Arch Linux

filotek

Member

Registered: 2018-08-15

Posts: 25

[SOLVED] Electron35 font blurry (eg. slack-electron AUR package)

I'm using slack-electron AUR at work and ever since the slack AUR package was upgraded to use electron35, some of the fonts used (in main text and side-bar) are **blurry**.

# slack on electron34 (sharp)

# slack on electron35 (blurry)

If I rebuild the `slack-electron` package against `electron34` and remove the check for matching electron versions, the font is no longer blurry.

I'm guessing here but I'm wondering if it has something to do with the replacement of Freetype with Skrifa

The blurry fonts are also true against a number of web-pages using the latest version of Google-Chrome (AUR package).  But with google-chrome, I can mitigate this by **disabling** the flag #enable-fontations-backend (via chrome://flags).  But unlike with Google-Chrome, I haven't figured out a way to set those flags on an electron app.

Right now, it works with electron34, but I'd rather not have to downgrade the electron app version and remove the check in the PKGBUILD.

Some system details (in case it matters).

OS: Arch Linux x86_64
Kernel: Linux 6.14.3-arch1-1
Display (PA248QV): 1920x1200 @ 60 Hz in 24" [External]
WM: i3 (X11)

PS: I placed this in "Applications & Desktop Environments" because I believe this to be an electron35 issue, not a Slack issue.

Last edited by filotek (2025-04-23 14:00:15)

schard

Forum Moderator

From: Hannover

Registered: 2016-05-06

Posts: 2,251

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Electron35 font blurry (eg. slack-electron AUR package)

Mod note: Moving to AUR issues.

---

Inofficial first vice president of the Rust Evangelism Strike Force

Xephon

Member

Registered: 2024-12-22

Posts: 90

Re: [SOLVED] Electron35 font blurry (eg. slack-electron AUR package)

But unlike with Google-Chrome, I haven't figured out a way to set those flags on an electron app.

For electron apps try the following flag

--disable-features=FontationsFontBackend

filotek

Member

Registered: 2018-08-15

Posts: 25

Re: [SOLVED] Electron35 font blurry (eg. slack-electron AUR package)

Thanks @Xephon, that worked!

Knowing that chrome://flags#enable-fontations-backend is what I wanted to manipulate, I tried the following variations:

--disable-features=EnableFontationsBackend
--disable-features=FontationsBackend
--disable-features=Fontations
ELECTRON_FLAGS="--disable-features=Fontations" CHROME_FLAGS="--disable-features=Fontations" electron35 ....

All to no avail.  How did you know it would be expressly called "FontationsFontBackend"?  I tried googling for that but couldn't find anything?  Is there a list somewhere that maps chrome://flags to CLI feature names?

Xephon

Member

Registered: 2024-12-22

Posts: 90

Re: [SOLVED] Electron35 font blurry (eg. slack-electron AUR package)

https://www.reddit.com/r/hyprland/comme … _hyprland/

Mark thread as [SOLVED]

Last edited by Xephon (2025-04-23 13:54:03)