Problem with Linux and LCD monitor??

synaptical · 02-07-2005, 09:47 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Chinaman
Guys, I have copied this file from synaptical's website,
placed it in my ~/ directory, and restarted Fluxbox...
but it's absolutely no different.

Can you give me a push or further instructions?

Thanks!

really? i use it with slack 10 on my laptop, and it makes a huge difference there, too. what's your video setup like (card, drivers, xorg.conf, etc.)? are your fonts really bad, or are you mainly just curious? maybe they're already optimized as much as they can be.

Bruce Hill · 02-07-2005, 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by synaptical
really? i use it with slack 10 on my laptop, and it makes a huge difference there, too. what's your video setup like (card, drivers, xorg.conf, etc.)? are your fonts really bad, or are you mainly just curious? maybe they're already optimized as much as they can be.

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5200] (rev a1)

/lib/modules/2.6.7/kernel/drivers/video/nvidia.ko
/usr/src/linux-2.6.7/drivers/char/agp/nvidia-agp.c
/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.o
NVRM: loading NVIDIA Linux x86 NVIDIA Kernel Module 1.0-6111 Tue Jul 27 07:55:38 PDT 2004

Quote:

# File generated by xf86config.

#
# Copyright (c) 1999 by The XFree86 Project, Inc.
#
# Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
# copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
# to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
# the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
# and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
# Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
#
# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
# all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
#
# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
# IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
# FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL
# THE XFREE86 PROJECT BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
# WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF
# OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
# SOFTWARE.
#
# Except as contained in this notice, the name of the XFree86 Project shall
# not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or other
# dealings in this Software without prior written authorization from the
# XFree86 Project.
#

# **********************************************************************
# Refer to the XF86Config(4/5) man page for details about the format of
# this file.
# **********************************************************************

# NOTE: This is a NEW IMPROVED version of XF86Config-fbdev that uses the vesa
# driver instead of the fbdev driver. Thanks to Kenneth Fanyo who pointed
# this out to me. :)

# This XF86Config file is designed for use with the VESA framebuffer.
# This generic interface should work with nearly all video cards
# (although not every card will support every resolution).

# With the new driver, it should no longer be required to have frame buffer
# support in the kernel, or to run it on the console.
#
# Enjoy! :)
# -- volkerdi@slackware.com
#

# **********************************************************************
# Module section -- this section is used to specify
# which dynamically loadable modules to load.
# **********************************************************************
#
Section "Module"

# This loads the DBE extension module.

Load "dbe" # Double buffer extension

# This loads the miscellaneous extensions module, and disables
# initialisation of the XFree86-DGA extension within that module.
SubSection "extmod"
Option "omit xfree86-dga" # don't initialise the DGA extension
EndSubSection

# This loads the font modules
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "speedo"

# This loads the GLX module
Load "glx"

EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Files section. This allows default font and rgb paths to be set
# **********************************************************************

Section "Files"

# The location of the RGB database. Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db"). There is normally
# no need to change the default.

RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"

# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (which are concatenated together),
# as well as specifying multiple comma-separated entries in one FontPath
# command (or a combination of both methods)
#
# If you don't have a floating point coprocessor and emacs, Mosaic or other
# programs take long to start up, try moving the Type1 and Speedo directory
# to the end of this list (or comment them out).
#

FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/fonts/TTF/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic/"

# ModulePath can be used to set a search path for the X server modules.
# The default path is shown here.

# ModulePath "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"

EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Server flags section.
# **********************************************************************

Section "ServerFlags"

# Uncomment this to cause a core dump at the spot where a signal is
# received. This may leave the console in an unusable state, but may
# provide a better stack trace in the core dump to aid in debugging

# Option "NoTrapSignals"

# Uncomment this to disable the <Crtl><Alt><Fn> VT switch sequence
# (where n is 1 through 12). This allows clients to receive these key
# events.

