• Registered: 2009-05-28
  • Posts: 244

Topic: statler font rendering

This seems to be a perennial problem with linux in general.
The quality of the font rendering.
When it works properly, it can be stunning, actually better than either windows or mac os X IMHO.

But it's not working properly on statler, for me.

Take a look at this grab from the uzbl browser in the latest statler (20110207?, and the version of uzbl is whatever comes out of the repositories with a simple sudo apt-get install uzbl):
http://thumbnails2.imagebam.com/12021/b50cf2120205947.jpg

Absolutely beautiful; sumptuous, perfectly spaced and balanced letters, and even better than mac os can do, thanks to macos seeming unable to do subpixel rendering for this font:
http://thumbnails5.imagebam.com/12021/5265ab120205951.jpg

Now look at what you get with the default chromium browser:
http://thumbnails29.imagebam.com/12021/954b94120205948.jpg

Take a look at the 'w' in will, with, etc.  Look at the 'ay' in delayed.  Look at the 'ft' in spacecraft, 'gy' in technology.  It's just a pathetic, child-like spindly, misaligned, misweighted, ugly mess.

And this is streets ahead of what you get in firefox, or even what you get in the openbox menus if you choose the wrong font, both of which are too embarrassing to post.

So what's the deal here?  How do I ensure beautiful uzbl style rendering throughout, instead of the scratchy mess elsewhere?

Last edited by jackbang (2011-02-19 14:26:20)

  • From: California, USA
  • Registered: 2008-11-29
  • Posts: 8,647

Re: statler font rendering

For Chromium, look at these bugs:

http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issue … l?id=13185
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issue … l?id=29871

As for Openbox, make sure it is using the same font as uzbl. iirc, the default font in Statler is Bitstream or DejuVu monospace so you might want to change to a sans(-serif) font.

Note: ** Please read before posting **

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  • Registered: 2009-05-28
  • Posts: 244

Re: statler font rendering

Thanks anonymous.  This isn't just a chromium problem though, I get even worse font rendering in firefox4 beta, and in openbox for most fonts, including the proportional ones.  Howver for openbox, I am currently using FreeSans, which renders beautifully.

It's a difficult problem to pinpoint, and of course subjective, but this has always been problematic for me with linux (less so with recent ubuntu releases), requiring fiddling with .fontconfig hinting settings etc, or even replacing the freetype library and so on.

  • From: California, USA
  • Registered: 2008-11-29
  • Posts: 8,647

Re: statler font rendering

To change the font rendering options you normally would just tweak ~.fonts.conf, however not all applications obey/support it.

I don't really think there is a "solution" to this problem. First like you said, font rendering is subjective. One person may prefer antialiased text whereas another may prefer more sharp, crisp text. And since the problem is difficult to pinpoint, it becomes just as difficult to make a solution.

Note: ** Please read before posting **

BTW if you wish to contact me, send me an e-mail instead of a PM.
  • qbrick
  • #! CrunchBanger
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  • From: Hannover, Germany
  • Registered: 2009-07-20
  • Posts: 199

Re: statler font rendering

With Statler Xfce and after playing around with the appearance->font-settings-tab I get very different results depending on the font type I choose: I've never seen DejaVu Sans so beautifully rendered before. It's crisp and soft at the same time, every letter, even the infamous "w" is just pefect. However, when switching to Sans Condensed, FreeFont, Liberation, Nimbus or even Trebuchet MS which from experience always seemed to be a save bet, the results are much worse than what I'm used to.
What really bugs me, is that Mozilla's build of Firefox 4 rejects the system's font rendering. Would be great to have build which integrates better.

  • omns
  • #! Die-hard
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  • From: non-local
  • Registered: 2008-11-25
  • Posts: 4,406

Re: statler font rendering

I'm having good success using LMDE's patched libcairo2 and fontconfig packages in squeeze. In short my fonts are looking really nice at the moment.

A Creative Commoner | My images at Google+ | A Waldorf Review

Silence is sometimes the best answer - Dalai Lama.
  • qbrick
  • #! CrunchBanger
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  • From: Hannover, Germany
  • Registered: 2009-07-20
  • Posts: 199

Re: statler font rendering

Did you simply intall LMDE's deb packages onto Statler's?
Could post a link to the packages?

  • omns
  • #! Die-hard
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  • From: non-local
  • Registered: 2008-11-25
  • Posts: 4,406

Re: statler font rendering

qbrick wrote:

Did you simply intall LMDE's deb packages onto Statler's?

No I added the LMDE import repo to my standard Squeeze installation.

Details of packages in the repo can be found at the following link http://packages.linuxmint.com/list.php? … ian#import

A Creative Commoner | My images at Google+ | A Waldorf Review

Silence is sometimes the best answer - Dalai Lama.
  • hhh
  • Caught in the Vortex
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  • From: Port Salerno
  • Registered: 2010-08-04
  • Posts: 970

Re: statler font rendering

I posted this in another thread, but it bears reposting... in the home folder of the Xfce version of #! there is the file font.config (accidently left over from the Openbox version?) For me, the settings in this file were overriding the hinting settings I set in Settings>Appearance>Fonts. I renamed the file and fonts were better after restarting X. I renamed .gtkrc-2.0 and .gtkrc.mine as well.

  • omns
  • #! Die-hard
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  • From: non-local
  • Registered: 2008-11-25
  • Posts: 4,406

Re: statler font rendering

hhh wrote:

in the home folder of the Xfce version of #! there is the file font.config (accidently left over from the Openbox version?)

my guess would be a hangover from a previous release that didn't have the patched libcairo2 packages.

A Creative Commoner | My images at Google+ | A Waldorf Review

Silence is sometimes the best answer - Dalai Lama.
  • From: Nagoya, Japan
  • Registered: 2009-01-07
  • Posts: 1,955

Re: statler font rendering

hhh wrote:

in the home folder of the Xfce version of #! there is the file font.config (accidently left over from the Openbox version?) For me, the settings in this file were overriding the hinting settings I set in Settings>Appearance>Fonts. I renamed the file and fonts were better after restarting X. I renamed .gtkrc-2.0 and .gtkrc.mine as well.

While Xfce handles a lot of font settings by other means, there are still more things you can put in .fonts.conf, so rather than renaming it, maybe just remove the conflicting hinting entries from it? The same applies to gtkrc-2.0 and gtkrc-2.0.mine - the latter can be used eg to tweak the appearance of xfdesktop's icons.

John
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