Gentoo Forums
Gentoo Forums
Gentoo Forums
Quick Search: in
[HOWTO]Freetype subpixel font rendering - lcd monitors Pt 2
View unanswered posts
View posts from last 24 hours

Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3, ... 27, 28, 29  Next  
Reply to topic    Gentoo Forums Forum Index Documentation, Tips & Tricks
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
devsk
Advocate
Advocate


Joined: 24 Oct 2003
Posts: 2995
Location: Bay Area, CA

PostPosted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ok. found my issue. For some reason, I had 50-user.conf enabled and it has some weird stuff that the new patches don't like. I did 'eselect fontconfig disable 50-user.conf' and my fonts are looking good now.

Strangely, firefox and thunderbird were behaving differently. Firefox had weird fonts with 50-user.conf but thunderbird was fine with it. Now, both of them are fine. But its strange that there is something that makes them behave differently.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
yabbadabbadont
Advocate
Advocate


Joined: 14 Mar 2003
Posts: 4791
Location: 2 exits past crazy

PostPosted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Code:
/home/daffy $ cat /etc/fonts/conf.d/50-user.conf
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
        <!-- Load per-user customization file -->
        <include ignore_missing="yes">~/.fonts.conf</include>
</fontconfig>

50-user.conf does nothing but include your personal configuration... so the problem lies there. ;)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
devsk
Advocate
Advocate


Joined: 24 Oct 2003
Posts: 2995
Location: Bay Area, CA

PostPosted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

yabbadabbadont wrote:
Code:
/home/daffy $ cat /etc/fonts/conf.d/50-user.conf
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
        <!-- Load per-user customization file -->
        <include ignore_missing="yes">~/.fonts.conf</include>
</fontconfig>

50-user.conf does nothing but include your personal configuration... so the problem lies there. ;)
Yeah, I know. I meant my ~/.fonts.conf has something that the new patches don't like. That file gets created every time I touch KDE font settings and it looks like a bug with KDE that file is not in sync with global settings although I select the same things like full hinting with RGB. So, I changed KDE to use system settings and got rid of that file.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
F0RR
n00b
n00b


Joined: 02 Jan 2009
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 9:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for new patch. Now everything is even better. But I still have problems with 0s and Os :cry:
Like this: http://img19.picoodle.com/img/img19/3/1/5/f_Screenshot5m_bd75d11.png
Help, please! :D
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ocin
Guru
Guru


Joined: 01 Jan 2006
Posts: 500

PostPosted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 1:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

F0RR wrote:
Thanks for new patch. Now everything is even better. But I still have problems with 0s and Os :cry:
Like this: http://img19.picoodle.com/img/img19/3/1/5/f_Screenshot5m_bd75d11.png
Help, please! :D

Dunno bout O and 0 but you better disable lcd filtering for monospaced/fixed fonts (there is a config, user eselect fontconfig) so the quoted text will look fine too.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
treellama
n00b
n00b


Joined: 08 Feb 2004
Posts: 10

PostPosted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 2:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

For me, USE=cleartype looks worse (lower contrast) than USE=newspr. This is probably because I don't use hinting. With hinting on, USE=cleartype looks a little better to me.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ocin
Guru
Guru


Joined: 01 Jan 2006
Posts: 500

PostPosted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 1:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

it highly depends on your settings, for me with cleartype, autohint, hintfull and lcdfilter my fonts are awesome and I don't have any problems with O or 0.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
pezed
n00b
n00b


Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 31

PostPosted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 4:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Does anyone have a list of things to mask off the top of their head to get fonts back to how they were say, last week with the devnull overlay? After this last update of world my fonts look horrible, especially in kde apps. no settings were changed with eselect.
*Edit*

heres a link to what i'm talking about, the I's and 1s especially look bad. Fonts seem too thin overall. has the previous freetype been completly removed from the overlay?