# Option "DontVTSwitch"

# Uncomment this to disable the <Crtl><Alt><BS> server abort sequence
# This allows clients to receive this key event.

# Option "DontZap"

# Uncomment this to disable the <Crtl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> mode switching
# sequences. This allows clients to receive these key events.

# Option "DontZoom"

# Uncomment this to disable tuning with the xvidtune client. With
# it the client can still run and fetch card and monitor attributes,
# but it will not be allowed to change them. If it tries it will
# receive a protocol error.

# Option "DisableVidModeExtension"

# Uncomment this to enable the use of a non-local xvidtune client.

# Option "AllowNonLocalXvidtune"

# Uncomment this to disable dynamically modifying the input device
# (mouse and keyboard) settings.

# Option "DisableModInDev"

# Uncomment this to enable the use of a non-local client to
# change the keyboard or mouse settings (currently only xset).

# Option "AllowNonLocalModInDev"

# Set the basic blanking screen saver timeout.

# Option "blank time" "10" # 10 minutes

# Set the DPMS timeouts. These are set here because they are global
# rather than screen-specific. These settings alone don't enable DPMS.
# It is enabled per-screen (or per-monitor), and even then only when
# the driver supports it.

# Option "standby time" "20"
# Option "suspend time" "30"
# Option "off time" "60"

# On some platform the server needs to estimate the sizes of PCI
# memory and pio ranges. This is done by assuming that PCI ranges
# don't overlap. Some broken BIOSes tend to set ranges of inactive
# devices wrong. Here one can adjust how aggressive the assumptions
# should be. Default is 0.

# Option "EstimateSizesAggresively" "0"

EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Input devices
# **********************************************************************

# **********************************************************************
# Core keyboard's InputDevice section
# **********************************************************************

Section "InputDevice"

Identifier "Keyboard1"
Driver "Keyboard"
# For most OSs the protocol can be omitted (it defaults to "Standard").
# When using XQUEUE (only for SVR3 and SVR4, but not Solaris),
# uncomment the following line.

# Option "Protocol" "Xqueue"

# Set the keyboard auto repeat parameters. Not all platforms implement
# this.

# Option "AutoRepeat" "500 5"

# Specifiy which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1)).

# Option "Xleds" "1 2 3"

# To disable the XKEYBOARD extension, uncomment XkbDisable.

# Option "XkbDisable"

# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the
# lines below (which are the defaults). For example, for a European
# keyboard, you will probably want to use one of:
#
# Option "XkbModel" "pc102"
# Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
#
# If you have a Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:
#
# Option "XkbModel" "microsoft"
#
# If you have a US "windows" keyboard you will want:
#
# Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
#
# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.
# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:
#
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
#
# or:
#
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# Option "XkbVariant" "nodeadkeys"
#
# If you'd like to switch the positions of your capslock and
# control keys, use:
#
# Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:swapcaps"

# These are the default XKB settings for X.Org
#
# Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
# Option "XkbModel" "pc101"
# Option "XkbLayout" "us"
# Option "XkbVariant" ""
# Option "XkbOptions" ""

EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Core Pointer's InputDevice section
# **********************************************************************

Section "InputDevice"

# Identifier and driver

Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"

# On platforms where PnP mouse detection is supported the following
# protocol setting can be used when using a newer PnP mouse:

# Option "Protocol" "Auto"

# The available mouse protocols types that you can set below are:
# Auto BusMouse GlidePoint GlidePointPS/2 IntelliMouse IMPS/2
# Logitech Microsoft MMHitTab MMSeries Mouseman MouseManPlusPS/2
# MouseSystems NetMousePS/2 NetScrollPS/2 OSMouse PS/2 SysMouse
# ThinkingMouse ThinkingMousePS/2 Xqueue
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
# Option "ZAxisMapping" "6 7"

# The mouse device. The device is normally set to /dev/mouse,
# which is usually a symbolic link to the real device.

Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
# Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
# Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
# Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS1"

# When using XQUEUE, comment out the above two lines, and uncomment
# the following line.

# Option "Protocol" "Xqueue"

# Baudrate and SampleRate are only for some Logitech mice. In
# almost every case these lines should be omitted.

# Option "BaudRate" "9600"
# Option "SampleRate" "150"

# Emulate3Buttons is an option for 2-button Microsoft mice
# Emulate3Timeout is the timeout in milliseconds (default is 50ms)

# Option "Emulate3Buttons"
# Option "Emulate3Timeout" "50"

# ChordMiddle is an option for some 3-button Logitech mice

# Option "ChordMiddle"

EndSection

# Some examples of extended input devices

# Section "InputDevice"
# Identifier "spaceball"
# Driver "magellan"
# Option "Device" "/dev/cua0"
# EndSection
#
# Section "InputDevice"
# Identifier "spaceball2"
# Driver "spaceorb"
# Option "Device" "/dev/cua0"
# EndSection
#
# Section "InputDevice"
# Identifier "touchscreen0"
# Driver "microtouch"
# Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
# Option "MinX" "1412"
# Option "MaxX" "15184"
# Option "MinY" "15372"
# Option "MaxY" "1230"
# Option "ScreenNumber" "0"
# Option "ReportingMode" "Scaled"
# Option "ButtonNumber" "1"
# Option "SendCoreEvents"
# EndSection
#
# Section "InputDevice"
# Identifier "touchscreen1"
# Driver "elo2300"
# Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
# Option "MinX" "231"
# Option "MaxX" "3868"
# Option "MinY" "3858"
# Option "MaxY" "272"
# Option "ScreenNumber" "0"
# Option "ReportingMode" "Scaled"
# Option "ButtonThreshold" "17"
# Option "ButtonNumber" "1"
# Option "SendCoreEvents"
# EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Monitor section
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of monitor sections may be present

Section "Monitor"

Identifier "My Monitor"

# HorizSync is in kHz unless units are specified.
# HorizSync may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a
# comma separated list of ranges of values.
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY. REFER TO YOUR MONITOR'S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.

HorizSync 31.0 - 60.0

# HorizSync 30-64 # multisync
# HorizSync 31.5, 35.2 # multiple fixed sync frequencies
# HorizSync 15-25, 30-50 # multiple ranges of sync frequencies

# VertRefresh is in Hz unless units are specified.
# VertRefresh may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a
# comma separated list of ranges of values.
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY. REFER TO YOUR MONITOR'S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.

VertRefresh 56-76

EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Graphics device section
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of graphics device sections may be present

Section "Device"
Identifier "VESA Framebuffer"
Driver "nvidia"
#VideoRam 4096
# Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Screen sections
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of screen sections may be present. Each describes
# the configuration of a single screen. A single specific screen section
# may be specified from the X server command line with the "-screen"
# option.
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "VESA Framebuffer"
Monitor "My Monitor"

# If your card can handle it, a higher default color depth (like 24 or 32)
# is highly recommended.

# DefaultDepth 8
# DefaultDepth 16
DefaultDepth 24
# DefaultDepth 32

# "1024x768" is also a conservative usable default resolution. If you
# have a better monitor, feel free to try resolutions such as
# "1152x864", "1280x1024", "1600x1200", and "1800x1400" (or whatever your
# card/monitor can produce)

Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubsection

EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# ServerLayout sections.
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of ServerLayout sections may be present. Each describes
# the way multiple screens are organised. A specific ServerLayout
# section may be specified from the X server command line with the
# "-layout" option. In the absence of this, the first section is used.
# When now ServerLayout section is present, the first Screen section
# is used alone.

Section "ServerLayout"

# The Identifier line must be present
Identifier "Simple Layout"

# Each Screen line specifies a Screen section name, and optionally
# the relative position of other screens. The four names after
# primary screen name are the screens to the top, bottom, left and right
# of the primary screen. In this example, screen 2 is located to the
# right of screen 1.

Screen "Screen 1"

# Each InputDevice line specifies an InputDevice section name and
# optionally some options to specify the way the device is to be
# used. Those options include "CorePointer", "CoreKeyboard" and
# "SendCoreEvents".

InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"

EndSection

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Let me put it this way. In a term the fonts look good.
Everywhere else, they look bad. They are fuzzy on
the edges and not sharp and crisp. If you ever noticed
one -- on this page, they look like a typewriter whose
ribbon needs changing because the ink is running out.

synaptical · 02-07-2005, 11:07 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Chinaman
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5200] (rev a1)

/lib/modules/2.6.7/kernel/drivers/video/nvidia.ko
/usr/src/linux-2.6.7/drivers/char/agp/nvidia-agp.c
/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.o
NVRM: loading NVIDIA Linux x86 NVIDIA Kernel Module 1.0-6111 Tue Jul 27 07:55:38 PDT 2004

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Let me put it this way. In a term the fonts look good.
Everywhere else, they look bad. They are fuzzy on
the edges and not sharp and crisp. If you ever noticed
one -- on this page, they look like a typewriter whose
ribbon needs changing because the ink is running out.

yes, that's exactly how mine were looking before the tweaks. here's before: http://datadump.homelinux.com/fontco...ch_verdana.png

does that look similar to what you're getting?

and here's now, with the .fonts.conf:
http://datadump.homelinux.com/fontco...kfontsconf.png

different font, but i thnk you can see the difference.

what happens if you change some of the .fonts.conf options, for ex., change hintfull to hintslight, etc. at least that might tell us if it's even reading the config file or if it's being overridden somehow. btw, what desktop are you using?

as for the xorg.conf, everything looks pretty much okay. not sure about the vesa framebuffer stuff (that's not drawing your X environment, is it?), but as long as you know it's set up right, i guess it's okay. my main computer has a matrox, and my laptop has a radeon, so i can't say if it might be a nvidia issue (though i would tend to doubt it).

what's in your /etc/fonts/fonts.conf? maybe something in there is causing a problem.

Bruce Hill · 02-07-2005, 11:38 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by synaptical
yes, that's exactly how mine were looking before the tweaks. here's before: http://datadump.homelinux.com/fontco...ch_verdana.png

does that look similar to what you're getting?

and here's now, with the .fonts.conf:
http://datadump.homelinux.com/fontco...kfontsconf.png

different font, but i thnk you can see the difference.

what happens if you change some of the .fonts.conf options, for ex., change hintfull to hintslight, etc. at least that might tell us if it's even reading the config file or if it's being overridden somehow. btw, what desktop are you using?

as for the xorg.conf, everything looks pretty much okay. not sure about the vesa framebuffer stuff (that's not drawing your X environment, is it?), but as long as you know it's set up right, i guess it's okay. my main computer has a matrox, and my laptop has a radeon, so i can't say if it might be a nvidia issue (though i would tend to doubt it).

what's in your /etc/fonts/fonts.conf? maybe something in there is causing a problem.

Mine look similar to your second shot, but then, it's hard to tell from a screenshot
because you're getting the data and not what you actually see -- I don't know quite
how to word that.

I'll look into those .fonts.conf options -- I didn't try anything I'd read, because it
seemed that I could just insert that file and run with it. I'll read and try and tweak.

I'm running Fluxbox-0.9.12 -- which is about the only one I run, cause I like the
speed and clean look. I got burned out on icons about a decade ago in the darkside.

I thought the framebuffer didn't have anything to do with X, but the longer I'm around,
the more I find I don't know. I never liked Nvidia cards in the darkside, but traded from
a good ATI card to a Nvidia because of the driver situation in Linux.

The /etc/fonts/fonts.conf says

Quote:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">

<fontconfig>

<!--
DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE.
IT WILL BE REPLACED WHEN FONTCONFIG IS UPDATED.
LOCAL CHANGES BELONG IN 'local.conf'.

right at the top so I've never messed with it directly. And I don't know if I even have a
local.conf on this box. If I do, I don't know where it's located.

I'm just figuring that with this (relatively) inexpensive Philips analog LCD, that's about as
good as it gets. Really a shame when I have an old no-name 15" XGA monitor (CRT) that
will display the fonts beautiful with the same hardware.

synaptical · 02-07-2005, 12:06 PM

if your fonts look like the second shot, i don't see how you can get them much better than that. not unless maybe you get a mac.

the file in /etc/fonts to mess with is local.conf. sorry i didn't specify that. afaik, the .fonts.conf in the home directory should override that, but maybe there's some conflict that gets through? not sure. i moved my /etc/fonts/local.conf and restarted X and everything looked the same, so it's probably not that. but if you can't get .fonts.conf to work the way you want, you might have better results getting rid of it and just dealing with the local.conf in /etc/fonts (edit: i'd be glad to post mine here if you don't have one and think it would help).

i'm using fluxbox, too. also xfce4 on my main machine, both look okay. i noticed in gnome there were some options that affected fonts in the gconf-editor thing, so i thought i'd ask in case you were using that. maybe playing around with changing the default font in the fluxbox style you're using will give some subjective improvement, at least.

another thing to try would be adding the exact screen geometry in the xorg.conf. that can fix problems sometimes. unfortunately, the motherboard on my main computer with that xorg.conf died, so i can't access it now. if i get a chance later i'll check the board where someone told me about that and try to find the post again. not sure where you would set DPI in fluxbox, only xfce4, but maybe the screen geometry would take care of that.

sorry i couldn't help more. when i tested the ~/.fonts.conf on multiple machines it improved all of them, so i thought it would be pretty generic. i guess on your machine there is something else "in the way" we don't know about yet. i hope you get it, though. please post back on your progress or if you find a fix.

cathectic · 02-07-2005, 12:22 PM

You just create an /etc/fonts/local.conf if one doesn't exist. It will override /etc/fonts/font.conf, but I think ~/.fonts.conf still overrides both of those. In case of doubt, drop the .fonts.conf in as /etc/fonts/local.conf and see what happens. For testing purposes, you don't need to restart your Window Manager. I found it more than sufficent to keep opening and closing Mozilla Firefox (or any other application), so I could watch the changes between tweaking.

ATi vs nVidia - I spent an awful lot of money on my Radeon 9800 Pro, it stays right here in this box. (I also spent an awful lot on this TFT monitor as well...)

Framebuffer - Don't worry, you are loading the nVidia driver, not the frame buffer (VESA Frame Buffer just seems to be the name given for your card set up, but the driver is nVidia.)

Also, you can safely comment out 'Load "speedo"' and 'Load "type1"': they're both anachronisms, freetype does all the font rendering now.

If you still have problems, aside from mucking about with the hint amounts, you could try replacing:

Code:

<match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="rgba" >
   <const>none</const>
  </edit>
 </match>

with

Code:

<match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="rgba" >
   <const>rgb</const>
  </edit>
 </match>

and see if that makes any difference.

comprookie2000 · 02-07-2005, 02:39 PM

Chinaman the only difference between yours and mine is the fonts heres mine;

FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/misc/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/TTF/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/ttf-bitstream-vera/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/local/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/corefonts/"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/artwiz-aleczapka-en/"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/freefont/"

J.W. · 02-07-2005, 04:09 PM

As a side comment, although I'll admit that I'm not familiar with the custom .fonts.conf solution that is being discussed, it certainly seems to have helped some people and definitely sounds as if it could be of significant value to others.

I would strongly encourage the author to submit it as a Linux Answer -- J.W.

cathectic · 02-09-2005, 02:34 PM

[Temporary Thread Hijack]

I've now posted an article for this in LinuxQuestions Answers here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...icle&artid=397

If anyone should come across this thread whilst looking for information on LCDs, what I've posted on the LQ Answer is tidied up and explained more thoroughly than here. Any comments, thoughts or experiences regarding LCDs are welcome on the articles discussion thread.

