one of the metric-compatible ones gets preferred.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Metric … ible_fonts
Edit: also https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Micros … ilar_fonts

Last edited by seth (2023-05-10 11:22:11)

K4LCIFER · 2023-05-10 14:48:34

seth wrote:

Please always remember to mark resolved threads by editing your initial posts subject - so others will know that there's no task left, but maybe a solution to find.
Thanks.

There wasn't enough room in the subject to edit it, but I edited the original subject body.

seth wrote:

In case you find yourself in need for those fonts, you may try the 70-no-bitmaps.conf rule
fc-conflist|grep -i bitmap
Or look out for a better Helvetica font - or that one of the metric-compatible ones gets preferred.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Metric … ible_fonts
Edit: also https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Micros … ilar_fonts

How would I go about enabling that font should I need it? Also what is the reason for why the xorg fonts are being preferred over the proper ones in the first place?

seth · 2023-05-10 14:52:53

Simply shorten the subject.

You can enable the rule by symlinking it from /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail to /etc/fonts/conf.d (I'm pretty sure the wiki explains that somewhere)
They are preferred because they *are* the proper fonts in providing the most exact match for (in this case, I guess) Helvetica.
You can use fontconfig to overrule that and tell the system "no, this is the best match for helvetica"

Arch Linux

#1 2023-05-10 02:24:26