[SOLVED] Text cursor not centered

archlinuxenjoyer · 2023-05-11 14:03:03

I've been using arch for quite a while, but today I noticed that the text cursor on my laptop isn't vertically centered. It's the most obvious when using kitty, but happens with alacritty and some other GUI apps (such as firefox) as well. I took screenshots of kitty and alacritty, which I attach below. I couldn't take one in firefox as the window loses focus when I take the screenshot and the text cursor disappears, but it's pretty much the same thing. However, when editing in zim everything seems to be fine.

Some (possibly relevant) information: I'm running i3 on the latest linux-lts; Screen resolution is 2560x1600, intel integrated graphics.

I am quite lost on this one, as I have another laptop with basically the same configs and everything seems to be working just fine on that. I have also googled and looked into the wiki but couldn't find anything useful. Any help is greatly appreciated.

https://i.imgur.com/FyK1PaZ.png
https://i.imgur.com/2JC5hsv.png
https://i.imgur.com/hYsQn1y.png

Last edited by archlinuxenjoyer (2023-05-13 12:39:36)

V1del · 2023-05-11 14:55:40

Please don't embed huge images directly in your post.

Is this resolution native, did you apply scaling? You probably want to ensure your DPI is set to the actual real value of the system: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xorg#D … ze_and_DPI

archlinuxenjoyer · 2023-05-11 15:20:28

Thank you, I believe the resolution is native, and I set the DPI to 192 with Xft.dpi: 192 in .Xresources. Before posting I've tried tweaking that value but it doesn't seem to do anything...

I have also followed the wiki to put my display dimensions into /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/90-monitor.conf, and that is now reflected in the xdpyinfo output:

screen #0:
dimensions: 2560x1600 pixels (286x179 millimeters)
resolution: 227x227 dots per inch

(A bit of googling told me 227 dpi seems to be the correct value). However the issue persists.

seth · 2023-05-11 15:39:16

xrdb -q | grep -i dpi

nb. that changes typically don't apply to running processes.
Also try

xrandr --dpi 192

and

xrandr --dpi 227

and teh behavior of eg. xterm.

archlinuxenjoyer · 2023-05-11 15:47:19

Thanks, the first command returned

Xft.dpi:	192

I tried the next two lines and could see changes in the dpi value but it doesn't fix the issue. tbh I doubt this is purely a display problem, as every other aspect of the display has been working without a problem...

Last edited by archlinuxenjoyer (2023-05-11 15:47:53)

seth · 2023-05-11 20:13:32

Also try … the behavior of eg. xterm.

Just tested, alacritty only responds to the xft resource (but doesn't misbehave here)
What might be relevant is
a) the TE config (so remove that to use the defaults)
b) the used font (try SourceCode Pro…)

archlinuxenjoyer · 2023-05-11 20:56:53

Wow. I just tried setting the font to either FreeMono or Source Code Pro in the TEs' configs and both alacritty and kitty are now displaying correctly. Thanks a lot seth!

One more question if you don't mind - right now the text cursor in firefox is still acting a little funny. Not nearly as bad as the screenshots, but the text cursor is also slightly below where it should be centred. To be more precise, if I look really closely the top of the cursor aligns with the top of letter 'h', whereas on my other laptop it has some space both above and below the letter (I assume that is the correct behaviour). I tried changing the font again, no luck this time. Any suggestions for this?

seth · 2023-05-11 21:10:30

Since the browser font is typically defined by the sites CSS, did you make sure that the/a different font is used (or at least the browser resolves the default monospace to your preferences)?
Also, to be more precise: Screenshot?

Out of curiosity: what font did you previously use that apparently has bogus extents?

archlinuxenjoyer · 2023-05-11 21:40:15

Thanks again for the suggestions!

did you make sure that the/a different font is used (or at least the browser resolves the default monospace to your preferences)?

Perhaps I didn't . Just went into the settings again, flipped the fonts to these

Serif: FreeSerif
Sans-serif: FreeSans
Monospace: FreeMono

lo and behold, all is well now!

Also, to be more precise: Screenshot?

Ah, that was referring to the images in my first post.

Out of curiosity: what font did you previously use that apparently has bogus extents?

That's a very good question - I was just running the default fonts, so nothing in the configs. Somehow some way, I was under the impression the default would be "monospace" and when I set it as that in alacritty the weird cursor effect returns. However, a search with

 fc-match monospace -s

tells me there isn't even a font called that - wonder what that means... I attach a comparison down below.

In the case of firefox it was defaulting to the Nimbus font family.

Font missing: https://i.imgur.com/zKEaBs4.png
FreeMono: https://i.imgur.com/a3HmQ3F.png
monospace: https://i.imgur.com/b6cEnrV.png

seth · 2023-05-12 05:58:13

"monospace" is generic, see

fc-match monospace

to what it's resolved.

You can also change that
~/.config/fontconfig/conf.d/99-monospace.conf

<?xml version="1.0"?><!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
    <alias>
        <family>monospace</family>
        <prefer><family>Source Code Pro</family></prefer>
    </alias>
</fontconfig>

archlinuxenjoyer · 2023-05-12 10:13:52

fc-match monospace returned

NimbusMonoPS-Regular.otf: "Nimbus Mono PS" "Regular"

Testing in alacritty that is indeed the troublemaker font. If I edited the file as you suggested then text will display correctly without any configs in my TEs.

seth · 2023-05-12 14:17:54

Nimbus has popped up before w/ broken extents - and it's ugly™

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.

archlinuxenjoyer · 2023-05-13 12:40:26

Totally agree. Dug around a bit and the font was contained in gsfonts and got pulled in by graphviz.

Marked the thread as resolved. Thanks for your help, seth.

Arch Linux

#1 2023-05-11 14:03:03

[SOLVED] Text cursor not centered

#2 2023-05-11 14:55:40

Re: [SOLVED] Text cursor not centered

#3 2023-05-11 15:20:28

Re: [SOLVED] Text cursor not centered

#4 2023-05-11 15:39:16

Re: [SOLVED] Text cursor not centered

#5 2023-05-11 15:47:19

Re: [SOLVED] Text cursor not centered

#6 2023-05-11 20:13:32

Re: [SOLVED] Text cursor not centered

#7 2023-05-11 20:56:53

Re: [SOLVED] Text cursor not centered

#8 2023-05-11 21:10:30

Re: [SOLVED] Text cursor not centered

#9 2023-05-11 21:40:15

Re: [SOLVED] Text cursor not centered

#10 2023-05-12 05:58:13

Re: [SOLVED] Text cursor not centered

#11 2023-05-12 10:13:52

Re: [SOLVED] Text cursor not centered

#12 2023-05-12 14:17:54

Re: [SOLVED] Text cursor not centered

#13 2023-05-13 12:40:26

Re: [SOLVED] Text cursor not centered

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