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

Ledti · 2014-07-23 02:36:45

Scimmia wrote:

% sudo pacman -Syu
...
Name                                                 Old Version          New Version          Net Change

infinality-bundle-fonts/ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib   1.04-5               2014.07-1            157.46 MiB

Um, what? A 157MiB upgrade?

Upgrade notes here. Noto now includes high quality CJK (and other) fonts, and some previously used fonts were made redundant because of the changes.

See 'pacman -Qdt' after the upgrade.

Last edited by Ledti (2014-07-23 02:38:25)

Scimmia · 2014-07-23 02:47:36

yeah, I removed about 60 MiB of other fonts after the upgrade, which still makes this upgrade between 90 and 100 MiB, effectively doubling the size of these fonts. Starting to think this whole thing isn't worth it.

Last edited by Scimmia (2014-07-23 02:49:34)

orschiro · 2014-07-23 06:05:04

@Scimmia

I think that's because many fonts have been deleted from the repository. Thus the big net change.

conorbev · 2014-07-23 07:58:42

@bohoomil

Yep, that works! I also had to remove the original versions of the NotoSansCham fonts from /usr/share/fonts/ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib but I assume you intended me to do that.

hah, I guess after I edited it that the Emacs section can be totally removed from the wiki :-) (at least after you've updated the package with this fix)

Franek · 2014-07-23 12:06:00

I am trying out using bitmap fonts for different stuff presently (and apparently ran into a bug in cairo on this route, but that's a different story…). Now the Infinality configuration is giving me trouble using the Helvetica font from the xorg-fonts-100-dpi package, as "Helvetica" is always treated as an alias to Arial.

I am currently using the fontconfig presets "combi". By resetting them completely ("fc-presets set" -> select "reset"), I can make Helvetica available, but of course fonts in the browser change along with it, which I don't really want. I tried overriding the Helvetica-Arial alias with "*-custom.conf" files in /etc/fonts/conf.d/, but didn't achieve anything. I am probably confused about how the aliases in /etc/fonts/conf.d/ work exactly. How would I go about disabling the aliases for Helvetica?

Scimmia · 2014-07-23 14:11:41

orschiro wrote:

@Scimmia
I think that's because many fonts have been deleted from the repository. Thus the big net change.

No, as I already said, that only accounts for less than half of the net change.

Ledti · 2014-07-23 18:20:03

@Scimmia, did you see the first half of my previous reply? This font was basically integrated into ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib. It's an extremely comprehensive and high quality replacement for those other fonts, which accounts for the large net change.

If the file size bothers you, I think you can uninstall ibfonts-meta-extended/ibfonts-meta-extended-lt and install fonts individually (like with normal Arch) to suit your needs.

bohoomil · 2014-07-23 19:11:01

Scimmia wrote:

Starting to think this whole thing isn't worth it.

I can understand it: every now and again I find it to be my dilemma as well…

Anyway, I have no idea what am I supposed to do about it? The package footprint simply reflects the weight of the sources provided by the upstream. Packaging and uploading the blob is a pain in the neck, too, just as it is with every CJK package in the repo. If you do not need the entire ttf-noto-sans-multilingual-ib, just do not install ibfonts-meta-extended: the extended-lt meta package offers everything but the extensive non-Latin support, and if you still need it, install the necessary individual non-Latin sets which are all available in the ib-fonts repository. It is possible to achieve good results in a bit non-conventional manner: every necessary package is present in the font repo, for users' convenience.

@Franek I think combi is the right way to go. The only thing you may need to do is comment out all references to Helvetica in 30-metric-aliases-combi.conf: this is where Arial replaces Helvetica.

@conorbev Yes, the stock NotoSansCham is obviously being replaced by the 'fixed' font files. The updated package is currently being uploaded, so no one should need any of the workarounds any more.

Edit Ledti has already explained how to live without Noto Sans.

Last edited by bohoomil (2014-07-23 19:14:09)

PostBlue · 2014-07-23 19:58:08

Sadly, I cannot retrieve ttf-noto-sans-multilang-ib-2014.07-2-any.pkg.tar.xz: the requested URL returned error: 404 Not Found. Is there a problem on the server. (I've already done a good ol' pacman -Syy.)

bohoomil · 2014-07-23 20:14:19

@PostBlue The file is huge and my connection is not working reliably today. I keep trying to upload the package anyway.

Edit The repo has been successfully updated and everything should be OK now.

Last edited by bohoomil (2014-07-23 20:38:19)

Franek · 2014-07-23 21:37:09

bohoomil wrote:

@Franek I think combi is the right way to go. The only thing you may need to do is comment out all references to Helvetica in 30-metric-aliases-combi.conf: this is where Arial replaces Helvetica.

Thanks, commenting out works! (I had thought the "right" way was to override the aliases in extra config files.) 30-metric-aliases-combi.conf wasn't enough, though: I had to do the same for 37-repl-global-combi.conf.

Edit: Naturally, websites specifying Helvetica (Github in some places, for example) are displayed with the bitmap font as well now, which looks odd. The only way to avoid this would probably be to rename (i. e. fork) the bitmap Helvetica, so that it could be exclusively selected with its new name.

Last edited by Franek (2014-07-24 14:18:43)

PostBlue · 2014-07-23 22:05:40

@bohoomil No problem, I was not in a hurry! It's working well now, thank you for your work.

Alien282 · 2014-07-24 15:47:37

@bohoomil - you have a version of Inconsolata that I use, the package name in AUR is otf-inconsolatazi4-ibx. However, I recently found this version, which contains Cyrillic as well as Hellenic support. Would you consider supporting that version of the font?

bohoomil · 2014-07-24 21:27:03

@Alien282 I generated OTF fonts for testing: go to http://bohoomil.com/bits/ and grab the file. (The zi4's Bold variant we have in the repo looks better IMO.) The LGC is 2 points higher than the regular Inconsolata, so in order to have LGC look like Inconsolatazi4 11pt, you should set the font heights to 9pt.

I am not sure if the package will hit the repository, though: I avoid adding forks of the official upstream releases or fonts whose development status is unknown… There are exceptions, of course: we have Droid Sans Mono variants or some CJK fonts because we simply needed them. For the repository to be really useful, it is better when it serves only top quality items, not everything that has ever been produced.

Anyway, if you find the LGC variant useful, I will probably make it available in the AUR.

Alien282 · 2014-07-25 09:47:58

@bohoomil - thanks a lot for that!

Actually on my machine the difference between the two versions is THREE points, not two, are you sure about yours?

The fonts look almost exactly identical to me, perhaps except the "g" and "$" which is a liiiitle bit different. And the quotes are straight. But the Cyrillic looks so much better... I think I'm definitely sticking to this version.

I'll appreciate a package in AUR if it is no big deal for you, thanks a lot!

P.S. I was talking about the looks of the font in gVim. But the font looks horrible in a terminal, so I guess I'll use the "old" one there.

Last edited by Alien282 (2014-07-25 09:58:37)

bohoomil · 2014-07-25 13:13:48

Thanks for the feedback. Hmm… LGC looks like this in a terminal emulator (xfce4-terminal):

open in new window

It does not seem to be that bad IMO…

The px size ratio / difference is 9 for LGC and 11 for zi4: that is when both fonts overlap.

I will upload the package later this evening, probably without the '-ibx' suffix.

Edit Modified img link.

Last edited by bohoomil (2014-07-25 13:15:58)

Alien282 · 2014-07-26 16:50:04

I'm not sure, I'm using urxvt and it looks MUCH different from the old one (narrower and longer), no matter the size, and definitely not as good. Not sure why.

But, as I said, in gVim they look almost identical. There I used Inconsolatazi4 18 points (yes, I like big fonts for my text editor) and 15 with the new one and they match exactly.

Anyway, thanks again for your time,!

beepbeep · 2014-08-08 20:35:45

@bohoomil I am having great difficulty getting infinality bundle on my ALARM (Arch Linux on ARM). Don't suppose you can give me some help on the matter? I've been over to the Arch ARM website, but haven't made much progress. Obviously the repos don't work and the AUR version is throwing error: target not found: freetype2-infinality-ultimate.

thanks

bohoomil · 2014-08-08 21:15:59

@beepbeep I think you will need to rebuild the libraries for your architecture. Unfortunately, I do not own any ARM hardware I could test them on, otherwise adding an additional ARM branch to the repos would not be a big deal. The source packages for the entire collection are stored @ GitHub (see pkgbuild branch).

beepbeep · 2014-08-08 21:18:15

bohoomil wrote:

@beepbeep I think you will need to rebuild the libraries for your architecture. Unfortunately, I do not own any ARM hardware I could test them on, otherwise adding an additional ARM branch to the repos would not be a big deal. The source packages for the entire collection are stored @ GitHub (see pkgbuild branch).

@bohoomil Thanks for the response. I did clone the git repository but I got a bit stumped after that. I will persevere! Thanks for the excellent package btw!

