[SOLVED] Font smoothing only applying to one monitor

Underphil · 2017-07-17 21:13:41

Hey all,

New Arch Linux desktop here. Been using Linux forever, but decided to try Arch out, and so far I'm impressed

One problem I can't seem to get solved, even with Google, is that my secondary monitor doesn't seem to implement any font smoothing. I can't seem to find any information on where I can set this in the GUI nor in a config file hidden away somewhere. Anyone have any thoughts?

I'm using X11 as DM and XFCE4 as WM, and nVidia GTX 670 w/proprietary driver 381.22 from the repos.

Thanks.

Last edited by Underphil (2017-07-18 19:39:31)

LaurentvdB · 2017-07-18 08:28:35

Hi,

Typically font smoothing is defined for fonts by fontconfig and then applied when being rendered (with emphasis on typically...). In /etc/fonts/conf.d the current config lives and in /etc/fonts/conf.avail available config lives and using symlinks configuration files are linked from /etc/fonts/conf.avail to /etc/fonts/conf.d

Long story short: could you try to create a symlink from /etc/fonts/conf.avail/11-lcdfilter-default.conf to /etc/fonts/conf.d/11-lcdfilter-default.conf or is that already in place? I have a similar setup and it improves rendering on external screens a lot:

# cd /etc/fonts/conf.d
# ln --symbolic ../conf.avail/11-lcdfilter-default.conf

Last edited by LaurentvdB (2017-07-18 11:35:24)

seth · 2017-07-18 12:42:11

This smells like an xy problem - "monitors" don't do antialiasing, neither do outputs. The only distinction could be reached by a zaphod setup, but even then the antialiasing usually happens client side (in software) for most toolkits.
I suspect a general "smoothing" because one of the outputs is scaled or some such.

=> please provide the output of "xrandr -q" (in code tags) and screenshots of the issue (use an image upload service and only post thumbnails or links)

Underphil · 2017-07-18 17:58:03

Everyone, apologies for wasting your time-- It turned out my second screen had defaulted to factory settings in between wiping Ubuntu and installing Arch. The 'sharpness' was set to 100 on the second screen.

I was about to reply saying 'it was fine when using Ubuntu', but turns out there were other factors at play.

Thanks for the replies

seth · 2017-07-18 19:08:17

No problem, but please mark the thread as [SOLVED] by editing the subject of your original post (or report it to the moderators for deletion)

Arch Linux

#1 2017-07-17 21:13:41

[SOLVED] Font smoothing only applying to one monitor

#2 2017-07-18 08:28:35

Re: [SOLVED] Font smoothing only applying to one monitor

#3 2017-07-18 12:42:11

Re: [SOLVED] Font smoothing only applying to one monitor

#4 2017-07-18 17:58:03

Re: [SOLVED] Font smoothing only applying to one monitor

#5 2017-07-18 19:08:17

Re: [SOLVED] Font smoothing only applying to one monitor

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