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#1 2008-08-14 08:41:47

sultanoswing
Member
Registered: 2008-07-23
Posts: 314

Ugly fonts on aintitcoolnews

If any of you Archers have smooth looking fonts on this site:

http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/

I'd be most grateful to know who / how / what  / why!!

My additions of ms-tt-fonts and various other sundry fixes as suggested for generic f-ugly fonts haven't resulted in any improvements on AICN, although most other sites look fine, and the general desktop and application environments are otherwise pleasant on the eyes.

Thanks in advance.

Last edited by sultanoswing (2008-08-14 08:42:30)


6.5.3.arch1-1(x86_64) w/Gnome 44.4
Arch on: ASUS Pro-PRIME x470, AMD 5800X3D, AMD 6800XT, 32GB, | Intel NUC 7i5RYK | ASUS ux303ua | Surface Laptop

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#2 2008-08-14 08:45:03

Ashren
Member
From: Denmark
Registered: 2007-06-13
Posts: 1,229
Website

Re: Ugly fonts on aintitcoolnews

pacman -S ttf-bitstream-vera

Would be a possible solution.

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#3 2008-08-14 09:08:33

sultanoswing
Member
Registered: 2008-07-23
Posts: 314

Re: Ugly fonts on aintitcoolnews

Thanks for the prompt reply.

Yeah - I've already done that as well as various other fixes mentioned in the fonts sections of the wiki, and also played around with the various different options (subpixel smoothing, hinting etc.) in the preferences -> appearence -> fonts section.

As I said, most other sites are pretty good, but it's AICN and a few other sites which persist with nasty jaggy fonts.

No difference with Opera or Firefox.

aicnshotyk0.th.png

I'm interested whether anyone has the fonts on AICN looking smoother than in the 1:1 screenshot above, and if so, how? If not, I say we head to AICN with flaming torches and demand they recode their HTML!


6.5.3.arch1-1(x86_64) w/Gnome 44.4
Arch on: ASUS Pro-PRIME x470, AMD 5800X3D, AMD 6800XT, 32GB, | Intel NUC 7i5RYK | ASUS ux303ua | Surface Laptop

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#4 2008-08-15 02:09:15

tigrmesh
IRC Op
From: Florida, US
Registered: 2007-12-11
Posts: 794

Re: Ugly fonts on aintitcoolnews

sultanoswing wrote:

If any of you Archers have smooth looking fonts on this site:

http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/

*snip*

The stylish firefox extension may help with this.  It allows you to modify the CSS of a web page.

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#5 2008-08-15 04:09:11

kett
Member
Registered: 2008-04-21
Posts: 104

Re: Ugly fonts on aintitcoolnews

It's pretty smooth on mine.  I'm not sure what is so special about my system.  I've got bitstream-vera, dejavu, and ms-fonts.  Running Arch64 with AwesomeWM and nvidia graphics drivers.  Tried it in firefox and opera with the same results.

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#6 2008-08-15 06:42:44

rizzix
Member
Registered: 2005-10-22
Posts: 55

Re: Ugly fonts on aintitcoolnews

You need to disable bitmap fonts.

cd /etc/fonts/conf.d
sudo ln -s /etc/fonts/conf.avail/70-no-bitmaps.conf

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#7 2008-08-15 13:25:56

milan
Member
Registered: 2007-03-20
Posts: 38

Re: Ugly fonts on aintitcoolnews

OMG... Almost got blind... Fonts on this website look jagged even on Firefox (WinXP)...

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#8 2008-08-15 13:31:24

mrunion
Member
From: Jonesborough, TN
Registered: 2007-01-26
Posts: 1,938
Website

Re: Ugly fonts on aintitcoolnews

Here is what it looks like for me:

http://www.bigpony.com/linuxscreenshots … othing.png


Matt

"It is very difficult to educate the educated."

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#9 2008-08-15 16:54:50

brebs
Member
Registered: 2007-04-03
Posts: 3,742

Re: Ugly fonts on aintitcoolnews

Just set up fontconfig - see Gentoo wiki.

Here's my current ~/.fonts.conf (and archive copy) - that'll smooth the fonts.

Last edited by brebs (2008-08-15 17:01:21)

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#10 2008-08-15 19:11:37

mrunion
Member
From: Jonesborough, TN
Registered: 2007-01-26
Posts: 1,938
Website

Re: Ugly fonts on aintitcoolnews

I followed this section:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fon … er_enabled

I'm guessing it's about the same thing?  I'm on a laptop, so that's what I used the LCD stuff.


Matt

"It is very difficult to educate the educated."

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#11 2008-08-16 03:11:26

sultanoswing
Member
Registered: 2008-07-23
Posts: 314

Re: Ugly fonts on aintitcoolnews

Thanks guys - still no (smooth) dice.