Last edited by beepbeep (2014-08-08 21:26:16)

jasonwryan · 2014-08-08 21:26:04

Merging the last couple of posts...

brebs · 2014-08-12 08:46:56

Hooray, Infinality is still alive, and looking for a maintainer (whatever that means).

quiv · 2014-08-14 10:34:38

Just wanted to say thanks Bohoomil for all the hard work you've put in and continue to put into infinality. Since the update a while ago where Noto includes high quality CJK fonts I've completely removed the windows fonts I was using in favour of the ibfonts-meta-extended-lt package. All fonts look very crisp and clean now in every aspect of my daily use of linux. I even miss the clarity of infinality-bundle when I occasionally boot to windows!

Nordic89 · 2014-08-15 07:27:16

So just so I get this right: All this does it to replace some libraries, correct? So I do not have to update my fonts and I won't be restricted to using fonts that come in that bundle?

Let's say I use Adobe Source Code Pro at the moment. I just install infinality-bundle and Adobe Source Code Pro looks better?

Also: I heard rumors that infinality is no longer updated and that it's no longer necessary, is any of this true?

Last edited by Nordic89 (2014-08-15 07:34:02)

bohoomil · 2014-08-15 23:10:37

Nordic89 wrote:

I do not have to update my fonts and I won't be restricted to using fonts that come in that bundle? […] I just install infinality-bundle and Adobe Source Code Pro looks better?

Let me put it this way:

1. The infinality-bundle libraries (freetype2-iu, fontconfig-iu, cairo-iu) is what you need if you want to make use of Infinality patchset.

2. Infinality-bundle-fonts is a repository which provides a rich collection of font families found in the official Arch repos, the AUR and many I selected myself, preconfigured to work properly with Infinality patches. For example, the difference between ttf-liberation from [community] and ttf-liberation-ib from [infinality-bundle-fonts] is that the latter is distributed with additional fontconfig config files which instruct freetype2-iu how to render the fonts. The fonts themselves are (mostly) exactly the same as provided by the upstream. 'Mostly' means that if there exists a better release of the same family (e.g. with better hinting, wider character support, etc.) I may choose it instead of the upstream release. Besides, sometimes I need to fix a buggy font (e.g. because the naming convention was incorrectly/inconsistently used) and hence my packages may slightly differ from the upstream's.

Generally, you should enable [infinality-bundle-fonts] and use the packages instead of the corresponding official and AUR ones. The substitution will work exactly the same way as using the patched libraries instead of the stock ones.

You are in no way limited to use fonts from the [infinality-bundle-fonts]. However, you should use font packages from it if it provides the families of your choice (e.g. Adobe Source Code Pro). Bear in mind that several families--like Source Code Pro--come in multiple packages (TTF and OTF are packaged separately). If this is the case, choose the version you prefer.

Last but not least, if a font is not present in my repo, I may consider adding it or at least provide a proper support for it and add necessary config files.

For non-Archers who cannot use Arch Linux packages, all the additional config files are present in fontconfig-iu subdirectory (in /usr/share/doc/fontconfig-infinality-ultimate/font-settings/, to be exact) and in the GitHub repo.

3. None is really true: Infinality patchset has not been updated for a while but is still maintained and is definitely necessary if you want to improve font rendering. I have been looking for a programmer with whom I could work in order to keep the project active and make it better.

Please, read the Wiki article and the Changelog for more information.

@brebs Thank you very much for the info: I will write him soon.

@quiv I am most happy to read this: thank you very much!

Arch Linux

#1301 2014-07-23 02:36:45

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

#1302 2014-07-23 02:47:36

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

#1303 2014-07-23 06:05:04

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

#1304 2014-07-23 07:58:42

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

#1305 2014-07-23 12:06:00

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

#1306 2014-07-23 14:11:41

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

#1307 2014-07-23 18:20:03

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

#1308 2014-07-23 19:11:01

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

#1309 2014-07-23 19:58:08

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

#1310 2014-07-23 20:14:19

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

#1311 2014-07-23 21:37:09

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

#1312 2014-07-23 22:05:40

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

#1313 2014-07-24 15:47:37

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

#1314 2014-07-24 21:27:03

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

#1315 2014-07-25 09:47:58

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

#1316 2014-07-25 13:13:48

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

#1317 2014-07-26 16:50:04

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

#1318 2014-08-08 20:35:45

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

#1319 2014-08-08 21:15:59

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

#1320 2014-08-08 21:18:15

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

#1321 2014-08-08 21:26:04

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

#1322 2014-08-12 08:46:56

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

#1323 2014-08-14 10:34:38

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

#1324 2014-08-15 07:27:16

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

#1325 2014-08-15 23:10:37

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

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