Strange font discrepancy between XFCE4 and Openbox

paramthegreat · 2009-10-02 04:59:40

Hi Everyone,

I am trying to move to a purely non-DE* based system. I am currently running openbox with tint2 and everything is working great except for fonts in openoffice and netbeans. However if I am running Xfce DE, my font's in openoffice and netbeans are quite good. I am wondering what is the difference between the 2 approaches? Also is there a program that will let me have DE* quality font in a window manager? I do not want to install gnome/xfce simply to have their settings daemon for good font rendering.

Posting my .fonts.conf and some screenshots below. I am using the cairo-lcd, freetype-lcd packages.

fonts.conf

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'>
<fontconfig>
    <!--
    alias well known font names to available truetype fonts.
    these substitute truetype faces for similar type1
    faces to improve screen appearance.
    -->
    <match target="pattern" name="family" >
        <test name="family" qual="any" >
            <string>helvetica</string>
        </test>
        <edit mode="assign" name="family" >
            <string>sans-serif</string>
        </edit>
    </match>

    <match target="pattern" name="family" >
        <test name="family" qual="any" >
            <string>lucida</string>
        </test>
        <edit mode="assign" name="family" >
            <string>sans-serif</string>
        </edit>
    </match>

    <match target="pattern" name="family" >
        <test name="family" qual="any" >
            <string>times</string>
        </test>
        <edit mode="assign" name="family" >
            <string>sans-serif</string>
        </edit>
    </match>

    <match target="pattern" name="family" >
        <test name="family" qual="any" >
            <string>courier</string>
        </test>
        <edit mode="assign" name="family" >
            <string>monospace</string>
        </edit>
    </match>

    <match target="pattern" name="family" >
        <test name="family" qual="any" >
            <string>courier new</string>
        </test>
        <edit mode="assign" name="family" >
            <string>monospace</string>
        </edit>
    </match>

    <match target="pattern" name="family" >
        <test name="family" qual="any" >
            <string>lucida console</string>
        </test>
        <edit mode="assign" name="family" >
            <string>monospace</string>
        </edit>
    </match>

    <match target="pattern" name="family" >
        <test name="family" qual="any" >
            <string>fixed</string>
        </test>
        <edit mode="assign" name="family" >
            <string>monospace</string>
        </edit>
    </match>

    <selectfont>
        <rejectfont>
            <pattern>
                <patelt name="scalable" >
                    <bool>false</bool>
                </patelt>
            </pattern>
        </rejectfont>
    </selectfont>

    <!-- 
    font hinting settings configure autohint,
    subpixel and hint settings
    -->
    <match target="font" >
        <edit mode="assign" name="autohint" >
            <bool>true</bool>
        </edit>
    </match>
    <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>hintnone</const>
        </edit>
    </match>
    <match target="font" >
        <edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
            <bool>true</bool>
        </edit>
    </match>

    <!--
    provide required aliases for standard names
    do these after the users configuration file so that
    any aliases there are used preferentially
    -->

    <alias>
        <family>serif</family>
        <prefer>
            <family>verdana</family>
        </prefer>
    </alias>

    <alias>
        <family>sans-serif</family>
        <prefer>
            <family>verdana</family>
        </prefer>
    </alias>

    <alias>
        <family>monospace</family>
        <prefer>
            <family>dejavu sans mono</family>
        </prefer>
    </alias>

    <match target="pattern">
        <test compare="more" name="weight"><const>medium</const></test>
        <edit mode="assign" name="autohint"><bool>false</bool></edit>
    </match>

    <!-- custom antialiasing settings for specifig fonts -->
    <match target="font" >
        <test name="family" qual="any" >
            <string>dejavu sans mono</string>
        </test>
        <edit mode="assign" name="rgba" >
            <const>rgb</const>
        </edit>
        <edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
            <bool>true</bool>
        </edit>
        <edit mode="assign" name="autohint" >
            <bool>true</bool>
        </edit>
        <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle" >
            <const>hintfull</const>
        </edit>
    </match> 

    <match target="font" >
        <test name="family" qual="any" >
            <string>terminus</string>
        </test>
        <edit mode="assign" name="autohint" >
            <bool>false</bool>
        </edit>
        <edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
            <bool>false</bool>
        </edit>
    </match>
   
</fontconfig>

Netbeans in Xfce4, notice how good the fonts look.

Netbeans in Openbox, fonts are jagged.

thisoldman · 2009-10-02 11:17:52

I don't know how Xfce or Openoffice set their antialiasing or select their fonts. I am running Openbox and tint2.

I used this to improve the appearance of Blue, a csounds front-end written in Java. I added it to ~/.bashrc. I think it should work for Netbeans.

export _JAVA_OPTIONS='-Dawt.useSystemAAFontSettings=lcd'

Where I have "lcd", you can try:

* off or false or default -- No anti-aliasing
* on -- Full anti-aliasing
* gasp -- Use the font's built-in hinting instructions
* lcd or lcd_hrgb -- Anti-aliasing tuned for many popular LCD monitors
* lcd_hbgr -- Alternative LCD monitor setting
* lcd_vrgb -- Alternative LCD monitor setting
* lcd_vbgr -- Alternative LCD monitor setting

Last edited by thisoldman (2009-10-02 11:20:00)

paramthegreat · 2009-10-02 15:11:43

Thanks for the tip on java_options. That helped a lot with the fonts on netbeans and even fixed the issues I had with openoffice. I guess no surprise there since openoffice is written in java (i think).

I still am interested in finding out what's so special about xfce/gnome font settings. I probably should start by peeking inside xfce/gnome codebase or ask their developers. Maybe then I can write a small standalone to do the same thing.

thisoldman wrote:

export _JAVA_OPTIONS='-Dawt.useSystemAAFontSettings=lcd'

Gen2ly · 2009-10-02 15:35:58

Yeah, java has it's own hinting. Didn't know about that type though before, thanks thisoldman. Just a question on the side paramthegreat, why are you using hintnone? Generally hintnone is only good if you have +300DPI which... I... don't think even... exists. I could be wrong .

Last edited by Gen2ly (2009-10-02 15:38:20)

Arch Linux

#1 2009-10-02 04:59:40

Strange font discrepancy between XFCE4 and Openbox

#2 2009-10-02 11:17:52

Re: Strange font discrepancy between XFCE4 and Openbox

#3 2009-10-02 15:11:43

Re: Strange font discrepancy between XFCE4 and Openbox

#4 2009-10-02 15:35:58

Re: Strange font discrepancy between XFCE4 and Openbox

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