Arch Linux

shak

Member

Registered: 2009-03-16

Posts: 405

ugly and big fonts

Hi

I have the following issue for some time . Basically after installing the nvidia drivers for my nvidia geforce 6600 go , the fonts (for size 10) are a lot bigger than in Ubuntu . So i have to decrease it to lower sizes . Also i have tried all the packages for font smoothing (lcd,cleartype,ubuntu) from the archwiki guide but my fonts don't look nothing as smooth as in Ubuntu . I have tried the DPI setting at 96 x 96 without noticing any difference.My screen resolution is 1680x1050 (notebook screen) . In ubuntu i had installed the nvidia drivers version 177 and in arch version 180 . Does something have to do with it ? My xorg.conf file is the one below :

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "X.org Configured"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
    ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/misc"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/TTF"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load  "glx"
    Load  "dbe"
    Load  "dri"
    Load  "xtrap"
    Load  "extmod"
    Load  "freetype"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Keyboard0"
    Driver      "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Mouse0"
    Driver      "mouse"
    Option        "Protocol" "auto"
    Option        "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option        "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier   "Monitor0"
    VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
    ModelName    "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Card0"
    Driver      "nvidia"
    VendorName  "nVidia Corporation"
    BoardName   "NV43 [GeForce Go 6600]"
    BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
    Option        "RenderAccel" "True"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device     "Card0"
    Monitor    "Monitor0"
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     1
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     4
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     8
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     15
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     16
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

If anyone could help me get smooth beautiful fonts i would be very grateful.
Thanks a lot for your help !

Last edited by shak (2009-03-24 05:18:37)

CheesyBeef

Member

Registered: 2008-06-04

Posts: 190

Re: ugly and big fonts

Have you tried lower dpi than 96?  I find that 86 works best for me.

Test it out by logging out and starting X like this:

$ startx -- -dpi 86

or make it permanent by editing your /etc/X11/xserverrc (also use this to test the dpi if you are using GDM and can't get it to stay on VC/1 without restarting X):

exec /usr/bin/X -nolisten tcp -dpi 86

If you have been using Gnome and have now switched to a different DE/WM, then you should know that Gnome has a setting in Appearance Preferences that allow to adjust the dpi for Gnome's GTK applications.  I tried for days, unsucessfully, to figure out how to do that without installing Gnome.  I do not know of an alternative, other than just adjusting X's dpi.

Edit:  By the way, are you sure you have your monitor set at that resolution?  That was my main problem when I started Arch - I had large, blurry fonts for days until I realized I did not configure my screen resolution to 1280x800, so it used 1024x768.

You can find your resolution with:

xrandr | grep '*'

You can set your resolution with:

    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     24
        Modes    "1280x800"
    EndSubSection

Last edited by CheesyBeef (2009-03-24 05:38:16)