Replacement for media-libs/fontconfig-ultimate and friends?

[NightMonkey]

Howdy. I just set up a new Gentoo laptop, which is working great. I had been using this package 'media-libs/fontconfig-ultimate' to make it easy to get readable, well-formed fonts on Gentoo (or the best I could get), and used this approach again with my new laptop. Saw the Portage notice today that this package is masked, is dead, and scheduled for removal. Looks like media-libs/fontconfig-infinality is set to go, too (which is referenced here: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Fontconfig ). Does anyone have a reference to other methods to easily get decent fonts and typography in Gentoo? I see the Wiki has instructions for how to use the various tools, but I've not found a modern approach that just gets you what people have come to expect from other desktop OSes (Linux or otherwise).

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!!! The following installed packages are masked:
- media-libs/fontconfig-ultimate-2015.08.01::gentoo (masked by: package.mask)
/usr/portage/profiles/package.mask:
# Andreas Sturmlechner <asturm@gentoo.org> (2021-03-27)
# Dead upstream. Bugs #437056, #453964, #550592, #768303
# Removal on 2021-04-26.

- app-eselect/eselect-lcdfilter-2::gentoo (masked by: package.mask)
- app-eselect/eselect-infinality-1.1::gentoo (masked by: package.mask)
- media-libs/fontconfig-infinality-20130404::gentoo (masked by: package.mask)

Thanks in advance!

[fedeliallalinea]

Maybe this

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$ eix media-fonts/fonts-meta
* media-fonts/fonts-meta
     Available versions:  ~1-r2 {+free +latin ms L10N="as bn bo brx doi dz gu hi ja km kn ko kok ks mai ml mr ne or pa sa sat sd si syc ta te zh"}
     Homepage:            https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/No_homepage
     Description:         Meta package for fonts to cover most needs

[mike155]

I use the settings below:

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<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<!-- /etc/fonts/local.conf file to configure system font access -->
<fontconfig>

   <match target="font">
        <edit name="antialias" mode="assign"><bool>true</bool></edit>
        <edit name="autohint"  mode="assign"><bool>false</bool></edit>
        <edit name="hinting"   mode="assign"><bool>true</bool></edit>
        <edit name="hintstyle" mode="assign"><const>hintslight</const></edit>
        <edit name="rgba"      mode="assign"><const>none</const></edit>
        <edit name="lcdfilter" mode="assign"><const>lcddefault</const></edit>
    </match>

   <match target="pattern">
       <edit name="dpi" mode="assign">
          <double>96</double>
       </edit>
   </match>

   <!--- more rules here --->

</fontconfig>

Either configure those settings using 'eselect fontconfig' OR write the block above to /etc/fonts/local.conf AND disable all corresponding settings in 'eselect fontconfig'.

Some desktop environments have their own font configuration dialogs. You may have to configure the settings above there as well.

[Juippisi]

After infinality, settings provided by https://blog.aktsbot.in/better-font-ren ... linux.html got me enjoyable fonts. I use ubuntu for general font.

[NightMonkey]

After infinality, settings provided by https://blog.aktsbot.in/better-font-ren ... linux.html got me enjoyable fonts. I use ubuntu for general font.

Thank you for this. Yes, I'm running Fluxbox, so I am in the 'chances: zero' category the post you linked mentions. However, since Infinality is being removed from Portage, this is bittersweet to see this helpful post become less so.

[dewke]

After infinality, settings provided by https://blog.aktsbot.in/better-font-ren ... linux.html got me enjoyable fonts. I use ubuntu for general font.

Thank you for this. Yes, I'm running Fluxbox, so I am in the 'chances: zero' category the post you linked mentions. However, since Infinality is being removed from Portage, this is bittersweet to see this helpful post become less so.

I use fluxbox too. I've been able to cobble together decent looking fonts, but would love to compare notes.