To those of you who have already tried this out, I'd appreciate any feedback you could give on the Answer's thread as to:

Did it actually work?
What monitor or laptop you're using? (e.g. Hyundai Q17+ LCD/TFT Monitor)
Distribution and version (e.g. Slackware 10.1)
X server and version (e.g. X.Org 6.8.1)
Any changes you've made to what I've proposed, or other changes you had to make to get your LCD fonts to render nicely (e.g. I had to add XYZ to /etc/X11/xorg.conf and change DCB to BCA in ~/.fonts.conf)

[/Temporary Thread Hijack]

With regards to the font ordering, since the TTF and 100dpi fonts are listed fairly high up and Chinaman's font order is vaguely similiar to mine, I don't imagine it would be the problem, but in case it is, mine is:

Code:

FontPath    "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF"
FontPath    "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath    "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath    "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID"
FontPath    "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
FontPath    "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath    "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local"
FontPath    "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
FontPath    "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"

Bruce Hill · 02-09-2005, 08:48 PM

cathectic

Would you mind posting which fonts you're using in your browser?

i.e. in Firefox 1.0 I'm using:

Code:

Proportional: Sans Serif                    Size (pixels)   16

Serif: Bitstream Vera Serif

Sans-serif: Bitstream Vera Sans

Monospace: Bitstream Vera Sans Mono                    Size (pixels)   11


Display resolution: 96 dpi                   Minimim font size:   9

My fonts look great in a terminal, just bad in the X server.

cathectic · 02-13-2005, 04:56 AM

From the discussion thread for the LCD/TFT article (sorry for not posting earlier) I posted this there:

Quote:

1) As a quick aside, just playing with Fluxbox now, it doesn't want to play nice straight away with the .fonts.conf changes. To make it pay attention, I had to enable anti aliasing in Fluxbox: 'fluxbox menu --> Configure --> AntiAlias' and then it fixed the menu fonts (although not all of them were fixed until restarting it after that). I do apologise, I hadn't tested my solution with other WMs in Slackware (besides KDE which I use, and Gnome from before).

My font settings are the same as yours for Firefox (except my monospace fonts are set to 12 and I didn't specify any minimum font size) so I don't think that's the problem.

Bruce Hill · 02-14-2005, 07:35 AM

Carlos,

When I followed your advice and "enable anti aliasing in Fluxbox"
that might have helped me see something. Before I changed that,
I liked the way my menu fonts looked in Fluxbox -- they were
sharp and clear. That was about the only place (and in a term) that
they DID look good. When I enabled anti-aliasing in Fluxbox, they
looked as bad as the others -- a little washed out and unclear.

So, maybe I need to DISABLE anti-aliasing everywhere? Does
this make any remote amount of sense?

cathectic · 02-14-2005, 07:43 AM

Anti-aliasing is considered "bad" for CRTs but "good" for LCDs. However, disabling it is certainly worth a shot.

In your ~/.fonts.conf or /etc/fonts/local.conf replace:

Code:

<match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>

with

Code:

<match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
   <bool>false</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>

and see what happens.
If you're still not getting any luck, some screenshots of before and afters, and pointing out what you're aiming for would be helpful.

Bruce Hill · 02-14-2005, 07:45 AM

I just did what you posted and rebooted...
that definitely wasn't the answer.

I'd be glad to post screenshots, but I don't
think they really show "what you see," but
rather, data output. I don't know how to
explain it.

I'm following your lead, but for now, I'm
going to change that "false" back to "true"
and restart Fluxbox.

cathectic · 02-14-2005, 08:58 AM

If you take, for instance synaptical's screenshots, there's a huge amount of difference in the text between them (this is most visible in the Mozilla/Mozilla Firefox menus) - if you look at the File, Edit, View etc... text, there is clearly a difference between them in terms of thickness and legibility (the 'arch_verdana.png' shot with Mozilla running is an example of 'rgb' being turned on for subpixel order in .fonts.conf, slackfontsconf.png being the desired result)

Comparing with a term is rather difficult, since they use a strange font format of their own (*.pcf from what I understand, which is not the same as the TrueType fonts used by everything else)

Unfortunately, without a screenshot of what you've got now, I'm stuck for further suggestions of what to try.