On Fri, 3 Oct 2003 00:28:24 +0200 JB <somnambulist@inbox.ru> wrote:> Let''s say I have just installed linux (slackware 9.1), the latest > XFree86 and fontconfig 2.2.0 (all clean installs) and haven''t > configured anything or done anything else with my linuxbox. Where do I > go from here? Tthe fonts look scaly and weird from start and websites > don''t look as good as they do in Windows. I just want the fonts to > look "right".There are several issues/steps to be taken. 1. Get the most widely used TTF fonts out there, either from a Windows install of some kind, or from the dedicated SourceForge project. 2. Install the TTF fonts: * place them into a dir, run mkfontdir+mkfontscale in that dir. * tell X to take that dir into account; this can mean editing one of /etc/X11/fs/config or /etc/X11/XF86Config, plus /etc/fonts/local.conf, or messing with ''xset +fp'' commands. * make sure the TTF fonts are the only ones with that name (ie. the only "Arial" font is the TTF one) or just place your TTF dir first in the above config files or xset font path so it takes precedence. * run ''fc-cache -fv'' as root * run X and check the output of xlsfonts. 3. Next start beautifying the fonts. First there''s the widget matter. GTK v1 based apps CAN NOT anti-alias fonts so you''re stuck with "scaly" and stair-edged fonts. It''s a problem especially if you get the precompiled official Mozilla for instance, which is based on GTK1. Better look for alternative builds based on GTK v2. The same issue may appear for static-built Opera which comes with its own QT. Run ldconfig on the browser executable and see what libs it links with dinamically (if any); same goes for any app, actually. GTK v2 based apps are ok, but remember to enable anti-aliasing by setting the env variable GDK_USE_XFT=1. Pretty much the same goes for QT apps: QT_XFT=1. 4. Tweaking is next. There are many places which allow tweaking. The browser configuration is one place. You can mess with the fonts.alias and make some fonts be replaced with nicer ones. You can use qtconfig and do some font substitution there too. The control panels for Gnome and KDE have some more font options themselves. Finally, edit /etc/fonts/local.conf or ~/.fonts.conf and add some tweaks to your heart''s desire; myself I set all fonts below 12px as non-anti-aliased and everything bigger with AA, plus some other nice tricks like much more flexible font substitution based on all kinds of font characteristics. Final tip: if you compile stuff yourself, make sure to enable XFT support in everything. Something like Pango can affect all your GTK v2 installations. -- Ciprian Popovici
Ciprian Popovici <ciprian@zuavra.net> writes:> GTK v1 based apps CAN NOT anti-alias fonts so you''re stuck with > "scaly" and stair-edged fonts. It''s a problem especially if you get > the precompiled official Mozilla for instance, which is based on > GTK1. Better look for alternative builds based on GTK v2.Mozilla is a bad example here, because it doesn''t use GTK for text rendering either on web pages or in the interface; you can build a Mozilla binary with GTK1 that uses Xft for text and thus does antialiased fonts anyway. -- Adam Sampson <azz@us-lot.org> <http://offog.org/>
I''m no newbie linuxuser but I''ve had this problem (well it''s not really a problem, just a thing that annoys me a lot) for all my years of linux usage and have never been able to fix it. How do I get truetype-fonts to look exactly as good as they do in MS Windows? I''ve read many guides, tried many different "solution" but TT-fonts always look bad in some way or another. Let''s say I have just installed linux (slackware 9.1), the latest XFree86 and fontconfig 2.2.0 (all clean installs) and haven''t configured anything or done anything else with my linuxbox. Where do I go from here? Tthe fonts look scaly and weird from start and websites don''t look as good as they do in Windows. I just want the fonts to look "right". Can anyone explain to me how to do this?
On Fri, 2003-10-03 at 00:28, JB wrote:> I''m no newbie linuxuser but I''ve had this problem (well > it''s not really a problem, just a thing that annoys me a > lot) for all my years of linux usage and have never been > able to fix it. How do I get truetype-fonts to look exactly > as good as they do in MS Windows? I''ve read many guides, > tried many different "solution" but TT-fonts always look > bad in some way or another.I believe the reason might be the patent issues with the hinting bytecodes interpreter.> Let''s say I have just installed linux (slackware 9.1), > the latest XFree86 and fontconfig 2.2.0 (all clean installs) > and haven''t configured anything or done anything else with > my linuxbox. Where do I go from here? Tthe fonts look scaly > and weird from start and websites don''t look as good as they > do in Windows. I just want the fonts to look "right". > > Can anyone explain to me how to do this?You can download freetype sources and compile them with the bytecode hinter turned on, provided you have a license from Apple, or a valid reason why you don''t need one. You can read more about the issue at http://www.freetype.org/patents.html. Enrique
On Sat, Oct 11, 2003 at 11:19:12AM +0100, Adam Sampson wrote:> Ciprian Popovici <ciprian@zuavra.net> writes: > > > GTK v1 based apps CAN NOT anti-alias fonts so you''re > > stuck with "scaly" and stair-edged fonts. It''s a problem > > especially if you get the precompiled official Mozilla > > for instance, which is based on GTK1. Better look for > > alternative builds based on GTK v2. > > Mozilla is a bad example here, because it doesn''t use GTK for > text rendering either on web pages or in the interface; you > can build a Mozilla binary with GTK1 that uses Xft for text > and thus does antialiased fonts anyway.It is indeed puzzling why the "GTK v1 based apps cannot anti-alias fonts" statement is still being passed around. Other than the Xft-enabled Gtk1 mozilla (which can render anti-aliased fonts but apparently not very well), mlterm is also Gtk1-based and uses Xft, and renders anti-aliased fonts good. If Gtk1 apps cannot anti-aliased fonts, there would be no point in having separate Gtk and Xft libraries, etc. -- Ambrose LI Cheuk-Wing <a.c.li@ieee.org> http://ada.dhs.org/~acli/