with recent releases of some distros, the fonts have gone all to h3ll and
nothing seems to fix them. they''ve gone for example from this:
http://datadump.homelinux.com/fontconfig/slack_bitstream.png
to this:
http://datadump.homelinux.com/fontconfig/arch_bitstreamvera.png
from this:
http://datadump.homelinux.com/fontconfig/slack_luxisans.png
to this:
http://datadump.homelinux.com/fontconfig/arch_luxisans.png
from this:
http://datadump.homelinux.com/fontconfig/slack_verdana.png
to this:
http://datadump.homelinux.com/fontconfig/arch_verdana.png
i first noticed it going from slackware 9 to 9.1, but compiling XFree from
source fixed the problem and i had good fonts again. but with the upgrade to
slack 10 that is no longer working, and nothing else is either -- no local.conf
settings, no dpi changes, no bytecode interpreter, no XFree/xorg.conf settings,
no hinting options -- nothing. they''re just not being rendered
correctly.
i''ve posted the problem on a few forums, and while many people are
noticing the same font degradation on their own systems since recent upgrades,
no one seems to know what the problem is. i thought i would come to the font
gurus to see if i can find an answer.
some random points that might help diagnose:
+ commenting out "load freetype" in X config file has no effect -- is
it even working?
+ in arch linux at least, the libfreetype files are being installed to /usr/lib,
but when i install freetype manually, i notice they go to /usr/local/lib. i
tried to symlink to the newer version of libfreetype, but the fonts got worse
+ in slack 10 on my laptop, i can get the good fonts in gnome by selecting the
"grayscale" aa option in the gconf-editor, but it doesn''t
carry over to other window managers, and it doesn''t work in debian or
arch at all.
so is this a distro-related problem, perhaps having to do with how the newer
packages are being compiled (e.g., without Xft support, wrong library locations,
etc.), or is it a fontconfig/freetype problem? i''m not really sure
where to turn next.
sorry if this is the wrong list, but i couldn''t find one for freetype.
you folks seemed to know the most about fonts out of anyone, so i figured i
would try here. appreciate your attention, pls. lmk if you need any more
details.
synaptical
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