http://www.pezed.net/junk/bad_fonts.png

Another edit: After much experimenting i got most of my fonts looking good again, but Segoe UI still has the problem with I's that it didn't have before. Is there some patch that used to be included with the devnull freetype that isn't included now?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
pezed
n00b
n00b


Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 31

PostPosted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 7:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

OK! After a couple hours of experimentation i finally got things back looking good again. KDE and GTK are displaying fonts the same way again, and the rendering is good. In case anyone is wondering what i did:

add mask >=x11-libs/cairo-1.8.6-r1

re-emerge freetype, cairo, libXft, and fontconfig

use the following eselect fontconfig settings:

Code:
  [1]   10-antialias.conf *
  [2]   10-autohint.conf *
  [3]   10-hinting-full.conf
  [4]   10-hinting-medium.conf
  [5]   10-hinting-slight.conf *
  [6]   10-hinting.conf *
  [7]   10-no-sub-pixel.conf
  [8]   10-sub-pixel-bgr.conf
  [9]   10-sub-pixel-rgb.conf *
  [10]  10-sub-pixel-vbgr.conf
  [11]  10-sub-pixel-vrgb.conf
  [12]  10-unhinted.conf
  [13]  11-lcd-filter-lcddefault.conf *
  [14]  20-fix-globaladvance.conf *
  [15]  20-unhint-small-vera.conf *
  [16]  25-unhint-nonlatin.conf
  [17]  30-metric-aliases.conf *
  [18]  30-replace-bitmap-fonts.conf *
  [19]  30-urw-aliases.conf *
  [20]  40-nonlatin.conf *
  [21]  45-latin.conf *
  [22]  49-sansserif.conf *
  [23]  50-user.conf
  [24]  51-local.conf
  [25]  52-languageselector.conf *
  [26]  53-monospace-lcd-filter.conf *
  [27]  60-latin.conf *
  [28]  60-liberation.conf
  [29]  65-fonts-persian.conf *
  [30]  65-khmer.conf
  [31]  65-nonlatin.conf *
  [32]  69-unifont.conf *
  [33]  70-no-bitmaps.conf
  [34]  70-yes-bitmaps.conf
  [35]  80-delicious.conf *
  [36]  90-synthetic.conf *


I was about to lose my mind, especially after looking at my kubuntu laptop that still had nice fonts!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
mwhitlock
Tux's lil' helper
Tux's lil' helper


Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 87
Location: New Hampshire, USA

PostPosted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 7:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

pezed wrote:
OK! After a couple hours of experimentation i finally got things back looking good again. KDE and GTK are displaying fonts the same way again, and the rendering is good. In case anyone is wondering what i did:

add mask >=x11-libs/cairo-1.8.6-r1

So in other words, don't use the cleartype-like patchset but rather newspr.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
pezed
n00b
n00b


Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 31

PostPosted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 8:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

mwhitlock wrote:
pezed wrote:
OK! After a couple hours of experimentation i finally got things back looking good again. KDE and GTK are displaying fonts the same way again, and the rendering is good. In case anyone is wondering what i did:

add mask >=x11-libs/cairo-1.8.6-r1

So in other words, don't use the cleartype-like patchset but rather newspr.


yes for sure. with the cleartype patched version, fonts in gtk apps looked too blurry as compared to kde apps, on my screen at least.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
mwhitlock
Tux's lil' helper
Tux's lil' helper


Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 87
Location: New Hampshire, USA

PostPosted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 8:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

pezed wrote:
yes for sure. with the cleartype patched version, fonts in gtk apps looked too blurry as compared to kde apps, on my screen at least.

KDE doesn't use Cairo for its font rasterization, so that would explain the difference.

