Fonts fonts fonts....

jochu · 2004-09-03 23:45:22

I switched over from Slackware 10 to Arch Linux just last night to test the waters. I wasn't all too disappointed, until it came to dealing with the fonts.

I went off trying to get them to look like they did back in slackware (especially for fvwm & it's use of xft for fonts). So I got cracking... Lots of what I've read around just didn't help, but eventually I got it to like how did in slack... And this what I did:

* note: I guess you could skip 1 & 2 & maybe even 3 if you don't use gnome apps Which is all but one step...
1) Installed gnome (paman -S gnome) -- mostly because I use gnome applications
2) Set gnome fonts (gnome-font-properties) -- to get gnome fonts looking nice & pretty.
3) Edit /etc/profile.d/gnome.sh and append

export GDK_USE_XFT=1

4) Here's the main thing: Recompile freetype2 except without the bytecode patch.

My PKGBUILD:

# $Id: PKGBUILD,v 1.21 2004/07/03 21:26:16 judd Exp $
# Maintainer: judd <jvinet@zeroflux.org>
force=y
pkgname=freetype2
pkgver=2.1.9
pkgrel=1
pkgdesc="TrueType font rendering library"
url="http://freetype.sourceforge.net"
depends=('glibc' 'zlib')
source=(ftp://gd.tuwien.ac.at/publishing/freetype/freetype2/freetype-$pkgver.tar.bz2)
install=freetype2.install
md5sums=('ec1b903e4be5f073caa72458ea58c29c')

build() {
  cd $startdir/src/freetype-$pkgver
  ./configure --prefix=/usr
  make || return 1
  make DESTDIR=$startdir/pkg install
}

** uses old freetype2.install located at /var/abs/lib/freetype2/freetype2.install
[edit] -- Umm, you might want to use version 2.1.7 though. 2.1.9 has issues with mozilla and seg faults on certain pages that use bitmap fonts.

Install that package, shutdown X, logout and log back in so GDK_USE_XFT will be set, and then try it out

I don't know if this'll work for everybody, but it did for me and I'm enjoying it. Oh, and a screen to show what it looks like.

Hope this helps someone out there,
- jochu[/b]

i3839 · 2004-09-04 00:30:29

What's wrong with the bytecode patch? What monitor do you have: CRT or TFT?

Next time make a png instead of a jpg, png is lossless so you won't lose quality. With tricky things like fonts you definitely don't want jpeg messing it up.

That "export GDK_USE_XFT=1" looks useful, if it does anything (shouldn't it be the default??).

jochu · 2004-09-04 00:34:38

It doesn't default on in arch linux. And the bytecode patch makes the font a little off (and in my opinion.. ugly). Here, let me revert back to what it was and take a screen and show you the difference. (And yeah, okay.. I'll take a screen as a png and hope to high heaven the image host supports it... )

jochu · 2004-09-04 00:56:00

Alright, alright. Check this out...

without bytcode

vs.

with bytecode

Key things to look at is the menu and the titles of the windows. (Rendered with xft / fvwm). Some of the other text within the browser also look fuller if you look closely. -- Oh, and I use a CRT monitor... (which could be why I prefer it this way. I don't know )

i3839 · 2004-09-04 12:10:05

Hm, I see the difference, but I think it's a matter of taste. I slightly prefer the bytecode version.

ganlu · 2004-09-05 05:03:44

I think Arch should turn on xft by default, we may file it as a bug.

Thikasabrik · 2004-09-05 12:30:03

Exactly what does this GDK_USE_XFT thing do? My fonts look very nice and I have not done this. However, I also much prefer to have a range of font sizes without smoothing and to leave the bytecode patch in, using the MS fonts. KDE has GUI for setting a range of sizes not to smooth, gnome does not, but it can still be set by editing the /home/user/.fonts.conf file. Mine looks like this..

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
 <match target="font" >
  <test compare="more" name="pixelsize" qual="any" >
   <double>10</double>
  </test>
  <test compare="less" name="pixelsize" qual="any" >
   <double>14</double>
  </test>
  <edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
   <bool>false</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <dir>~/.fonts</dir>
</fontconfig>

Here is a screenshot that demonstrates how this works.

jochu · 2004-09-08 10:37:12

Well, I seriously guess it's a matter of personal preference. No wrong or right way to have it. I just found the way I guess I grew VERY used to in the past (with slackware) and choose to keep it that way.

There's also this one thing that the bytecode patch tends to do that REALLY bothers me. It's that some spacing between characters (in inkscape) is off. It's either the space between characters is too large or too small and stuff just gets very jumbled. When designing, you have no idea how horrific it gets. It just makes some fonts like Bitstream Vera Sans unusable. (Arial has the same exact effect)

I'll post a demo in a sec....
[edit]

I take that back. Hah - my apologies. My own dumb settings and changes mucked that part up. Well, I guess I take most of the second paragraph. Sorry

ganlu · 2004-09-09 04:15:20

I guess it will take much diffirence in some CJK environment, Chinese looks much better when I turn on the XFT. Are there any CJK user report this?

phrakture · 2004-10-14 14:42:24

the same effect could be gained by simply enabling the autohinter in /etc/fonts/local.conf (see /etc/fonts/fonts.conf for the syntax)...
what you're doing is disabling the bytecode interpretter so it falls back onto the internal auto-hinter....

