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Re: freetype-2.4.8 "upgrade"

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Loki Harfagr

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Feb 3, 2012, 10:38:02 AM2/3/12
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Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:42:59 -0600, grant did cat :

> Just upgraded from freetype-2.3.9 to freetype-2.4.8 on Slackware 13.0. My
> fonts now look thin/puny and are not as legible/readable as they were
> under freetype-2.3.9.
>
> Has anybody else noticed a problem with the new freetype and their fonts
> looking worse than before the "upgrade"?
>
> Have played around with rebuilding the font-cache, adding some new lines
> to my ~/.fonts.conf and searching for other possible fixes to what I'm
> seeing. Other than going back to freetype-2.3.9, what should I do to get
> my fonts readable again?

Yup, some fonts treats were more vamped/repaired within the 2.4.* evolution on
freetype, I'd bet you're having some trouble with aliasing, be
sure to activate it:

<match target="font">
<edit name="antialias" mode="assign">
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
</match>

you may like and try to play with some other settings like
autohint+hinstyle and lcdfilter, all this can be setup in
local.conf or simply ~/.fonts.conf (but you knew that ;-)

as I use 18" and 23" 1920* monitor and quite tiny fonts
(eg Droid Sans 8 or 7 or DejaVu Condensed 7) I use these settings:
------------
$ awk '/mod/||/const/' .fonts.conf
<edit mode="assign" name="rgba">
<const>none</const>
<edit mode="assign" name="hinting">
<edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle">
<const>hintlight</const>
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias">
<edit mode="assign" name="lcdfilter">
<const>lcddefault</const>
------------

>
> Red herring - I use icewm, not KDE.

which certainly is a sane attitude ;-)

Loki Harfagr

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Feb 5, 2012, 6:14:40 AM2/5/12
to
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:38:02 +0000, Loki Harfagr did cat :

> Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:42:59 -0600, grant did cat :
>
>> Just upgraded from freetype-2.3.9 to freetype-2.4.8 on Slackware 13.0. My
>> fonts now look thin/puny and are not as legible/readable as they were
>> under freetype-2.3.9.
>>
>> Has anybody else noticed a problem with the new freetype and their fonts
>> looking worse than before the "upgrade"?
>>
>> Have played around with rebuilding the font-cache, adding some new lines
>> to my ~/.fonts.conf and searching for other possible fixes to what I'm
>> seeing. Other than going back to freetype-2.3.9, what should I do to get
>> my fonts readable again?
>
> Yup, some fonts treats were more vamped/repaired within the 2.4.* evolution on
> freetype, I'd bet you're having some trouble with aliasing, be
> sure to activate it:
>
> <match target="font">
> <edit name="antialias" mode="assign">
> <bool>true</bool>
> </edit>
> </match>
>
> you may like and try to play with some other settings like
> autohint+hinstyle and lcdfilter, all this can be setup in
> local.conf or simply ~/.fonts.conf (but you knew that ;-)
>
> as I use 18" and 23" 1920* monitor and quite tiny fonts
> (eg Droid Sans 8 or 7 or DejaVu Condensed 7) I use these settings:
...

and as your post re-awakened my curiosity about the topic
I checked again and found some settings that suited me even better
(and allowed me to repaire two tiny typos hidden in my previous conf :-)
here it is for info but mind that it's related to my LCDs my eyes
and my color perception it may suit you or not at all :D)
--------
cat .fonts.conf
<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'>
<fontconfig>

<!-- rgb bgr rgba bgra -->
<match target="font">
<edit name="rgba" mode="assign"><const>rgb</const></edit>
</match>

<match target="font">
<edit mode="assign" name="hinting">
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
</match>

<!-- none slight medium full -->
<match target="font">
<edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle">
<const>hintslight</const>
</edit>
</match>

<!-- most important setting for this Flatron -->
<match target="font">
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias">
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
</match>

<!-- none default light legacy -->
<match target="font">
<edit mode="assign" name="lcdfilter">
<const>lcddefault</const>
</edit>
</match>

<!-- no autohinting for bold fonts -->
<match target="font">
<test name="weight" compare="more">
<const>medium</const>
</test>
<edit name="autohint" mode="assign">
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>

<dir>~/.fonts</dir>
</fontconfig>
--------
Message has been deleted

dillinger

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Feb 5, 2012, 4:57:03 PM2/5/12
to
On 02/02/2012 07:42 PM, grant wrote:
> Just upgraded from freetype-2.3.9 to freetype-2.4.8 on Slackware 13.0. My
> fonts now look thin/puny and are not as legible/readable as they were
> under freetype-2.3.9.
>
> Has anybody else noticed a problem with the new freetype and their fonts
> looking worse than before the "upgrade"?
>
> Have played around with rebuilding the font-cache, adding some new lines
> to my ~/.fonts.conf and searching for other possible fixes to what I'm
> seeing. Other than going back to freetype-2.3.9, what should I do to get
> my fonts readable again?
>
> Red herring - I use icewm, not KDE.

I think it's a freetype bug, or feature, whatever.
Over here it happens only for some sizes of some fonts in GTK+
applications on a large monitor. I haven't tested all possibilities but
on a 1024x768 monitor Sans 8, Sans 9 and Sans 10 all look ok. On a
1680x1050 monitor Sans 9 looks too small while Sans 8 and 10 look ok.
This is on Slackware 12.2, using KDE. For other fonts everything seems
ok. Going back to freetype 2.3.7 fixed my problem (I want Sans 9).

dillinger

unread,
Feb 5, 2012, 6:09:45 PM2/5/12
to
No problems on Salix 13.37 Xfce, upgrading from freetype-2.4.4 to
freetype-2.4.8, and not testing "all" possibilities.

dillinger

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Feb 5, 2012, 6:47:16 PM2/5/12
to
On 02/05/2012 10:57 PM, dillinger wrote:
Apparently 1152x864 is big enough, no problems on that screen size.

Glyn Millington

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Feb 6, 2012, 2:46:04 AM2/6/12
to
grant <sam...@example.invalid> writes:

> Just upgraded from freetype-2.3.9 to freetype-2.4.8 on Slackware 13.0.
> My fonts now look thin/puny and are not as legible/readable as they
> were under freetype-2.3.9.
>
> Has anybody else noticed a problem with the new freetype and their
> fonts looking worse than before the "upgrade"?
>
> Have played around with rebuilding the font-cache, adding some new
> lines to my ~/.fonts.conf and searching for other possible fixes to
> what I'm seeing. Other than going back to freetype-2.3.9, what should
> I do to get my fonts readable again?
>
> Red herring - I use icewm, not KDE.

Sorry to be slow on this and you have maybe already gone back to 2.3.9
but ....


This page is good on fonts

http://duganchen.ca/writings/slackware/fonts/

and contains some suggestions you might try, especially with regard to X
font resolution.

atb


Glyn
--
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