Frankly, I don't know what all the confusion is about. As I understand it, upstream FreeType now supports rasterizing font glyphs using subpixel filtering. Shouldn't libXft, cairo, and qt4 all simply be using the pixmaps directly from FreeType without altering them? It seems like everyone is trying to do their own tweaks, and we wind up with a "too many cooks spoil the broth" situation. Am I missing something?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
pezed
n00b
n00b


Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 31

PostPosted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 4:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

mwhitlock wrote:
pezed wrote:
yes for sure. with the cleartype patched version, fonts in gtk apps looked too blurry as compared to kde apps, on my screen at least.

KDE doesn't use Cairo for its font rasterization, so that would explain the difference.

Frankly, I don't know what all the confusion is about. As I understand it, upstream FreeType now supports rasterizing font glyphs using subpixel filtering. Shouldn't libXft, cairo, and qt4 all simply be using the pixmaps directly from FreeType without altering them? It seems like everyone is trying to do their own tweaks, and we wind up with a "too many cooks spoil the broth" situation. Am I missing something?


I highly agree with that statement. Relying upon one lib such as freetype for the entire system makes everything more consistant. I think the problem currently maybe some issues with copyright infringement on the code freetype uses.

I just know that with newspr enabled and properly configured, my systems fonts look amazing, better than I've seen on any other OS (including MacOSX/Vista). Very sharp and easy on the eyes. It would be nice if this font rendering could somehow become the default in gentoo. Looking at gentoo screenshots on this forum, its "clear" that many users would benefit from better fonts! :lol:
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
F0RR
n00b
n00b


Joined: 02 Jan 2009
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 4:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

pezed, could you post your font configs here?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
pezed
n00b
n00b


Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 31

PostPosted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 8:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

F0RR wrote:
pezed, could you post your font configs here?


a couple of posts up i showed my eselect fontconfig list

i haven't changed any other configs.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Phlogiston
Veteran
Veteran


Joined: 27 Jan 2004
Posts: 1925
Location: Europe, Swizerland

PostPosted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 3:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Is this tar+http://ogmrip.sourceforge.net/misc/gentoo-lcd-filtering.tar.bz2 still updated?
_________________
Workstation: 5.1 SurroundSound, LIRC remote control; Laptop [IBM-T43]: patched sources, s2disk/ram, fingerprint sensor
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
bi3l
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 06 Feb 2003
Posts: 268
Location: France

PostPosted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 5:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Phlogiston wrote:
Is this tar+http://ogmrip.sourceforge.net/misc/gentoo-lcd-filtering.tar.bz2 still updated?

It will be as soon as I can find some time to work on it..
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
devsk
Advocate
Advocate


Joined: 24 Oct 2003
Posts: 2995
Location: Bay Area, CA

PostPosted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 5:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Does anyone else see a memory leak in firefox because of subpixel full hinting?
Code:
18777 ilame   20   0 1459m 976m  18m S    5 24.7 190:37.09 firefox
Thats a gig of my RAM.... 8O

I don't get such a leak if I don't use subpixel hinting at full.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Phlogiston
Veteran
Veteran


Joined: 27 Jan 2004
Posts: 1925
Location: Europe, Swizerland

PostPosted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 8:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

bi3l wrote:
Phlogiston wrote:
Is this tar+http://ogmrip.sourceforge.net/misc/gentoo-lcd-filtering.tar.bz2 still updated?

It will be as soon as I can find some time to work on it..


No problem, or is a newer version somewhere in an overlay? Anyway what about this new cleartype? Can someone please sum the changes up?
_________________
Workstation: 5.1 SurroundSound, LIRC remote control; Laptop [IBM-T43]: patched sources, s2disk/ram, fingerprint sensor
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
yabbadabbadont
Advocate
Advocate


Joined: 14 Mar 2003
Posts: 4791
Location: 2 exits past crazy

PostPosted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 8:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just as a test, I removed the overlay and tried just using the keyword masked versions in the main portage tree. The difference is so slight (for me at least), that I am just sticking with the packages in the main tree for now.

