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bluefly 04-20-2009 03:24 AM
fonts/text look unsmooth in lenny
 
hi,

I recently switched from Ubuntu to Debian.
I've had text look bad in both of them but after installing some packages, like msttcorefonts and getting libfreetype6 (and probably more I can't remember) I managed to make it look ok in Ubuntu but in Debian it still doesn't look good in some applications.

Here are 2 screenshots of QtCreator and VirtualBox:
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/6496/filel.jpg
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/3374/85280329.jpg

I'm beginning to suspect it has something to do with how Qt handles it's fonts since I'm pretty sure that VirtualBox's UI is also written in Qt.

Has anyone encountered this before? Maybe I'm missing some basic package?
Thanks.

the trooper 04-20-2009 07:32 AM
Do you have on-board graphics or a separate card?,Ati or Nvidia?
Have you installed a graphics driver?
I have seen text look like that using the generic 'vesa' driver.
It would be an idea to post the contents of /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

bluefly 04-20-2009 07:58 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by the trooper (Post 3514978)
Do you have on-board graphics or a separate card?,Ati or Nvidia?
Have you installed a graphics driver?
I have seen text look like that using the generic 'vesa' driver.
It would be an idea to post the contents of /etc/X11/xorg.conf.
hi,

I have an ATI Radeon HD4850.
In my ongoing attempt to fix this issue I installed fglrx drivers for my graphics card, thinking that was one of the differences between my previous Ubuntu installation. Unfortunately this didn't fix the problem.

Anyhow here are the contents of xorg.conf:

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI"
Driver "fglrx"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
EndSection

the trooper 04-20-2009 08:09 AM
I take it you have direct rendering?
I think the command was fglrx | grep "direct rendering"
Should return with a "Yes".

bluefly 04-20-2009 08:18 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by the trooper (Post 3515009)
I take it you have direct rendering?
I think the command was fglrx | grep "direct rendering"
Should return with a "Yes".
actually it doesn't find "fglrx"

the trooper 04-20-2009 08:19 AM
Do you have the mesa-utils package installed?

bluefly 04-20-2009 08:27 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by the trooper (Post 3515019)
Do you have the mesa-utils package installed?
just installed it, but still can't recognize "fglrx"

the trooper 04-20-2009 08:31 AM
Maybe i have the syntax wrong.....

Here's what i do with an Nvidia card:

Code:
ade@Pc1:~$ glxinfo | grep "direct rendering"
direct rendering: Yes
Give that a try and see what you get.

bluefly 04-20-2009 08:38 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by the trooper (Post 3515031)
Maybe i have the syntax wrong.....

Here's what i do with an Nvidia card:

Code:
ade@Pc1:~$ glxinfo | grep "direct rendering"
direct rendering: Yes
Give that a try and see what you get.
that worked and returned "Yes" as you expected

the trooper 04-20-2009 08:44 AM
Ok, that's good.
I'm running out of ideas,maybe there's something shown in the X log file:

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep EE

Maybe there is something there?

bluefly 04-20-2009 08:52 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by the trooper (Post 3515041)
Ok, that's good.
I'm running out of ideas,maybe there's something shown in the X log file:

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep EE

Maybe there is something there?
no, everything seems fine there.

I found some interesting topics regarding this issue a few minutes ago, they seem to address Qt 4.5.0 directly, which verifies my suspicion that's it's indeed a Qt specific problem.
I'll try my luck with those, but thanks anyway.

Here are some links to them if someone stumbles upon this thread:

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=69215
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=67031&p=2
http://www.nabble.com/Bug-448555:-fi...d22557271.html
http://www.nabble.com/blurry-fonts-a...d15148606.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/debian-q.../msg25168.html
http://www.robodesign.ro/mihai/blog/...font-rendering

the trooper 04-20-2009 08:55 AM
Ok,sorry i can't be more help.
When you do find a solution don't forget to post back here,as this will help other people searching this problem.

rerushg 04-20-2009 08:55 AM
How about screen resolution? Are you using best native rez & refresh? Modern displays will often accept other rates but won't look very good doing it

bluefly 04-20-2009 09:11 AM
I believe I fixed it. In one of the those links there was the contents of .fonts.conf, I tried using it and it worked! Text in the apps I showed before is now looking good again.

Here's the .fonts.conf that fixed it for me:
Code:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="hinting" >
  <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle" >
  <const>hintfull</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="rgba" >
  <const>rgb</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
  <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
</fontconfig>

the trooper 04-20-2009 09:15 AM
Good stuff!.
Just out of interest, where is the file you have edited?
In my home directory i only have .fontconfig.

tredegar 04-20-2009 09:43 AM
You can do all this through the GUI.
Start kcontrol from a terminal.
Go to Appearance & Themes -> Fonts
Enable and configure Anti-aliasing.
Click Apply
Done :)

roseway 04-20-2009 10:38 AM
One thing which hasn't been mentioned is the screen DPI value, which can make a big difference to the appearance of fonts. There are various ways to control this, depending on your graphics card / driver combination. I use nVidia cards with the nVidia driver, and I always add this to the [Device] or [Screen] section of xorg.conf:

Code:
    Option        "UseEdidDpi" "False"
    Option        "DPI" "96x96"

bluefly 04-20-2009 01:18 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by the trooper (Post 3515073)
Good stuff!.
Just out of interest, where is the file you have edited?
In my home directory i only have .fontconfig.
if you don't have one you can create one, it's optional.
you can read more about it here: http://fontconfig.org/fontconfig-user.html

Quote:
Originally Posted by tredegar (Post 3515097)
You can do all this through the GUI.
Start kcontrol from a terminal.
Go to Appearance & Themes -> Fonts
Enable and configure Anti-aliasing.
Click Apply
Done :)
i'm using gnome so that won't work, but there's something similiar in System->Preferences->Appearance which failed to do any change.

the trooper 04-20-2009 03:43 PM
Thanks for the link bluefly.

brianL 04-22-2009 07:00 AM
For what might be a simple pointy-clicky solution, try this (like Tredegar's, but for Gnome):
System => Preferences => Appearance => Fonts => Details. Check the buttons for Subpixel Smoothing and Slight Hinting.
Edit.
Ooops, just read your previous post again, properly this time, where you said you've tried something like this.


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