very pretty linux fonts, but...

[slave]

I just read the excellent HOWTO on theregister.co.uk  called "fabulous fonts under linux" where it described how to enable the Apple-patented bytecode interpreter and recompile freetype2 with it.  After restarting X, I was amazed at the improvement, especially when I turned *off* anti-aliasing.  Take a look at these pictures:

before freetype hack

after freetype hack

As you can see, the difference is unbelievable when looking at non-AA truetype fonts (the font in the example is Verdana)

However, in RH8 I am clueless as to how I'd go about telling XFT to only AA *certain* font sizes, namely, ones above size 12.  You see, AA is very nice at larger sizes, but it gives me a headache at small sizes.  I like sharpness at small sizes!!   So, does anyone know how to tell fontconfig or whatever RH8 uses to only AA sizes above 12?  Note that the old XFT synax (match all size > 12 or whatever) doesn't work because RH8 uses XFT2 and fontconfig which has much different syntax.

[slave]

Ah ha!! Figured it out on my own.  Just add this to your /etc/fonts.conf in redhat linux:

<!--
  Don't antialias small fonts
-->
        <match>
                <test name="size" compare="less">
                        <int>13</int>
                </test>
                <test name="size" compare="more">
                        <int>8</int>
                </test>
                <edit name="antialias">
                        <bool>false</bool>
                </edit>
        </match>

Guys with red hat 8, you REALLY need to do this, the difference is amazing! Especially when combined with XFT mozilla.

[voidmain]

I don't know, I think my fonts look pretty good already. Especially after adding all the TTF fonts:

http://voidmain.kicks-ass.net/redhat/redhat_8_fonts_adding_truetype.html

What don't I understand, and is there something I should add to my instructions above?

I also have to say that I have never seen the fonts look that ugly in either of the links even without doing any changes to my RH8 system (no offense). Something just looks wrong in your screenshots.

[ December 06, 2002: Message edited by: void main ]

[Nobber]

A link to the article would have been nice.

[Crunchy(Cracked)Butter]

SuSE comes with a font installer which helped it become my fav distro by a few points.

[voidmain]

Yes, but isn't that the standard font installer that comes with the stock KDE 3.x? The one that RedHat ripped out because they didn't want people favoring KDE?  

[slave]

quote:Originally posted by void main:
I don't know, I think my fonts look pretty good already. Especially after adding all the TTF fonts:

http://voidmain.kicks-ass.net/redhat/redhat_8_fonts_adding_truetype.html

What don't I understand, and is there something I should add to my instructions above?

I also have to say that I have never seen the fonts look that ugly in either of the links even without doing any changes to my RH8 system (no offense). Something just looks wrong in your screenshots.

[ December 06, 2002: Message edited by: void main ]

Ah Ha! but turn off AA and you'll understand the uglyness.  You see, I *don't* like AA on except for font sizes larger than say 13.  (That's what Winblows does)  Here are some more screenshots to demonstrate the difference between our systems' font rendering.

http://voidmain.kicks-ass.net/images/mozilla.png
(void main's rendering of his site)

my rendering of void main's site

void main's openoffice

and mine

Not much of a difference, but notice how the text on my taskbar is *not* antialiased.  Comic Sans MS is rendered just barely differently too.

Here
Is a screenshot of different sizes of "Times New Roman" under Mozilla composer.

Personally I don't think my fonts are that shoddy at all!

[ December 06, 2002: Message edited by: Linux User #5225982375 ]

[voidmain]

Now I see the difference! What changes do you think I should make to my font page? I believe the part where I explain how to add the MS fonts is OK but I just need to make the tweaks that you did. Do you think you could hack the page up so a n00b (me) would have no trouble following the instructions?

Another difference might be that when I took those screen shots I was in 800x600 resolution on my laptop where normally I am on my desktop at 1200x1024 and the fonts do look a lot better when logged directly into my desktop. Maybe I should log in there and take a couple of more screenshots and see how they differ to the ones I took at 800x600.

I definitely like the looks of the web page with your tweak!

[ December 06, 2002: Message edited by: void main ]

[slave]

quote:Originally posted by void main:
Now I see the difference! What changes do you think I should make to my font page? I believe the part where I explain how to add the MS fonts is OK but I just need to make the tweaks that you did. Do you think you could hack the page up so a n00b (me) would have no trouble following the instructions?

Another difference might be that when I took those screen shots I was in 800x600 resolution on my laptop where normally I am on my desktop at 1200x1024 and the fonts do look a lot better when logged directly into my desktop. Maybe I should log in there and take a couple of more screenshots and see how they differ to the ones I took at 800x600.

I definitely like the looks of the web page with your tweak!

[ December 06, 2002: Message edited by: void main ]

Well, the first thing I did (this is all assuming the truetype fonts are installed of course) was to get the very latest freetype2 tarball, which can be had by clicking here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=3157

Then I untarred the file and uncommented the line

#define  TT_CONFIG_OPTION_BYTECODE_INTERPRETER

from freetype-2.1.3/include/freetype/config/ftoption.h

After that I did ./configure, then make and su to root and make install (it overwrites whatever version of freetype you already have installed)

Still, everything is antialiased and we don't want that.  We only want to AA font sizes 14 and up, so  we add these lines to the /etc/fonts/fonts.conf file:

Code: [Select]

Restart X and that's it I believe!

[voidmain]

Ok, thanks for that! I'll do some messing around and update my tips page. I may change it to be an RPM hack though as I prefer to work with RPMs if at all possible to keeps everything in the dependency database. In fact I should just create a freetype source RPM with all of those changes for RedHat 8 and see if I can find someone to host it (I don't want to put it on my home connection).

[choasforages]

ill go cook an SRPM up with this enabled/*and no i will not make an binary rpm, unless k6-3 is the specific arch that your rpm handles... maybe that should be on a faq or something*/. PM me were i should sent it when im down with it.

[slave]

I think a binary RPM would be good, just compile it as plain i386 so newbs could install it easily    

in fact you could make both!

[ December 06, 2002: Message edited by: Linux User #5225982375 ]

[voidmain]

He would be required to make both if he made the binary (that is if freetype is GPL, but it may be under the X11 license though).

[choasforages]

well, right now im currently in a fight with the spec file/*probably should go find a different srpm to start with anyway*/
and how do i select a different proccesor class for an rpm compile becuase this should tell you why you would probably have troble installing one from me

Code: [Select]

and yes, i would have to provide both, hell, i should make one for each proc class,  but i have to get it working first/*starting from the redhat srpm wasn't a good idea, now, im going to try this agian...*/

[ December 06, 2002: Message edited by: choasforages ]

[Crunchy(Cracked)Butter]

quote:Originally posted by void main:
Yes, but isn't that the standard font installer that comes with the stock KDE 3.x? The one that RedHat ripped out because they didn't want people favoring KDE?    

Mandrake 9 doesn't have it, i installed it last week and gave it a whirl and tried to use it.