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#1 2009-12-03 17:06:54

toketin
Member
From: Belluno (Italy)
Registered: 2007-04-17
Posts: 326

Chromium and font

Hi, is it normal to see strangely the font under chromium? I mean that i see for example the Aur page with a strong bold font, you can see better in this screen:
font.png

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#2 2009-12-16 16:12:47

leeyee
Member
From: Kingston, Canada
Registered: 2009-01-07
Posts: 150

Re: Chromium and font

bump up.
I met some similar fonts problem on chromium. The apperance of fonts are quite different in firefox from chromium, and I still didn't find out a way to config it properly. Any idea on font configuration of chromium?


Archlinux x86_64 on Thinkpad T400
Intel X4500MHD / ATI HD3470 Graphics, 2G RAM, 160G HD

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#3 2009-12-16 16:13:43

Rasi
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2007-08-14
Posts: 1,914
Website

Re: Chromium and font

leeyee wrote:

bump up.
I met some similar fonts problem on chromium. The apperance of fonts are quite different in firefox from chromium, and I still didn't find out a way to config it properly. Any idea on font configuration of chromium?

try to install and run lxde-settings-daemon and restart X - helps for me


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#4 2009-12-16 20:36:43

jxy
Member
Registered: 2008-12-03
Posts: 133

Re: Chromium and font

I think the font problem is really the show stopper for chromium.  Bad hintting results in *EXTRA* bold fonts, vague CJK fonts.  And there is no way to change it.

I can't believe it does not respect fontconfig settings.

@Rasi: Are you kidding me?  Why do I need lxde-settings-daemon for chromium, the browser?

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#5 2009-12-16 20:39:12

ozar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2005-02-18
Posts: 1,686

Re: Chromium and font

The overly bold fonts were one of the first things that turned me off about Chromium, as well.  I'll be watching this thread for any possible fixes.


oz

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#6 2009-12-16 20:56:43

Pierre
Developer
From: Bonn
Registered: 2004-07-05
Posts: 1,964
Website

Re: Chromium and font

It looks like this for me: https://users.archlinux.de/~pierre/tmp/ … -fonts.png Not perfect but better than yours. I use Dejavu fonts by default.

I guess it looks extremely blurry if ms-fonts are used. In firefox you can disable using non-default fonts.

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#7 2009-12-16 21:29:35

Nezmer
Member
Registered: 2008-10-24
Posts: 559
Website

Re: Chromium and font


English is not my native language .

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#8 2009-12-16 21:40:59

sand_man
Member
From: Australia
Registered: 2008-06-10
Posts: 2,164

Re: Chromium and font

I just thought the chromium completely ignored my font settings. Is it just that it uses it's own (bad) hinting?


neutral

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#9 2009-12-16 21:45:08

rusty99
Member
Registered: 2009-03-18
Posts: 253

Re: Chromium and font

This is what I get using Droid Sans Japanese

tMzBlZQ

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#10 2009-12-16 22:36:37

combuster
Member
From: Serbia
Registered: 2008-09-30
Posts: 711
Website

Re: Chromium and font

Well I havent changed default fonts in chromium (I use Zekton as desktop font, 96dpi with LCD Slight tinting)

screenshot1vv.th.png

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#11 2009-12-16 22:40:28

SoleSoul
Member
From: Israel
Registered: 2009-06-29
Posts: 319

Re: Chromium and font

The only fonts package I have installed by myself and not as a dep is ttf-ms-fonts and everything looks good.

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#12 2009-12-16 22:50:00

Rasi
Member
From: Germany
Registered: 2007-08-14
Posts: 1,914
Website

Re: Chromium and font

well i am unable to spot a difference, do you see one?

tMzBmOA


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#13 2009-12-16 23:00:06

BowlSmoker
Member
Registered: 2009-10-09
Posts: 27

Re: Chromium and font

Mine looks very different too. Chrome doesn't follow my font settings and isn't anti-aliased like everything else...

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#14 2009-12-16 23:09:35

combuster
Member
From: Serbia
Registered: 2008-09-30
Posts: 711
Website

Re: Chromium and font

I'm just annoyed by the font in my adress bar, it uses Zekton and is kinda going up and down when I type, letters like g and p are cut off from the bottom

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#15 2009-12-16 23:29:50

RobbeR49
Member
From: Columbus, OH
Registered: 2006-01-17
Posts: 178

Re: Chromium and font

I've read Chrome supposedly gets it's hinting information from xsettings, which from what I gather requires the use of some kind of daemon to set/keep the right settings - which means pulling it from one of the DE's: gnome-settings-daemon, xfce4-settings, or lxde-settings-daemon I suppose are the only options.

I tried chromium when it hit extra too, and the fonts were screwed up for me as well. I tried lxde-settings-daemon which instantly changed my GTK theme and as far as I could tell doesn't have any kind of interface to change the settings it controls. That's about as far as I got.

I don't like the idea of xsettings going in and mucking up stuff I've set via fonts.conf and gtkrc.mine.