I'm now using the .conf of brebs and installed the lcd patches as per mrunion's link....still jaggy as hell on AICN - although everything else looks a bit nicer now!

My LCD is a Viewsonic VX922, and I'm running at 96dpi font resolution (same setting in xorg.conf). Mrunion, there'd be a million dollar* cheque heading your way if AICN looked that good on my machine! I mean seriously - you've GIMP-ed that screenshot, haven't you!?!

...oh, and I finally and actually had to boot into XP, and the fonts also looked equally ugly on firefox under XP (I just couldn't face / forgot to try IE)


* NB: the currency on offer is Zimbabwean dollars.

[EDIT] - AICN looks like mrunion's screenshot on my Dell 1330 laptop running Ubuntu. Hmmmm.

[EDIT 2] - The site looks bad on IE too - but is much improved by enabling Cleartype (on XP - shudder).

So using the above information - can any of you font boffins figure a way to have the best of both worlds - i.e. Arch + a nice looking AICN?

Last edited by sultanoswing (2008-08-16 07:04:44)


6.5.3.arch1-1(x86_64) w/Gnome 44.4
Arch on: ASUS Pro-PRIME x470, AMD 5800X3D, AMD 6800XT, 32GB, | Intel NUC 7i5RYK | ASUS ux303ua | Surface Laptop

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#12 2008-08-16 12:48:39

mrunion
Member
From: Jonesborough, TN
Registered: 2007-01-26
Posts: 1,938
Website

Re: Ugly fonts on aintitcoolnews

Well, I'll just try and regurgitate as much info as I can for you.  First, here is what I have installed with "font" in the package name:

[root@highvoltage mrunion]# pacman -Qs font
local/artwiz-fonts 1.3-3
    This is set of (improved) artwiz fonts.
local/fontcacheproto 0.1.2-1
    X11 font cache extension wire protocol
local/fontconfig 2.6.0-2
    A library for configuring and customizing font access
local/fontconfig-lcd 2.6.0-1
    A library for configuring and customizing font access (custom LCD filter).
local/fontforge 20080720-1
    An outline and bitmap font editor
local/fontsproto 2.0.2-1
    X11 font extension wire protocol
local/freetype2 2.3.7-1
    TrueType font rendering library
local/gsfonts 8.11-4
    Ghostscript standard Type1 fonts
local/libfontenc 1.0.4-1
    X11 font encoding library
local/libfs 1.0.1-1
    X11 Font Services Library
local/libxfont 1.3.3-1
    X11 font rasterisation library
local/libxfontcache 1.0.4-1
    X11 font cache library
local/libxft-lcd 2.1.13-1
    FreeType-based font drawing library for X (with custom LCD filter)
local/sdl_ttf 2.0.9-1
    A library that allows you to use TrueType fonts in your SDL applications
local/t1lib 5.1.2-1
    Library for generating character- and string-glyphs from Adobe Type 1 fonts
local/terminus-font 4.26-1
    A superb, monospace bitmap font (for X11 and console)
local/ttf-bitstream-vera 1.10-5
    Bitstream vera fonts
local/ttf-dejavu 2.26-1
    Font family based on the Bitstream Vera Fonts with a wider range of
    characters
local/ttf-ms-fonts 2.0-1
    Un-extracted TTF Fonts from Microsoft
local/xorg-font-utils 1.0.3-3
    X.Org font utilities
local/xorg-fonts-100dpi 1.0.1-1
    X.org 100dpi fonts
local/xorg-fonts-alias 1.0.1-1
    X.org font alias files
local/xorg-fonts-encodings 1.0.2-2
    X.org font encoding files
local/xorg-fonts-misc 1.0.0-3
    X.org misc fonts

And here's my ".fonts.conf" in my home folder. I think this is just the "defaults" that are set up.

<?xml version="1.0"?><!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="rgba" >
   <const>none</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="hinting" >
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle" >
   <const>hintmedium</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
</fontconfig>

And finally, under System->Preferences->Appearance, on the Fonts tab I have "Tahoma" as my system font and "Subpixel Smoothing (LCDs)" selected. On the "Details" panel, I have 96dpi, Subpixel selected under "Smoothing", and Full selected under "Hinting". "Subpixel Order" is set to RB.  Screen shots here:

http://www.bigpony.com/linuxscreenshots … arance.png
http://www.bigpony.com/linuxscreenshots/fontdetails.png

That's all the details I can think of. If there is anything else, just ask and I'll see what I can do.  Alos, my machine specs (if it matters):

HP Pavilion DV9650US (laptop)
1440x900 resolution/screen size
nVidia 8600GT
Gnome/Compiz-Fusion

I hope this helps!


