[HOWTO]New freetype subpixel font rendering for lcd monitors

Message

boniek · Post by **boniek** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 11:40 am

Disclaimer:
I cannot be held responsible if any of this blows your system up. All of this is provided with best intentions from my side. All credit goes to Freetype team - thanks guys!

Link:
http://wiki.gentoo-xeffects.org/Font_Rendering <--currently offline

Fukai · Post by **Fukai** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 1:46 pm

Hi,
Can you post screenshot of the new spr (comparing it to the old)?

Thanks for the tip.

boniek · Post by **boniek** » Sat Oct 28, 2006 3:12 pm

Sure thing. 85 dpi, subpixel aa, light hinting in both pictures:
old spr
new spr
85dpi, subpixel aa, full hinting:
new spr + bci - this rendering mode is superb

ct by ms windows (for comparision purposes, thanks to my friend marcin for providing me with this screenshot

):
ms cleartype

All this makes sense only on lcd monitors so don't bother on crt. To enable bci disable bindist use flag on freetype.

PaulBredbury · Post by **PaulBredbury** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 1:06 am

Thanks, now my fonts look even nicer

The nvidia drivers like to think that the DPI of my monitor is 95x96, which results in badly-formed fonts (some lines are too thin, some are too fat). I fix that by putting in xorg.conf, within Section "Monitor":

Code: Select all

Option "DPI"	"96 x 96"

glowworm · Post by **glowworm** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 5:35 am

Wow. Thanks alot for the overlay, the difference is phenomenal.

trinity · Post by **trinity** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 4:18 pm

Yeah it's cool! Very nice!
I have another old pc with a Slackware distro and I'd like to apply this thing, but I really don't know how to do it. Can you give me some hints?
Thank!!

boniek · Post by **boniek** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 8:25 pm

I'm sorry I'm gentoo zealot and I know nothing about slack

Installing from source the old way (./configure, make, make install) should be easy though. Just read ebuilds and things should be pretty clear as how to do it.

PaulBredbury · Post by **PaulBredbury** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 11:02 pm

trinity wrote:but I really don't know how to do it. Can you give me some hints?

Can U be any more vague as to what you've tried, how they worked, what situation you're at, and what you're capable of figuring out for yourself?

boniek · Post by **boniek** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 12:31 am

My overlay is now a part of xeffects overlay.

Code: Select all

emerge -av layman && layman -ka xeffects

to get all files you need for this howto.

H3g3m0n · Post by **H3g3m0n** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 12:20 pm

Just checking if this is correct, did i miss any steps, i can't see the actually guide I'm guessing the most of it was removed when it was merged into xeffects?

Code: Select all

layman -a xeffects
euse --enable newspr
echo "media-libs/freetype ~amd64" >> /etc/portage/packages.keywords
echo "media-libs/fontconfig ~amd64" >> /etc/portage/packages.keywords
echo "media-libs/freetype" >> /etc/portage/packages.unmask
emerge -va freetype fontconfig libXft cairo

Does anyone know the best options for the /etc/font.conf file? I'm just using the lcd example in http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Xorg_and_Fonts but that guide doesn't seem to reliable.
For starters it says to disable the bindist flag to enable the bytecode which seems wrong to me, I would change it but im not 100% sure (Although i did check the ebuild). Also my fonts have a yellow halo around them after following the guide (also green, purple and blue depending on the size) but i think thats the old sub pixel rendering screwing up (changing from RGB mode seemed to help) hopefully the new SPR will fix my problems.

PaulBredbury · Post by **PaulBredbury** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 12:27 pm

H3g3m0n wrote:it says to disable the bindist flag to enable the bytecode which seems wrong to me

It is correct. No normal user would have "bindist" set anyway. Its purpose is to lessen the potential of being sued by SCO wannabees.

Code: Select all

grep bindist /usr/portage/profiles/use.*
/usr/portage/profiles/use.desc:bindist - Flag to enable or disable options for prebuilt (GRP)  packages (eg. due to licensing issues)

boniek · Post by **boniek** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 4:44 pm

Yes wiki is right. I have corrected my ebuilds in overlay and updated howto above. Now to get bci you have to disable bindist. Sorry for the confusion.

neuron · Post by **neuron** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 5:11 pm

H3g3m0n wrote:Just checking if this is correct, did i miss any steps, i can't see the actually guide I'm guessing the most of it was removed when it was merged into xeffects?
Code: Select all
layman -a xeffects
euse --enable newspr
echo "media-libs/freetype ~amd64" >> /etc/portage/packages.keywords
echo "media-libs/fontconfig ~amd64" >> /etc/portage/packages.keywords
echo "media-libs/freetype" >> /etc/portage/packages.unmask
emerge -va freetype fontconfig libXft cairo

it's package.keywords and package.unmask, not packages

PaulBredbury wrote:
H3g3m0n wrote:it says to disable the bindist flag to enable the bytecode which seems wrong to me
It is correct. No normal user would have "bindist" set anyway. Its purpose is to lessen the potential of being sued by SCO wannabees.
Code: Select all
grep bindist /usr/portage/profiles/use.*
/usr/portage/profiles/use.desc:bindist - Flag to enable or disable options for prebuilt (GRP)  packages (eg. due to licensing issues)

and the default is having it off, set bindist and let the patent trouble begin

. *I'm wrong here, if your reading this thread, ignore me

*

PaulBredbury · Post by **PaulBredbury** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 5:34 pm

Let's be clear on what bindist does, and whether it should be off or on

In /usr/portage/media-libs/freetype/freetype-2.2.1.ebuild

Code: Select all

# disable BCI when distributing binaries (patent issues)
use bindist || epatch "${FILESDIR}"/${PN}-2-enable_bci.patch

English translation: Enable BCI ("bytecode interpreter") if bindist is unset.

