I am struggling with a peculiar font problem on my Debian Linux box. KDE fonts look quite nice, actually, and I'm very happy with them. The difficulty I am having is with GTK applications, Firefox and Synaptic included.
Firstly, let me display a few files. This is my ~/.fonts.conf:
Code:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
<dir>~/.fonts</dir>
<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>
Fairly straightforward, I think. And this is my ~/.gtkrc-2.0:
Code:
gtk-font-name="Bitstream Vera Sans Roman 11"
Quite a bit more straightforward.
Using this arrangement, as I have said, KDE applications look great. However, GTK applications do not respect the subpixel settings; they use whole pixel font rendering. They will continue to do so until I open gnome-control-center and open its fonts dialog. I don't have to
change anything, of course; everything is already set properly ("subpixel smoothing (LCDs)" is already selected when I open it). Once I open the Fonts dialog, all newly opened GTK applications look fine.
That is, until the next time I start an X session. Then I have to do it again.
Does anyone have any idea what's going on here? I've tried a number of variations on .fonts.conf and I haven't found anything specific for .gtkrc-2.0 with regards to subpixel rendering. Actually, before I enter the Fonts dialog, everything looks the same way as it does when "Smoothing" under the Font Rendering Details dialog is set to "None" (as per CRTs). It's as if the GTK applications assume no subpixel hinting until that Fonts dialog is opened.
Screenshots of this problem can be found here. Firefox is provided as an example of an application which is misbehaving; KDE Control Center is provided as an example of an application which looks nice.
Before opening the Fonts dialog:
http://bahj.com/flotsam/fonts-before...rol-center.png
After opening the Fonts dialog:
http://bahj.com/flotsam/fonts-after-...rol-center.png
Any help regarding this matter would be appreciated. Having to open the Fonts dialog every time I start KDE is irritating in tiny little ways...
Thanks!