[HOWTO]Freetype subpixel font rendering - lcd monitors Pt 2

IvanMajhen · Guru Joined: 10 Jun 2006 Posts: 392 Location: Croatia

It is trailer.

Which other libraries? Freetype, libxft and fontconfig are the same. Cairo is not used in qt.

mwhitlock · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2009 4:39 am Post subject:

PinguinoLoco · n00b Joined: 04 Feb 2009 Posts: 21

Hi. I'm new too gentoo and after following these font threads I'm not 100% satisfied with my fonts (although they have improved greatly). I have quite a few doubts:

1) I have freetype compiled to include the BCI code but I'm not sure on how it works...
Does the -bindist use flag generate code for both autohint and BCI hinting methods?
Does the autohint option in fontconfig select the hinting method (on=autohint, off=BCI)?
Do free fonts include information for the BCI hinter? If they don't, would they render worse than with autohint?
Would it be possible to select the hinting method between autohint and BCI for each font or font directory?
If using BCI hinting, does the selectiong of hinting type (slight, medium, full) have any effect?

2) I'm using devnull overlay with cleartype enabled and enabling the lcd filter does not seem to make any difference (11-lcd-filter-lcddefault.conf). Also, setting it on and changind the filer mode (lcdslight, lcddefault, lcdlegacy) doesn't show a difference. I suspect I may have something wrong and it is not being applied.
Does the filter depend on other settings to be applied?
Is the lcd-filter compatible with the antialias setting in fontconfig or do we have to choose one?

3) KDE 4.2 fonts look great for me. They are sharp and thin. Fonts for GTK and KDE 3.5 apps look good, but they are heavier (someone also mentioned this issue earlier). I know QT4, QT3, Cairo and GTK render differently, but is it possible to set all fonts to look as light as on KDE 4.2?

4) Okular does not use subpixel hinting for me. I've read a comment from another user stating the same issue. I guess it is a okular/poppler issue. Can something be done via font configuration?

Thanks in advance for your support.

natros · n00b Joined: 26 Sep 2003 Posts: 70

I think I like the cleartype but the cleartype patch for libXft is not as good the the one for the cairo. There's a small difference between gtk aplications and non gtk applications. I'm looking forward to see an improved patch for libXft.
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ssmaxss · Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 1:31 pm Post subject:

I am having problems with font renderigns on some websites using some font sizes. For example on http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2009/01/12/the-bumper-list-of-windows-7-secrets.aspx
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/7002/35842846.png
If I increase size of webpage all text becomes good-looking: http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/9536/81911550.png

Evilguru · Guru Joined: 16 Aug 2005 Posts: 390 Location: England

I am using the lcd-filtering overlay (-ubuntu, +cleartype) and while GTK applications (including Firefox) look fantastic, Qt (4.5.0-rc1, ~AMD64) for some reason using grayscale AA as opposed to subpixel hinting. Furthermore, OpenOffice.org (3.0.1, GTK) also only uses grayscale AA.

Here is my fontconfig stuff:

ssmaxss · Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 4:44 pm Post subject:

Evilguru
Try to disable
[16] 50-user.conf *
[17] 51-local.conf *

Evilguru · Guru Joined: 16 Aug 2005 Posts: 390 Location: England

ssmaxss · Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 5:41 pm Post subject:

That several hourse of my use of qt 4.5 I haven't noticed any problems with fonts. I was using devnull overlay though. Maybe you should try it?

ocin · Guru Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 500

I have improved the freetype[cleartype] ebuild a litte. We only have libXft and freetype in devnull overlay now, which is enough for cleartype+lcdfilter.

We are also working on a set of ebuilds which is gonna support cleartype and ubuntu patches. However there are issues with the ubuntu patches, they don't really work yet. We hope we can fix this soon, until then you have to use cleartype with lcdfilter (which does look great too, the only disadvantage is wrong spacing with tiny fonty like the very last line in the footer of this page, but isn't a problem for me :)

Btw: I get great results with: cleartype: autohint + hinting + hintfull and subpixel rendering turned on in fontconfig.

Also I have opened a bug to get freetype and libXft with cleartype useflag into portage, you can vote for it if you want.

bi3l · Apprentice Joined: 06 Feb 2003 Posts: 268 Location: France

ocin · Guru Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 500

yabbadabbadont · Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 11:35 pm Post subject:

ssmaxss

Evilguru · Guru Joined: 16 Aug 2005 Posts: 390 Location: England

I have switched to the devnull overlay and (re-)emerge fontconfig libXft and cairo. (Freetype would not emerge due to a dodgy manifest file.)

In short: no change. GTK+ applications still look great, Qt applications are still not using subpixel rendering.

ssmaxss · Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 1:19 pm Post subject:

To emerge freetype you can go to /usr/local/layman/devnull/media-libs/freetype and do

ssmaxss · Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 1:22 pm Post subject:

Are you using KDE? What are your settings for fonts in systemsettings->Appearence?

Evilguru · Guru Joined: 16 Aug 2005 Posts: 390 Location: England

ocin · Guru Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 500

Digestes are fixed.
You will miss most 10-* (aa+hinting) configs, I'm looking into that.

paladin-zero · Guru Joined: 19 May 2004 Posts: 322

ocin · Guru Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 500

Changes:
- re-added fontconfig with ubuntu-05_add_hinting_and_antialiasing_confs.patch
- removed IUSE defaults (just enable the cleartype useflag globally)

ssmaxss · Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 3:00 pm Post subject:

Fontconfig won't install

ocin · Guru Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 500

duuuuuuh forgot to change that, fixed.

ssmaxss · Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 3:15 pm Post subject:

Thanks!

swimmer · Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 1:09 pm Post subject: