[SOLVED] Tahoma font in Firefox looks ugly

tankist02 · 2021-11-02 19:25:37

I run fully updated Arch Linux with XFCE which I installed using the archinstall script. After playing with installing and removing extra fonts now I have one site in Firefox that looks really ugly (no anti-aliasing).

If I right click on different elements, invoke Inspector and look at the fonts it is all Tahoma.

The font is installed from AUR:

$ pacman -Q|grep tahoma
ttf-tahoma 5.0.1-1

$ fc-match Tahoma
tahoma.ttf: "Tahoma" "Regular"

BTW in Chromium the same site looks partially normal, partially as ugly as in Firefox.

I've read about fonts on Arch Wiki and searched these forums, did not see anything related to my problem. Apologies if I missed something simple and obvious.

Any help would be appreciated.

Last edited by tankist02 (2021-11-03 02:17:51)

seth · 2021-11-02 21:13:01

Sure it's tahome? Usually when this happens, you end up in xorg-fonts-* or gsfonts territory (typically Helvetica)
Can you disclose the webpage?

Here's a font-sample page for comparism, https://www.font-samples.com/tahoma.htm

tankist02 · 2021-11-02 21:41:04

Thank you, seth, for taking a stab at my issue.

Yes, it looks like Tahoma 16 px from your link. If I increase font size on the page the text becomes anti-aliased as for 17 px. I could live with larger font but not all of text is enlarged. Some parts stay small and ugly.

seth · 2021-11-02 21:53:37

fc-conflist

?
It's possible to deactivate antialiasing or hinting based on the size of the font, iirc the font configuration of some DEs (KDE?) even do so by default.
Chromium otoh has a record to ignore (parts of) your fontconfig

tankist02 · 2021-11-02 21:59:38

$ fc-conflist
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/10-hinting-slight.conf: Set hintslight to hintstyle
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf: Bitmap scaling
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/20-unhint-small-dejavu-lgc-sans-mono.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/20-unhint-small-dejavu-lgc-sans.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/20-unhint-small-dejavu-lgc-serif.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/20-unhint-small-dejavu-sans-mono.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/20-unhint-small-dejavu-sans.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/20-unhint-small-dejavu-serif.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/20-unhint-small-vera.conf: Disable hinting for Bitstream Vera fonts when the size is less than 8ppem
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/30-metric-aliases.conf: Set substitutions for similar/metric-compatible families
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/40-nonlatin.conf: Set substitutions for non-Latin fonts
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/45-generic.conf: Set substitutions for emoji/math fonts
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/45-latin.conf: Set substitutions for Latin fonts
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/46-noto-mono.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/46-noto-sans.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/46-noto-serif.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/49-sansserif.conf: Add sans-serif to the family when no generic name
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/50-user.conf: Load per-user customization files
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/51-local.conf: Load local customization file
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/57-dejavu-sans-mono.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/57-dejavu-sans.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/57-dejavu-serif.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/58-dejavu-lgc-sans-mono.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/58-dejavu-lgc-sans.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/58-dejavu-lgc-serif.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/60-generic.conf: Set preferable fonts for emoji/math fonts
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/60-latin.conf: Set preferable fonts for Latin
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/65-fonts-persian.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/65-nonlatin.conf: Set preferable fonts for non-Latin
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/66-noto-mono.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/66-noto-sans.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/66-noto-serif.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/69-unifont.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/69-urw-bookman.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/69-urw-c059.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/69-urw-d050000l.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/69-urw-fallback-backwards.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/69-urw-fallback-generics.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/69-urw-fallback-specifics.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/69-urw-gothic.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/69-urw-nimbus-mono-ps.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/69-urw-nimbus-roman.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/69-urw-nimbus-sans.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/69-urw-p052.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/69-urw-standard-symbols-ps.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/69-urw-z003.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/80-delicious.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/81-ubuntu.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/conf.d/90-synthetic.conf: No description
+ /etc/fonts/fonts.conf: Default configuration file
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/05-reset-dirs-sample.conf: Re-define fonts dirs sample
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/09-autohint-if-no-hinting.conf: Enable autohinter if font doesn't have any hinting
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/10-autohint.conf: Enable autohinter
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/10-hinting-full.conf: Set hintfull to hintstyle
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/10-hinting-medium.conf: Set hintmedium to hintstyle
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/10-hinting-none.conf: Set hintnone to hintstyle
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/10-hinting-slight.conf: Set hintslight to hintstyle
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/10-no-sub-pixel.conf: Disable sub-pixel rendering
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf: Bitmap scaling
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/10-sub-pixel-bgr.conf: Enable sub-pixel rendering with the BGR stripes layout
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/10-sub-pixel-rgb.conf: Enable sub-pixel rendering with the RGB stripes layout
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/10-sub-pixel-vbgr.conf: Enable sub-pixel rendering with the vertical BGR stripes layout
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/10-sub-pixel-vrgb.conf: Enable sub-pixel rendering with the vertical RGB stripes layout
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/10-unhinted.conf: Disable hinting
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/11-lcdfilter-default.conf: Use lcddefault as default for LCD filter
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/11-lcdfilter-legacy.conf: Use lcdlegacy as default for LCD filter
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/11-lcdfilter-light.conf: Use lcdlight as default for LCD filter
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/20-unhint-small-dejavu-lgc-sans-mono.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/20-unhint-small-dejavu-lgc-sans.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/20-unhint-small-dejavu-lgc-serif.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/20-unhint-small-dejavu-sans-mono.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/20-unhint-small-dejavu-sans.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/20-unhint-small-dejavu-serif.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/20-unhint-small-vera.conf: Disable hinting for Bitstream Vera fonts when the size is less than 8ppem
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/25-unhint-nonlatin.conf: Disable hinting for CJK fonts
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/30-metric-aliases.conf: Set substitutions for similar/metric-compatible families
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/35-lang-normalize.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/40-nonlatin.conf: Set substitutions for non-Latin fonts
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/45-generic.conf: Set substitutions for emoji/math fonts
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/45-latin.conf: Set substitutions for Latin fonts
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/46-noto-mono.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/46-noto-sans.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/46-noto-serif.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/49-sansserif.conf: Add sans-serif to the family when no generic name
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/50-user.conf: Load per-user customization files
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/51-local.conf: Load local customization file
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/57-dejavu-sans-mono.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/57-dejavu-sans.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/57-dejavu-serif.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/58-dejavu-lgc-sans-mono.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/58-dejavu-lgc-sans.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/58-dejavu-lgc-serif.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/60-generic.conf: Set preferable fonts for emoji/math fonts
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/60-latin.conf: Set preferable fonts for Latin
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/65-fonts-persian.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/65-khmer.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/65-nonlatin.conf: Set preferable fonts for non-Latin
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/66-noto-mono.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/66-noto-sans.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/66-noto-serif.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/69-unifont.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/69-urw-bookman.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/69-urw-c059.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/69-urw-d050000l.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/69-urw-fallback-backwards.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/69-urw-fallback-generics.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/69-urw-fallback-specifics.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/69-urw-gothic.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/69-urw-nimbus-mono-ps.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/69-urw-nimbus-roman.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/69-urw-nimbus-sans.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/69-urw-p052.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/69-urw-standard-symbols-ps.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/69-urw-z003.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/70-no-bitmaps.conf: Reject bitmap fonts
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/70-yes-bitmaps.conf: Accept bitmap fonts
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/80-delicious.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/81-ubuntu.conf: No description
- /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/90-synthetic.conf: No description

Good idea about fonts settings based on size, I'll search how it can be changed.

tankist02 · 2021-11-02 22:10:35

Solution found - remove installed Tahoma fonts:

sudo pacman -R ttf-tahoma

Thank you for the help!

seth · 2021-11-02 22:17:54

Ftr,the fonts in https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/ttf-tahoma/ have (un-asliasable) bitmap versions for 8-16 embedded.
If somebody runs into this: steal tahoma.ttf from a windows installation.

Please always remember to mark resolved threads by editing your initial posts subject - so others will know that there's no task left, but maybe a solution to find.
Thanks.

Trilby · 2021-11-02 22:24:02

FYI: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/ttf-ms-fonts/

EDIT: oops, nevermind, that doesn't include Tahoma ... I could have sworn it used to.

Last edited by Trilby (2021-11-02 22:26:33)

Arch Linux

#1 2021-11-02 19:25:37

[SOLVED] Tahoma font in Firefox looks ugly

#2 2021-11-02 21:13:01

Re: [SOLVED] Tahoma font in Firefox looks ugly

#3 2021-11-02 21:41:04

Re: [SOLVED] Tahoma font in Firefox looks ugly

#4 2021-11-02 21:53:37

Re: [SOLVED] Tahoma font in Firefox looks ugly

#5 2021-11-02 21:59:38

Re: [SOLVED] Tahoma font in Firefox looks ugly

#6 2021-11-02 22:10:35

Re: [SOLVED] Tahoma font in Firefox looks ugly

#7 2021-11-02 22:17:54

Re: [SOLVED] Tahoma font in Firefox looks ugly

#8 2021-11-02 22:24:02

Re: [SOLVED] Tahoma font in Firefox looks ugly

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