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#16 2009-12-17 01:52:12

leeyee
Member
From: Kingston, Canada
Registered: 2009-01-07
Posts: 150

Re: Chromium and font

For those who are using fonts other than English, I have the following pictures proving that chromium ignores fontconfig
http://hiphotos.baidu.com/wienerlee/pic … 1e1217.jpg
http://hiphotos.baidu.com/wienerlee/pic … 3d6217.jpg
Seems still no accurate answer has been provided on how chromium render its fonts, doesn't it?

Last edited by leeyee (2009-12-17 02:22:11)


Archlinux x86_64 on Thinkpad T400
Intel X4500MHD / ATI HD3470 Graphics, 2G RAM, 160G HD

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#17 2009-12-17 02:02:00

sand_man
Member
From: Australia
Registered: 2008-06-10
Posts: 2,164

Re: Chromium and font

leeyee wrote:

For those who are using fonts other than English, I have the following pictures proving that chromium ignores fontconfig
http://www.linuxsir.org/bbs/attachment. … 1260979380
http://www.linuxsir.org/bbs/attachment. … 1260979380

Seems still no accurate answer has been provided on how chromium render its fonts, doesn't it?

Have to sign up to view...

For me, Thai fonts look fine. Usually in other browsers I have trouble getting them just right. Sometimes they are too small but in Chrome it just looks good.
English however, looks $#%@


neutral

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#18 2009-12-17 02:23:41

leeyee
Member
From: Kingston, Canada
Registered: 2009-01-07
Posts: 150

Re: Chromium and font

sand_man wrote:
leeyee wrote:

For those who are using fonts other than English, I have the following pictures proving that chromium ignores fontconfig
http://www.linuxsir.org/bbs/attachment. … 1260979380
http://www.linuxsir.org/bbs/attachment. … 1260979380

Seems still no accurate answer has been provided on how chromium render its fonts, doesn't it?

Have to sign up to view...

For me, Thai fonts look fine. Usually in other browsers I have trouble getting them just right. Sometimes they are too small but in Chrome it just looks good.
English however, looks $#%@

Ah..sorry, I've moved images to another address, and it should work now.


Archlinux x86_64 on Thinkpad T400
Intel X4500MHD / ATI HD3470 Graphics, 2G RAM, 160G HD

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#19 2009-12-17 13:30:23

Janax
Member
From: Iowa
Registered: 2007-05-21
Posts: 86

Re: Chromium and font

Never really thought it was that bad, but that may be because I'm using the system-wide settings for configuring fonts and not the DEs (KDE)... I also am using the "-ubuntu" libxft, fontconfig, etc. from AUR.

gweber@enigma:/etc/fonts/conf.d$ pacman -Q | grep ubuntu
cairo-glitz-ubuntu 1.8.8-1
fontconfig-ubuntu 2.6.0-8
freetype2-ubuntu 2.3.11-2
libxft-ubuntu 2.1.14-2

gweber@enigma:/etc/fonts/conf.d$ ll
total 4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  31 Nov 20 09:03 10-antialias.conf -> ../conf.avail/10-antialias.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  29 Nov 20 09:03 10-hinting.conf -> ../conf.avail/10-hinting.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  36 Nov 20 09:44 10-hinting-slight.conf -> ../conf.avail/10-hinting-slight.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  35 Nov 20 09:08 10-sub-pixel-rgb.conf -> ../conf.avail/10-sub-pixel-rgb.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  43 Nov 20 09:03 11-lcd-filter-lcddefault.conf -> ../conf.avail/11-lcd-filter-lcddefault.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  39 Nov 20 09:03 20-fix-globaladvance.conf -> ../conf.avail/20-fix-globaladvance.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  39 Nov 20 09:03 20-unhint-small-vera.conf -> ../conf.avail/20-unhint-small-vera.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  42 Nov 20 09:03 29-replace-bitmap-fonts.conf -> ../conf.avail/29-replace-bitmap-fonts.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  36 Nov 20 09:03 30-metric-aliases.conf -> ../conf.avail/30-metric-aliases.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  33 Nov 20 09:03 30-urw-aliases.conf -> ../conf.avail/30-urw-aliases.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  30 Nov 20 09:03 40-nonlatin.conf -> ../conf.avail/40-nonlatin.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  32 Nov 19 12:35 44-wqy-zenhei.conf -> ../conf.avail/44-wqy-zenhei.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  27 Nov 20 09:03 45-latin.conf -> ../conf.avail/45-latin.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  31 Nov 20 09:03 49-sansserif.conf -> ../conf.avail/49-sansserif.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  26 Nov 20 09:03 50-user.conf -> ../conf.avail/50-user.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  27 Nov 20 09:03 51-local.conf -> ../conf.avail/51-local.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  42 Nov 20 09:03 53-monospace-lcd-filter.conf -> ../conf.avail/53-monospace-lcd-filter.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  27 Nov 20 09:03 60-latin.conf -> ../conf.avail/60-latin.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  35 Nov 20 09:03 65-fonts-persian.conf -> ../conf.avail/65-fonts-persian.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  30 Nov 20 09:03 65-nonlatin.conf -> ../conf.avail/65-nonlatin.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  29 Nov 20 09:03 69-unifont.conf -> ../conf.avail/69-unifont.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  31 Nov 20 09:03 80-delicious.conf -> ../conf.avail/80-delicious.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  31 Nov 20 09:03 90-synthetic.conf -> ../conf.avail/90-synthetic.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 959 Nov 20 09:03 README

I notice a small difference with firefox and chromium side-by-side, but nothing "horrible".  I have a screenshot but don't have a good way to insert it here...