This means that BCI is disabled on the LiveCD (which contains pre-compiled binaries), because BCI has potential patent issues.

As the opposite, we as users have bindist unset, because we want BCI on because it's good stuff, so that we can compile it in ourselves.

Clarification: "unset" and "not set" mean exactly the same thing.

boniek · Post by **boniek** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 5:36 pm

PaulBredbury wrote:Let's be clear on what bindist does, and whether it should be off or on

In /usr/portage/media-libs/freetype/freetype-2.2.1.ebuild
Code: Select all
# disable BCI when distributing binaries (patent issues)
use bindist || epatch "${FILESDIR}"/${PN}-2-enable_bci.patch
English translation: Enable BCI if bindist is unset.

This means that BCI is disabled on the LiveCD (which contains pre-compiled binaries), because BCI has potential patent issues.

As the opposite, we as users have bindist unset, because we want BCI on because it's good stuff.

Clarification: "unset" and "not set" mean exactly the same thing.

Yup. He is right. This applies (starting today) to this overlay too

neuron · Post by **neuron** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 5:44 pm

PaulBredbury wrote:Let's be clear on what bindist does, and whether it should be off or on

In /usr/portage/media-libs/freetype/freetype-2.2.1.ebuild
Code: Select all
# disable BCI when distributing binaries (patent issues)
use bindist || epatch "${FILESDIR}"/${PN}-2-enable_bci.patch
English translation: Enable BCI ("bytecode interpreter") if bindist is unset.

This means that BCI is disabled on the LiveCD (which contains pre-compiled binaries), because BCI has potential patent issues.

As the opposite, we as users have bindist unset, because we want BCI on because it's good stuff, so that we can compile it in ourselves.

Clarification: "unset" and "not set" mean exactly the same thing.

Thanks for clearing that up, as license trouble = usually defaults to off

neuron · Post by **neuron** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 5:54 pm

hm, when changing font config in gnome 2.16 I dont get a .fontconfig directory, nor does it create a ~/.fonts.conf like previus versions did. And I can see noticable differences when changing the options in gnome terminal, and other gnome apps, but not in x-chat and firefox.

Anyone know what the "correct" way of doing this is? I'm thinking of just making my own fonts.conf like I had before and removing the gnome settings, don't know where they are stored now though :/ (gconf maybe?)

// it's in /desktop/gnome/font_rendering

Bloodsurfer · Post by **Bloodsurfer** » Fri Nov 10, 2006 3:39 pm

Thanks for this howto, it's very nice and works like a charm.
I didn't know fonts can look this good

Crono81 · Post by **Crono81** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 12:35 am

I think that this method creates a problem with the bold fonts. They appear TOO bold.

Just check the "WEB" link at the top of your Yahoo screenshots (compare with the Windows one), or check the "Web" word on the homepage of Google.

PaulBredbury · Post by **PaulBredbury** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 3:31 am

To fix bold fonts, add to ~/.fonts.conf e.g.:

Code: Select all

	<match target="font">
		<test name="weight" compare="more"><const>medium</const></test>
		<edit name="autohint" mode="assign"><bool>false</bool></edit>
		<edit name="hinting" mode="assign"><bool>false</bool></edit>
		<edit name="hintstyle" mode="assign"><const>hintnone</const></edit>
	</match>

Crono81 · Post by **Crono81** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 11:42 am

That helps out a bit but i don't think it's an antialias problem: if i totally remove antialias, hinting, ecc... i still see bold fonts too bold. I think it's a rendering or font (Tahoma) problem. Do you know a way to reduce the... bolding effect? Something like a match, test on the bold fonts, and make them not-so-bold instead of bold

The fact is that i can't remember how the fonts were before. Probably they were so ugly that i didn't notice it, but there must be a way to reduce the bolding effect.

bssteph · Post by **bssteph** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 9:08 am

I just wanted to pipe in and say that this is really snazzy. Thanks!

nosebleed · Post by **nosebleed** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 5:00 am

Gah, maybe I'm doing something wrong, but these fonts actually look WORSE than the ones I was using with freetype 2.2.1 and the patches I pulled off of bugs.gentoo.org...

boniek · Post by **boniek** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 8:19 am

Screenshots? If your fonts don't look as good as in "after" screenshot then obviously you did something wrong

. If they look exactly the same then use what YOU like best. I'm not saying my overlay will satisfy everyone - I did it because I liked the effect and tought some people might like it too. Patches from gentoo's bugzilla and mine are very likely to come from exactly the same source so I don't think this is the problem.

Crono81 · Post by **Crono81** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 6:54 pm

no other ways to fix the bold fonts? They are not supposed to look that way, and it's not an antialias problem :\ In fact, if you disable AA they look even bolder