phrakture · 2004-10-14 15:34:28

updated my wiki portion:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/XOr … figuration

skoal · 2004-10-15 05:08:58

phrakture wrote:

updated my wiki portion:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/XOr … figuration

That wiki is helpful. One thing which really helped with my older GTK+1.2 apps was using the ".gtkrc" config in my home directory. It helped for apps like XMMS which had fonts way out of proportion. I don't know where that ".gtkrc" file came from, but I've been using it since.

cactus · 2004-10-15 06:28:03

hey phrakture. Could you add the stuff do disable aliasing for a range of font sizes...at least an example of it.
I think it is on the forum somewhere, along with all the other useful font tidbits scattered here and there...but it would be nice to have it all in one place...

phrakture · 2004-10-15 14:37:34

the first sample in /etc/fonts/local.conf should actually have this - it is commented out, but it disables AA for font sizes 12 and under... it could easilly be modified... I'll add this anyway (done)

lafayette · 2004-10-24 23:17:21

I Can't get readable fonts on mozilla firefox and also other browsers, the one seen in your screenshot are prett, how do you did? I followed you instructions, but nothing....

punkrockguy318 · 2004-10-25 00:39:26

Am I just weird? I like the bytecode

phrakture · 2004-10-25 04:54:21

i do too

oscar · 2004-10-25 16:56:52

I don't have the bytecode patch on my workstation (running arch), and the fonts are t e h 1 3 3 7.
but on my laptop, running freebsd, I don't have the bytecode either, but the fonts aren't that good - it might be the difference in resolution (I have 100+ on my workstation and 75 on my laptop).

anyways - thanks for the PKGBUILD!

phrakture · 2004-10-25 17:16:22

ack, no... dont rebuild freetype - read the wiki link i posted on the last page - it has the syntax to disable bytecode interpretation without recompiling (like most good programs, there's a switch to not use it)

oscar · 2004-10-25 18:04:02

phrakture wrote:

ack, no... dont rebuild freetype - read the wiki link i posted on the last page - it has the syntax to disable bytecode interpretation without recompiling (like most good programs, there's a switch to not use it)

ooops, hadn't even looked into that part of the wiki ^_^

shiner_man · 2005-04-07 16:26:26

lafayette wrote:

I Can't get readable fonts on mozilla firefox and also other browsers, the one seen in your screenshot are prett, how do you did? I followed you instructions, but nothing....

I got the same problem. The fonts in Mozilla Firefox(on the webpages themselves) look horrible. Any ideas?

oscar · 2005-04-07 16:46:42

shiner_man wrote:

lafayette wrote:
I Can't get readable fonts on mozilla firefox and also other browsers, the one seen in your screenshot are prett, how do you did? I followed you instructions, but nothing....
I got the same problem. The fonts in Mozilla Firefox(on the webpages themselves) look horrible. Any ideas?

Take a look at the wiki.

ozar · 2005-04-07 18:01:35

I got the same problem. The fonts in Mozilla Firefox(on the webpages themselves) look horrible. Any ideas?

I had ugly web fonts too, and after installing the MS-TT fonts found new problems with the new fonts, though some of them did look better. My problem was solved, however, by simply configuring Firefox to "always use my fonts". I really didn't want any MS stuff on my box anyway.

shiner_man · 2005-04-07 18:33:16

ozar wrote:

I got the same problem. The fonts in Mozilla Firefox(on the webpages themselves) look horrible. Any ideas?
I had ugly web fonts too, and after installing the MS-TT fonts found new problems with the new fonts, though some of them did look better. My problem was solved, however, by simply configuring Firefox to "always use my fonts". I really didn't want any MS stuff on my box anyway.

Can you believe I never even though about looking in Firefox itself. This is embarrising. Thanks a lot.

Arch Linux

#1 2004-09-03 23:45:22

Fonts fonts fonts....

#2 2004-09-04 00:30:29

Re: Fonts fonts fonts....

#3 2004-09-04 00:34:38

Re: Fonts fonts fonts....

#4 2004-09-04 00:56:00

Re: Fonts fonts fonts....

#5 2004-09-04 12:10:05

Re: Fonts fonts fonts....

#6 2004-09-05 05:03:44

Re: Fonts fonts fonts....

#7 2004-09-05 12:30:03

Re: Fonts fonts fonts....

#8 2004-09-08 10:37:12

Re: Fonts fonts fonts....

#9 2004-09-09 04:15:20

Re: Fonts fonts fonts....

#10 2004-10-14 14:42:24

Re: Fonts fonts fonts....

#11 2004-10-14 15:34:28

Re: Fonts fonts fonts....

#12 2004-10-15 05:08:58

Re: Fonts fonts fonts....

#13 2004-10-15 06:28:03

Re: Fonts fonts fonts....

#14 2004-10-15 14:37:34

Re: Fonts fonts fonts....

#15 2004-10-24 23:17:21

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#16 2004-10-25 00:39:26

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#17 2004-10-25 04:54:21

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#18 2004-10-25 16:56:52

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#19 2004-10-25 17:16:22

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#20 2004-10-25 18:04:02

Re: Fonts fonts fonts....

#21 2005-04-07 16:26:26

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#22 2005-04-07 16:46:42

Re: Fonts fonts fonts....

#23 2005-04-07 18:01:35

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#24 2005-04-07 18:33:16

Re: Fonts fonts fonts....

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