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#1 2015-12-06 16:26:41

markg85
Member
Registered: 2009-06-27
Posts: 149

What happened with Chrome and it's font?

Hi,

A few days ago i updated my arch distribution (i usually keep it updated so i "only" had the updates for a week or so).
After the updates i started noticing fonts in chrome having _much_ more spacing in between! Even in gmail, everything looks much more "spacier" then before.

If it were like this on multiple browsers and platforms then i'd be OK with it. I would probably think "ohh, google updated it's layout. Fine.". But it's not. It's only on chrome and only on linux which makes it highly distracting to say the least.

So i went on a little hunt to try and find the case for this. I tried the following:
- Downgrading chrome (to version 46). No effect.
- Downgrading freetype2 to 2.6.1 (since 2.6.2 has quite some changes). No effect.
- Tried a clean user with no settings. No effect.

All options gave me chrome with _way_ too much spacing.

So i tried alternative browsers to see if i can figure out some logic in why this changed. I was hoping that we've had these times in Linux where sudden font changes wouldn't happen anymore. I guess i was wrong...
- Firefox. Fonts are OK! (GTK based browser)
- Midori. Fonts are hella ugly, but the spacing is OK (GTK based browser)
- QupZilla. Fonts are OK! (Qt (Webkit) based browser)

Downgrading chrome to 46 or upgrading to the build snapshots (49) doesn't help. Fonts keep having insane spacing.

Anyone any idea?

Cheers,
Mark

Edit

To be very clear. I don't mean the new freetype2 changes in 2.6.2. They are fine to me. I mean the extra spacing around text that annoys me!

Here is an image of what i mean of just the gmail menu. Left is the latest and "greatest" chromium version, right is firefox. Note the added spacing between lines.
meJz0uc.png

There must be a reason why this happened and a way to work around this issue without switching browser.

Last edited by markg85 (2015-12-06 20:31:55)

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#2 2015-12-06 17:12:03

jasonwryan
Anarchist
From: .nz
Registered: 2009-05-09
Posts: 30,424
Website

Re: What happened with Chrome and it's font?

Not an Arch Discussion, has been covered in the existing thread under AUR Issues.


Closing -- for deletion

Reopened on appeal: moved to AUR Issues Pacman and Package Upgrades


Arch + dwm   •   Mercurial repos  •   Surfraw

Registered Linux User #482438

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#3 2015-12-17 19:52:29

markg85
Member
Registered: 2009-06-27
Posts: 149

Re: What happened with Chrome and it's font?

Bump!

Anyone?
I've also noticed that default fonts in Chromium are now Serif instead of Sans.
This is with an up to date system (just updated and rebooted, just to be sure)

Removing my /etc/fonts.d and re-installing the package that provides it doesn't change a thing.
Creating a new empty user with no previous configs that "might" cause this also didn't help, same issues.

Whatever package change happened, it severely interrupts my linux experience. I use Chrome quite a bit when I'm on linux and it's become unusable for me now.
I'm even writing this in firefox, but I'm not that happy about that browser.. Firefox - UI wise - looks even more horrible then Chrome does on Plasma 5...

My issue only seems to be browser related (chrome only), luckily!

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#4 2015-12-17 20:13:44

markg85
Member
Registered: 2009-06-27
Posts: 149

Re: What happened with Chrome and it's font?

Well be darned! I found the bastard that was causing this.
It's the annoying plasma behavior to force broken fonts upon the user! First they had Oxygen (which is broken as hell) now they have Noto to force down your throat. Good thing is that they no finally use a font not developed by themselves.. Noto is developed by Google. However, just having that font installed is causing the issues i observed. It's ironically occurring in Chromium (also a google product).

Anyway, removing that font package solves it for me. After a few DAYS of trying to figure out what went wrong! Now that i know the reason, i could've expected it...

I will fill a arch bug report where i will request to fix the frameworkintegration package by not installing the Oxygen en Noto fonts.

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