Arch Linux

perseus

Member

Registered: 2007-01-28

Posts: 162

fonts / hinting

I have just switched to an lcd monitor using the DVI input.  Fonts were terrible at first, but switching to cairo-lcd and libxft-lcd has improved matters enormously.  Many thanks to the developer

I am still learning, and trying to optimise things to my liking.  Can anyone confirm (or deny) that I am right in thinking as follows :

(a) Autohinting and the (patented) bci are alternatives.

(b) The patented bci is compiled into Arch.

(c) The patented bci is overriden if /etc/fonts/conf.d has the symlink to 10-autohint-conf, and is available if the symlink 10-unhinted-conf is used instead.

(d) If I use the patented bci, then I can control the level of hinting by a stanza in ~/fonts.conf, such as :

<match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="hinting" >
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
</match>
<match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle" >
   <const>hintslight</const>
  </edit>
</match>

Thanks.

japetto

Member

From: Chicago, IL US

Registered: 2006-07-02

Posts: 183

Re: fonts / hinting

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xor … figuration

perseus

Member

Registered: 2007-01-28

Posts: 162

Re: fonts / hinting

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xor … figuration

Thank-you for responding japetto.

I had read that wiki page (and all the references to fonts in the wiki as well as a lot of forum posts), but I was still not certain about things. This is the section of the wiki in question which confused me a little and led to my forum post:

The bytecode interpreter makes my fonts look crappy, and it's compiled in, do I need to recompile?

Nope, not at all. Freetype's internal auto-hinting is just shut off. In some distros, the bytecode interpreter is compiled in and enabled by default. As a result, the bytecode interpreter overrides the freetype autohinter (which the developers are very proud of). To force the autohinter to be on, add the following to /etc/fonts/local.conf or ~/.fonts.conf

     <match target="pattern">
        <edit name="autohint" mode="assign">
           <bool>true</bool>
        </edit>
     </match>

Or change to the /etc/fonts/conf.d directory, and link the 10-autohint.conf file from the conf.avail directory into the conf.d directory. The following commands should work (the second command must be run with superuser privileges).

cd /etc/fonts/conf.d
ln -s ../conf.avail/10-autohint.conf

That certainly suggests that the patented bci is compiled in to Arch, but it does not tell me how to control it.  In particular I am not sure about the difference between using

<edit name="autohint" mode="assign">

and

<edit mode="assign" name="hinting" >

The latter does not appear to have any effect (I do not see any hinting at all, even using Microsoft fonts), but the former will (it seems), just invoke the autohinter - which is what I want to avoid.

Last edited by perseus (2007-10-27 09:42:15)

japetto

Member

From: Chicago, IL US

Registered: 2006-07-02

Posts: 183

Re: fonts / hinting

perseus, are you using a window manager or desktop environment? I think that if you are using Gnome/KDE you should change the hinting settings within the appropriate DE font config dialogs.  If you are using a WM have you restarted X?

perseus

Member

Registered: 2007-01-28

Posts: 162

Re: fonts / hinting

japetto wrote:

.. are you using a window manager or desktop environment? I think that if you are using Gnome/KDE you should change the hinting settings within the appropriate DE font config dialogs.  If you are using a WM have you restarted X?

I use IceWm as my WM - I don't run a DE.  (I have checked that IceWm has no settings which affect what I am trying to do.) I restart Xorg after each change.

I don't have a problem setting the hinting settings by way of hintstyle in .fonts.conf, eg:

<match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle" >
   <const>hintfull</const>
  </edit>
</match>

The problem I have is trying to use / control the patented bci when autohinting is not being used at all.

Basically I was very happy with my fonts when using my CRT - making a lot of use or arial which I happen to like.  So far as fontconfig and the very different technology of an LCD will allow it,  I am trying to get as close as possible to what I had.  Maybe it just isn't possible.

mumpf

Member

From: Switzerland

Registered: 2006-09-05

Posts: 95

Re: fonts / hinting

I think autohinter should be switched off in order to activate the bytecode hinting (and not the freetype autohinting).
Step 1: activate bytecode hinting

<match target="font" >
<edit mode="assign" name="hinting" >
  <bool>true</bool>
</edit>
</match>

Is this step necessary in case I want to use the patented bytecode stuff?

According to the wiki "Freetype's internal auto-hinting is just shut off"
It shouldn't be necessary to switch off the Freetype autohinting:

Step 2
  <match target="pattern">
        <edit name="autohint" mode="assign">
           <bool>false</bool>
        </edit>
     </match>

Can I forget about the second step?

Last edited by mumpf (2008-01-15 22:28:31)