Weird font... unless I zoom

ironhak · 2025-10-09 09:03:42

Hello everyone

I'm on i3wm. I noticed that with some fonts I get really bad render quality, one of them being Colibri.

Here's a couple of screenshots that reproduce the problem:

https://i.imgur.com/eehzZ8D.png
https://imgur.com/f5cQjWX.png
https://imgur.com/uGPOucw.png

This happens on LibreOffice Writer as you can see, but it also happens for example in the gmail website when I receive a mail that uses Calibri.

Can anyone help me to fix this? Thank's a lot

Mod edit: - Replaced oversized images with links

Last edited by V1del (2025-10-09 09:24:36)

V1del · 2025-10-09 09:33:46

Those are MS fonts that contain bitmaps that will get used at certain sizes if you have the ttf-ms-fonts packages. You can disable the display of embedded bitmaps as described in https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Micros … tmap_fonts you might also instead want to consider installing the metric compatible ttf-carlito and adjusting the font config aliases (as described in same article) to make Calibri map there.

ironhak · 2025-10-09 09:50:47

V1del wrote:

Those are MS fonts that contain bitmaps that will get used at certain sizes if you have the ttf-ms-fonts packages. You can disable the display of embedded bitmaps as described in https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Micros … tmap_fonts you might also instead want to consider installing the metric compatible ttf-carlito and adjusting the font config aliases (as described in same article) to make Calibri map there.

Thanks! Yes I have the ms fonts package... But on other systems like Linux Mint when I isntall ms fonts I don't get that problem. Isn't there a ms.fonts package for arch where this issue is fixed by default?

ironhak · 2025-10-09 10:06:17

Anyway, for anmyone reading in the future, creating this file

~/.config/fontconfig/conf.d/20-no-embedded.conf

with content:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "urn:fontconfig:fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
  <match target="font">
    <edit name="embeddedbitmap" mode="assign">
      <bool>false</bool>
    </edit>
  </match>
</fontconfig>

after a log-out worked good. The problem is vanished... I'm afraid this will cause problems with Emojis, but let's see.

V1del · 2025-10-09 18:37:55

The first line of the linked section is

Use the 70-no-bitmaps-except-emoji.conf preset to disable this behavior.

which allows you to disable bitmaps safe for emojis with a simple symlink.

In any case if you consider this [SOLVED] please mark it as such by editing the title in your original post.

ironhak · 2025-10-10 10:08:33

V1del wrote:

The first line of the linked section is
Use the 70-no-bitmaps-except-emoji.conf preset to disable this behavior.
which allows you to disable bitmaps safe for emojis with a simple symlink.
In any case if you consider this [SOLVED] please mark it as such by editing the title in your original post.

So, I removed the file

~/.config/fontconfig/conf.d/20-no-embedded.conf

to test this. And run the following command:

sudo ln -s /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/70-no-bitmaps-except-emoji.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d/

Unfortunately the problem presented itself again, meaning that using the preset does not work as intented. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

seth · 2025-10-10 12:56:47

That configlet disables all fonts that are not tagged scalable or outline, ie. regular bitmap fonts, it will especially give fonts w/ embedded bitmaps a pass what upstream seems to equate w/ <swearing> emojis.
The reason behind that configlet was also to nuke bitmap fonts from high orbit because apparently people install them and are then irritated because they end up actually being used (sounds insane and is most likely because of questionable hard font dependencies across distros)

Either way https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Font_c … tmap_fonts is the correct approach to disable embedded bitmaps and optionially give selected fonts (sigh-mojis) a pass.

V1del · 2025-10-10 13:51:42

Ah misread that

ironhak · 2025-10-18 07:44:56

seth wrote:

That configlet disables all fonts that are not tagged scalable or outline, ie. regular bitmap fonts, it will especially give fonts w/ embedded bitmaps a pass what upstream seems to equate w/ <swearing> emojis.
The reason behind that configlet was also to nuke bitmap fonts from high orbit because apparently people install them and are then irritated because they end up actually being used (sounds insane and is most likely because of questionable hard font dependencies across distros)
Either way https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Font_c … tmap_fonts is the correct approach to disable embedded bitmaps and optionially give selected fonts (sigh-mojis) a pass.

Why then that configlet has no effect at all on my system??? The only thing that fixed was to create that file on my home folder

seth · 2025-10-18 07:54:43

Why then that configlet has no effect at all on my system??? The only thing that fixed was to create that file on my home folder

"Why does A not work? The only fix was to create A in my home folder"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oxymoron

Please don't paraphrase, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=57855 but 70-no-bitmaps-except-emoji.conf is not the same as the config examples in https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Font_c … tmap_fonts at all (that's the point) and 70-no-bitmaps-except-emoji.conf will only disable straight bitmap fonts like eg. https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/any/terminus-font/ but notably not vector fonts with embedded additional bitmaps (under the sketchy assumptions that those embedded bitmaps will "desirable" emojis and completely not accounting w/ embedded bitmaps for raster optimization)

ironhak · 2025-10-18 08:27:44

seth wrote:

Why then that configlet has no effect at all on my system??? The only thing that fixed was to create that file on my home folder
"Why does A not work? The only fix was to create A in my home folder"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oxymoron
Please don't paraphrase, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=57855 but 70-no-bitmaps-except-emoji.conf is not the same as the config examples in https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Font_c … tmap_fonts at all (that's the point) and 70-no-bitmaps-except-emoji.conf will only disable straight bitmap fonts like eg. https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/any/terminus-font/ but notably not vector fonts with embedded additional bitmaps (under the sketchy assumptions that those embedded bitmaps will "desirable" emojis and completely not accounting w/ embedded bitmaps for raster optimization)

I still don't understand but thanks anyway

seth · 2025-10-18 08:42:54

Please avoid bloating the thread with pointless full quotes.

There are bitmap fonts (pcf, obt,…) and vector fonts (ttf, otf, …) and sometimes vector fonts also embed some bitmaps which can either be for pixel perfect glyph rasterization (turning vectors into pixels) or limited to specific glyphs (colored emojis)

70-no-bitmaps-except-emoji.conf blocks Bitmap fonts but leaves vector fonts with embedded bitmaps alone - what is the opposite of what you want.
The filename is just confusing and the entire rule borderline pointless (just don't install the bitmap font?) which is probably what mislead V1del

Edit:
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.

Last edited by seth (2025-10-18 16:08:27)

Arch Linux

#1 2025-10-09 09:03:42

Weird font... unless I zoom

#2 2025-10-09 09:33:46

Re: Weird font... unless I zoom

#3 2025-10-09 09:50:47

Re: Weird font... unless I zoom

#4 2025-10-09 10:06:17

Re: Weird font... unless I zoom

#5 2025-10-09 18:37:55

Re: Weird font... unless I zoom

#6 2025-10-10 10:08:33

Re: Weird font... unless I zoom

#7 2025-10-10 12:56:47

Re: Weird font... unless I zoom

#8 2025-10-10 13:51:42

Re: Weird font... unless I zoom

#9 2025-10-18 07:44:56

Re: Weird font... unless I zoom

#10 2025-10-18 07:54:43

Re: Weird font... unless I zoom

#11 2025-10-18 08:27:44

Re: Weird font... unless I zoom

#12 2025-10-18 08:42:54

Re: Weird font... unless I zoom

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