Matt

"It is very difficult to educate the educated."

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#13 2008-08-16 13:19:10

aveightor
Member
Registered: 2005-04-24
Posts: 33

Re: Ugly fonts on aintitcoolnews

My fonts on that page look like mrunion's screenshot. I followed the wiki for Cleartype packages

Alternative with "ClearType" packages

There are more effects for fonts from Windows system, this method of beautifying fonts has been tested with GNOME/Xfce/KDE.
Remove Packages:

pacman -Rd cairo libxft freetype2

Install Packages

Install the package cairo-cleartype, libxft-cleartype, freetype2-cleartype from AUR

Search "cairo-cleartype", "libxft-cleartype", "freetype2-cleartype" in AUR, download all these tarballs, extract them, and compile them with makepkg, install them with

pacman -U *-cleartype*.pkg.tar.gz

Restart X11 (ctrl+alt+backspace)

Also from the wiki:

FreeType autohinter (optional)

You can set the FreeType autohinter. As root :

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

In Gnome goto System, Preferences, Appearance, Fonts change the fonts to DejaVu Sans set the style to condensed. Set the windows title font style to Bold and Fixed width font to DejaVu Sans Mono Book. Then click on Details at the bottom right, Im using 1680x1050 and I set Resoultion to 96 dots per inch. Smoothing set to Subpixel (LCDs) and Hinting set to Slight. Subpixel Order set to RGB. Also my fonts are set to 10 point.

In Firefox goto Edit, Preferences, Content click on Advanced for Fonts and Colors set those fonts to DejaVu Sans and DejaVu Sans Mono.

here is my .font.conf

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'>
<!-- /etc/fonts/local.conf file to configure system font access -->
<fontconfig>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="autohint" >
   <bool>false</bool>
  </edit>
  <edit mode="assign" name="rgba" >
   <const>rgb</const>
  </edit>
  <edit mode="assign" name="hinting" >
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
  <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle" >
   <const>hintslight</const>
  </edit>
  <edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <selectfont>
  <rejectfont>
   <pattern>
    <patelt name="scalable" >
     <bool>false</bool>
    </patelt>
   </pattern>
  </rejectfont>
 </selectfont>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="rgba" >
   <const>rgb</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <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>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
</fontconfig>

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#14 2008-08-16 13:31:35

testube_babies
Member
From: 127.0.0.1
Registered: 2007-06-26
Posts: 115

Re: Ugly fonts on aintitcoolnews

I think this is actually a problem with ms-fonts on Arch - I've never gotten Tahoma to render nicely on webpages no matter what I've tried.

Get rid of Tahoma and restart your browser and the site should be much prettier:

rm /usr/share/fonts/TTF/tahoma.ttf
fc-cache -f

Last edited by testube_babies (2008-08-16 13:32:35)

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#15 2008-08-16 19:16:39

forkboy
Member
From: Blackpool, England
Registered: 2005-09-03
Posts: 74

Re: Ugly fonts on aintitcoolnews

I don't know the difference but I find the ttf-ms-fonts-lic package from the aur to be better than the regular ttf-ms-fonts.

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#16 2008-08-16 19:55:42

Pnevma
Member
Registered: 2008-04-11
Posts: 112

Re: Ugly fonts on aintitcoolnews

aveightor wrote:

...

In Firefox goto Edit, Preferences, Content click on Advanced for Fonts and Colors set those fonts to DejaVu Sans and DejaVu Sans Mono.

...

To add onto this, in that same section, uncheck the box that says "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections above."

You may also want to set the "Minimum font size:" to 11 or 10 and mess with the other font sizes.

This fixes any and all problems with fonts on the web for me.

The DejaVu fonts are from the package ttf-dejavu:

pacman -S ttf-dejavu

Last edited by Pnevma (2008-08-16 20:02:41)

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#17 2008-08-16 23:24:50

sultanoswing
Member
Registered: 2008-07-23
Posts: 314

Re: Ugly fonts on aintitcoolnews

testtube_babies: yep - that helped quite a bit, including on a couple of other sites - damn that Tahoma!

Pnevma: that also, as you say, fixed all the ugly fonts, and is a nice fix, but I'm a bit fussy about not displaying the pages 'as the author intended."

aveightor: thanks, I'll give the cleartype packages a try, but again, it seems a little like 'giving in to the darkside'... what a fussy sod I am!

Thanks for the ongoing suggestions - there's a lot of good stuff in here for us n00bs who are trying to acheive font nirvana with Arch.


6.5.3.arch1-1(x86_64) w/Gnome 44.4
Arch on: ASUS Pro-PRIME x470, AMD 5800X3D, AMD 6800XT, 32GB, | Intel NUC 7i5RYK | ASUS ux303ua | Surface Laptop

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