Edit: Here are the versions and USE flags I'm using. I would be interested to hear if anyone else has the same experience.
Code:
$ emerge -pv libXft freetype fontconfig cairo

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating dependencies... done!
[ebuild   R   ] media-libs/freetype-2.3.7-r1  USE="X -bindist -debug -doc -utils" 0 kB
[ebuild   R   ] media-libs/fontconfig-2.6.0-r2  USE="-doc" 0 kB
[ebuild   R   ] x11-libs/libXft-2.1.13  USE="-debug" 0 kB
[ebuild   R   ] x11-libs/cairo-1.8.6  USE="X cleartype opengl svg -debug -directfb -doc -glitz -xcb" 0 kB

Total: 4 packages (4 reinstalls), Size of downloads: 0 kB


Last edited by yabbadabbadont on Wed Jan 07, 2009 8:26 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Phlogiston
Veteran
Veteran


Joined: 27 Jan 2004
Posts: 1925
Location: Europe, Swizerland

PostPosted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 8:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

yabbadabbadont wrote:
Just as a test, I removed the overlay and tried just using the keyword masked versions in the main portage tree. The difference is so slight (for me at least), that I am just sticking with the packages in the main tree for now.


interesting, what versions and useflag do you use? cleartype?
_________________
Workstation: 5.1 SurroundSound, LIRC remote control; Laptop [IBM-T43]: patched sources, s2disk/ram, fingerprint sensor
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
yabbadabbadont
Advocate
Advocate


Joined: 14 Mar 2003
Posts: 4791
Location: 2 exits past crazy

PostPosted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 8:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I guess I was editing my original post with the information you requested, as you were requesting it... :D
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
devsk
Advocate
Advocate


Joined: 24 Oct 2003
Posts: 2995
Location: Bay Area, CA

PostPosted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 9:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

yabbadabbadont wrote:
Just as a test, I removed the overlay and tried just using the keyword masked versions in the main portage tree. The difference is so slight (for me at least), that I am just sticking with the packages in the main tree for now.

Edit: Here are the versions and USE flags I'm using. I would be interested to hear if anyone else has the same experience.
Code:
$ emerge -pv libXft freetype fontconfig cairo

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating dependencies... done!
[ebuild   R   ] media-libs/freetype-2.3.7-r1  USE="X -bindist -debug -doc -utils" 0 kB
[ebuild   R   ] media-libs/fontconfig-2.6.0-r2  USE="-doc" 0 kB
[ebuild   R   ] x11-libs/libXft-2.1.13  USE="-debug" 0 kB
[ebuild   R   ] x11-libs/cairo-1.8.6  USE="X cleartype opengl svg -debug -directfb -doc -glitz -xcb" 0 kB

Total: 4 packages (4 reinstalls), Size of downloads: 0 kB


I thought you will need at least the latest pixman apart from these. pixman in portage is older than the one in devnull. When I started out with this, until I upgraded my pixman, I had horrible fonts.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
yabbadabbadont
Advocate
Advocate


Joined: 14 Mar 2003
Posts: 4791
Location: 2 exits past crazy

PostPosted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 10:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

devsk wrote:
I thought you will need at least the latest pixman apart from these. pixman in portage is older than the one in devnull. When I started out with this, until I upgraded my pixman, I had horrible fonts.

pixman-0.12.0 is in the portage tree, just keyword masked.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
bi3l
Apprentice
Apprentice


Joined: 06 Feb 2003
Posts: 268
Location: France

PostPosted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 10:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've updated the tarball:
- freetype to 2.3.7-r1 (latest ubuntu, archlinux and portage patches)
- cairo to 1.8.6 (latest ubuntu and archlinux patches)
- libXft to 2.1.13 (latest archlinux patches)

I've also added pixman 0.13.2 (shamelessly stolen from devnull :wink: )
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Gentoo Forums Forum Index Documentation, Tips & Tricks All times are GMT
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3, ... 27, 28, 29  Next
Page 2 of 29

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum