infinality-bundle: good looking fonts made (even) easier

StR@ng3r · 2013-05-03 22:20:35

Courier New is displayed with a strangely broken letter "s" here.

For example the "s" in the righthand side on this page.
http://www.codecademy.com/#!/exercises/1

Is this just me or is that a general issue with infinality/courier new?

Last edited by StR@ng3r (2013-05-03 22:23:49)

brebs · 2013-05-03 23:03:23

An "s" that's too thin in the centre is common, but fixed by fontconfig tweaks for the font.

For Courier New (filename: cour.ttf), I use an initial rule on the foundry level:

    <match target="font">
        <test name="foundry"><string>monotype</string></test>
        <edit mode="assign" name="autohint"><bool>false</bool></edit>
        <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle"><const>hintfull</const></edit>
    </match>

And then later, a tweak for italics:

    <!-- http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-wget/2012-08/msg00033.html -->
    <!-- Slightly better italics, especially 'z' -->
    <match target="font">
        <test name="family"><string>Courier New</string></test>
        <!-- match requests for non-roman face -->
        <test name="slant" compare="not_eq"><const>roman</const></test>
        <edit mode="assign" name="autohint"><bool>true</bool></edit>
        <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle"><const>hintfull</const></edit>
    </match>

bohoomil · 2013-05-04 00:24:19

The settings presented by brebs is exactly what we are using… I usually try to fix particular sizes individually if things like this happen, but in this case not much could have been done (I believe this may be related to custom freetype2 run-time settings).

However, being aware of the nuisance, I suggested that we use Courier Prime instead of Courier / Courier New, which renders far better. (See /etc/fonts/conf.avail.infinality/42-repl-global.conf.) You can download the font for free, it will be automatically set as your default Courier.

brebs · 2013-05-04 01:56:24

Wow, Courier Prime is nice. I suggest a default of autohint true with hintslight, with these tweaks:

    <match target="font">
        <test name="family"><string>Courier Prime</string></test>
        <test name="slant" compare="not_eq"><const>roman</const></test>
        <edit mode="assign" name="autohint"><bool>false</bool></edit>
        <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle"><const>hintfull</const></edit>
    </match>
    <match target="font">
        <test name="family"><string>Courier Prime</string></test>
        <test name="weight" compare="more_eq"><const>bold</const></test>
        <edit mode="assign" name="autohint"><bool>false</bool></edit>
        <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle"><const>hintslight</const></edit>
    </match>

bohoomil · 2013-05-04 03:06:38

Looks really great now -- thank you.

Updated settings (incl. not only Courier Prime) have been already committed, so if someone wants them immediately and doesn't want to wait for another package upgrade, please get them @ GitHub.

Thanks.

Last edited by bohoomil (2013-05-04 06:47:21)

StR@ng3r · 2013-05-04 09:29:11

Thx brebs for your fix. And still and again thank you bohoomil. I just updated and damn... Courier Prime DOES look awesome!

brebs · 2013-05-04 09:57:15

I probably still prefer the classic Courier New, but that may be just because I've been looking at it for so long

Here's tweaked rules to make Courier New look better, especially when bold. Default is same as Courier Prime: autohint true with hintslight.

    <match target="font">
        <test name="family"><string>Courier New</string></test>
        <test name="slant" compare="not_eq"><const>roman</const></test>
        <edit mode="assign" name="autohint"><bool>true</bool></edit>
        <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle"><const>hintfull</const></edit>
    </match>
    <match target="font">
        <test name="family"><string>Courier New</string></test>
        <test name="weight" compare="more_eq"><const>bold</const></test>
        <edit mode="assign" name="autohint"><bool>false</bool></edit>
        <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle"><const>hintfull</const></edit>
    </match>

mervinb · 2013-05-04 22:33:03

Thanks for the improvements on infinality bohoomil. They make a notiaceble difference.

I've tried the standalone fontconfig-infinality-ultimate-git package and it works fine. However the infinality-bundle has an issue on openbox font sizing, which is not seen on standard infinality on arch or your ultimate-git fontconfig:

With the bundle, openbox menu items and window decorator fonts are tiny. On infinality and ultimate-git changing the dpi on /etc/fonts/infinality/infinality.conf to 96 works to fix the issue.

I tried this on the file with infinality-bundle, and there's no effect,. No matter what dpi I use the openbox menu and window title are tiny. Just to be sure, I've removed all infinality packages, and installed ultimate-git, and the issue went away after adjusting dpi. I also have xfce installed on my laptop, and xfce is not affected by this (looks fine with infinality-bundle).

Thanks again for your infinality contributions!

bohoomil · 2013-05-04 23:28:31

Thank you for the feedback.

The issue can be resolved in two ways:

1. Move the DPI section to the top of the file:

[…]
<fontconfig>

  <!-- Set DPI.  dpi should be set in ~/.Xresources to 96 setting to 72
       here makes the px to pt conversions work better (Chrome). -->
  <match target="pattern">
    <edit name="dpi" mode="assign">
      <double>72</double>
    </edit>
  </match>

<!-- DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE.
[…]

and set the DPI value to any number you want.

-- or --

2. Comment the DPI section out.

If possible, please report back if you have noticed any evident side effects in font rendering with this part being altered (especially in your WWW browser).

Frankly, I have been considering removing this part altogether, but was always afraid of a possible negative impact this could have on text representation in (not only) Chrome / Chromium. Leaving it as it is, I have been suggesting that one should increase the font size in applications that may require it. However, since the reorganized fonts.conf still requires tweaking to work correctly on a wide range of machines, I'll keep working on it if the time allows.

mervinb · 2013-05-05 01:42:34

Thanks for the quick response.

Ok, I found the reason for this. In the original infinality package, the dpi is retrieved from /etc/fonts/infinality/infinality.conf. In infinality-bundle, it seems to be set at /etc/fonts/fonts.conf. It's 72 in fonts.conf, so this is the .conf that needs to be edited.

I'm now running on infinality-bundle. I don't use Chromium much, so I can't provide any input on font rendering after the change, but I've always used dpi=96 so there's consistency in font size whether I use openbox or xfce or gnome. I think it's time it's set to default at 96, because it does seem like a Chrome-specific kludge, which may not even be needed with newer versions.

bohoomil · 2013-05-05 01:50:53

mervinb wrote:

it seems to be set at /etc/fonts/fonts.conf. It's 72 in fonts.conf, so this is the .conf that needs to be edited.

No other file can be edited in this case as the /etc/fonts/infinality/infinality.conf simply doesn't exist any more.

orschiro · 2013-05-05 16:52:00

Bohoomil:

Do you remember my issue with strange font rendering in gnome-terminal?

With the last update of your package bold fonts are now displayed correctly which is not the case for non-bold fonts.

Why that?

Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/708KmqW.png

I want the non-bold fonts to be like the bold ones.

Last edited by orschiro (2013-05-05 16:52:21)

WonderWoofy · 2013-05-05 19:55:36

@orschiro... I honestly don't see what is wrong with the non-bold fonts. Can you explain a bit more?

bohoomil · 2013-05-05 20:02:59

As far as I can tell, you are using Consolas (i.e. the Monospace alias) instead of DejaVu Sans Mono again (see here). By the way, I have neither touched the base rendering settings nor DejaVu family in particular (see the CHANGELOG for details as to what has been altered since).

orschiro · 2013-05-06 05:06:40

WonderWoofy wrote:

@orschiro... I honestly don't see what is wrong with the non-bold fonts. Can you explain a bit more?

Well, I see a difference between non-bold and bold fonts. I would even say that they are different font types. I want non-bold fonts to be of the same font type than bold fonts. But I have no idea whether this is related to infinality-bundle or Gnome.

As far as I can tell, you are using Consolas (i.e. the Monospace alias) instead of DejaVu Sans Mono again (see here). By the way, I have neither touched the base rendering settings nor DejaVu family in particular (see the CHANGELOG for details as to what has been altered since).

I remember what you had mentioned before but have a look what DejaVu Sans Mono produces. Neither what I want: http://i.imgur.com/RLjowDa.png

bohoomil · 2013-05-06 06:31:07

I'm afraid it doesn't work like that… You don't simply make a regular weight look like a (demi|semi)bold. If you find bold faces look & read better, you use a bold face if it is available. You can quickly set it this way in gnome-terminal, too.

Of course, you can tweak an individual font to a pretty large extent, including artificial emboldening if this is the only way to make it behave correctly within a family. You can do this on your own if you wish: just look at the examples provided in /etc/fonts/conf.d/80-selective-rendering.conf. However, DejaVu looks like that from the very beginning, and this is absolutely correct and intentional. Stock freetype2/fontconfig will render it differently in details, and so will Ubuntu and each of the generic Infinality presets, but these are all variations and none can really be considered a reference. Speaking of reference, here is a sample I have just created for comparison (DejaVu Sans Mono, 14 | 15 | 16 px, book & bold variants, fg colour has been set to #444444): shot (please, zoom it in to 1:1 if necessary). If you don't like it -- well, I will have to live with it because in technical and typographic terms there is nothing that should be urgently modified, IMO… Sorry for that.

Thorsten Reinbold · 2013-05-06 07:06:02

I know, the "way of windows" is not that popular within these forums, but I like the dialog for setting up font rendering in Win 7. The Dialog shows you how the fonts would look with different settings, you choose the one that you like most. Isn't there somehing like this available for Linux?

bohoomil · 2013-05-06 07:12:18

Thorsten Reinbold wrote:

Isn't there somehing like this available for Linux?

In DEs, yes. Just look at any control panel. However, DEs use their own backends to fine tune fonts and store settings which may not play nicely with fontconfig…

Thorsten Reinbold · 2013-05-06 07:47:48

Sorry, that wasn't what I've meant. What you mean is a simple font-choosing dialogue. Win 7 a.e. has a step by step assistant, showing you different settings over 3-4 pages, depending on your previous choices. That way, you can fine-tune the render-settings very easy.

nasedo · 2013-05-06 09:01:28

Grinch wrote:

Speaking of fonts, what are your thoughts on the new freetype rasterizer from Google and Adobe, called CFF:
http://google-opensource.blogspot.com.a … t-cff.html

I'm also wondering, is it going to affect the rendering of TrueType fonts at all? It seems it's already a part of freetype 2.4.12 beta, but off by default:

http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/freety … cs/CHANGES

Do you plan to enable it in your build of freetype2?

bohoomil · 2013-05-06 09:31:04

@Thorsten Reinbold: I am not sure if a simple file-choosing dialogue allows you to change rgba, hinting, subpixel rendering or DPI… If I remember correctly, all this could have been already found in Gnome 2. However, this is not the lack of a GUI tool that makes setting font parameters in Linux a challenging and troublesome task for some, but inconsistency (like mutual settings overriding by freetype and DEs font tools, with libxft being yet another player in the same game, etc). On the other hand, making it possible for a user to easily turn up fonts' sweetness and appeal won't make a font look correctly at the same time. This is, unfortunately, something commonly considered to be not true.[1]

[1] Which proves that people impose sexual criteria on everything without exception, even domains primarily controlled by reason.

@nasedo: I can't tell for sure when enabling it will become possible in my case. One day it probably will, but before letting the thing go to the world I have to make sure I can control it as well as predict its behaviour. At the moment I am reorganizing the whole bundle-thing again to make it better follow fontconfig logic: from the practical standpoint, this should eliminate a few issues and limitations, as well as improve the overall experience in a not always evident way. The priorities may be changed, however, with the new Infinality patchset being released, but as long as I am not forced in any way by the 'mainstream', I will keep up my current pace.

Thorsten Reinbold · 2013-05-06 09:34:06

@Bohoomil:

http://xkcd.com/1015/

bohoomil · 2013-05-06 09:42:58

(This is valid for die-hard perverts only. )

Jristz · 2013-05-06 22:32:46

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=162661

only for ask after update, you rebuild the packages for the libpng16 update?

bohoomil · 2013-05-06 22:34:03

Cairo has already been rebuilt -- help yourself.

Arch Linux

#101 2013-05-03 22:20:35

Re: infinality-bundle: good looking fonts made (even) easier

#102 2013-05-03 23:03:23

Re: infinality-bundle: good looking fonts made (even) easier

#103 2013-05-04 00:24:19

Re: infinality-bundle: good looking fonts made (even) easier

#104 2013-05-04 01:56:24

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#105 2013-05-04 03:06:38

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#106 2013-05-04 09:29:11

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#107 2013-05-04 09:57:15

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#108 2013-05-04 22:33:03

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#109 2013-05-04 23:28:31

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#110 2013-05-05 01:42:34

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#111 2013-05-05 01:50:53

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#112 2013-05-05 16:52:00

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#113 2013-05-05 19:55:36

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#114 2013-05-05 20:02:59

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#115 2013-05-06 05:06:40

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#116 2013-05-06 06:31:07

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#118 2013-05-06 07:12:18

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#119 2013-05-06 07:47:48

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#120 2013-05-06 09:01:28

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#121 2013-05-06 09:31:04

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#122 2013-05-06 09:34:06

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#123 2013-05-06 09:42:58

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#124 2013-05-06 22:32:46

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