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#20 2009-12-17 13:40:10

jxy
Member
Registered: 2008-12-03
Posts: 133

Re: Chromium and font

RobbeR49 wrote:

I've read Chrome supposedly gets it's hinting information from xsettings, which from what I gather requires the use of some kind of daemon to set/keep the right settings - which means pulling it from one of the DE's: gnome-settings-daemon, xfce4-settings, or lxde-settings-daemon I suppose are the only options.

I tried chromium when it hit extra too, and the fonts were screwed up for me as well. I tried lxde-settings-daemon which instantly changed my GTK theme and as far as I could tell doesn't have any kind of interface to change the settings it controls. That's about as far as I got.

I don't like the idea of xsettings going in and mucking up stuff I've set via fonts.conf and gtkrc.mine.

There are some programs do not follow fonts.conf.  And chromium is one of them.  In fact, like old X apps, chromium follows some X server resource database.  Usually that is set up using ~/.Xdefaults or ~/.Xresources and xrdb(1).  Ideally such programs should let editres(1) to talk to them, but chromium does not, so it's hard to know what are the resources chromium uses.  Being an open source program at least enables us to know the features.  And as a matter of fact, chromium only respect four xft related resources settings.

Xft.hintstyle
Xft.hinting
Xft.antialias
Xft.rgba

But are these settings enough for normal day uses?  Only if you use one kind of font.  For me, NO.  I cannot live without fontconfig's fonts.conf.  I don't want the program pick some non-English fonts I don't like, when it displays English and non-English texts together.  And I don't want the program to completely ignore the embedded bitmap fonts in the font especially for Chinese fonts where hinting is just useless.

I can't believe that they actually hard coded most of these settings in the main program and leave no way to configure them by the users.  Probably their idea of open source is that users can change the behavior of the program by change the source code?

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#21 2009-12-22 06:44:03

Meyithi
Member
From: Wirral, UK
Registered: 2009-06-21
Posts: 550
Website

Re: Chromium and font

All I needed was to pop

Xft.rgba:       rgb

into my .Xdefaults, Chromium seems to be picking up hinting settings from elsewhere (don't have a .fonts.conf but use lcd packages).


The mind roams more freely in empty rooms.
dwm - colours - ncmpcpp - system
irc://irc.freenode.net:meyithi

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#22 2009-12-27 10:09:05

jase
Member
From: Finland
Registered: 2008-01-20
Posts: 25

Re: Chromium and font

chromium.th.png

Here's some more font strangeness.

Everything is nicely anti-aliased and hinted except the extension popups and tabs that are open from those popups.

Normal and from popup
readernormal.th.pngreaderfrompopup.th.png

~ $ cat .Xdefaults
Xft.dpi: 96
Xft.antialias: true
Xft.rgba: rgb
Xft.hinting: true
Xft.hintstyle: hintslight
~ $ cat .fonts.conf 
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<fontconfig>
    <match target="font" >
    <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>
    <edit mode="assign" name="lcdfilter"><const>lcddefault</const></edit>
    </match>
</fontconfig>

Google didn't help much and I'm out of ideas hmm

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#23 2009-12-27 19:40:49

Gen2ly
Member
From: Sevierville, TN
Registered: 2009-03-06
Posts: 1,529
Website

Re: Chromium and font

I haven't read the whole thread but on the wiki I saw an article that fontconfig can override the .Xdefaults which if true (likely is) is not allowing Chromium to use your .Xdefault settings.


Setting Up a Scripting Environment | Proud donor to wikipedia - link

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#24 2010-01-23 22:03:20

jacko
Member
Registered: 2007-11-23
Posts: 840

Re: Chromium and font

I fixed my chromium browser fonts.

edit ~/.gtkrc-2.0, if you don't have it just create it.

gtk-xft-antialias = 1
gtk-xft-hinting = 1
gtk-xft-hintstyle = hintslight
gtk-xft-rgba = rgb

http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issue … l?id=18159 comment #24
http://code.google.com/p/xsettingsd/ <-- in case you need a daemon

Last edited by jacko (2010-01-23 22:06:57)

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#25 2010-01-23 22:59:43

Meyithi
Member
From: Wirral, UK
Registered: 2009-06-21
Posts: 550
Website

Re: Chromium and font

It's a shame Google are so stubborn when it comes to software dev, and trying to persuade them to do things properly just frustrates you because of their arrogance.

The AUR packages show just what kind of hacks and workarounds are needed to build it, one problem seems to lead onto another, has really put me off Chromium which is a shame because it had great potential.


The mind roams more freely in empty rooms.
dwm - colours - ncmpcpp - system
irc://irc.freenode.net:meyithi

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