Making non-antialiased fonts looks nice.

I'm having the same issue as jfall

It does appear that FreeType is loading correctly, I have the following in xorg.conf Load "freetype" and see this in the xorg log: (II) LoadModule: "freetype" (II) Loading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/fonts/libfreetype.so (II) Module freetype: vendor="X.Org Foundation & the After X-TT Project" compiled for 6.8.2, module version = 2.1.0 Module class: X.Org Font Renderer ABI class: X.Org Font Renderer, version 0.4 (II) Loading font FreeType I wonder if it's loading the proper freetype module. The /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/fonts/libfreetype.so file hasn't been modified recently. Shouldn't it be loading from /usr/lib?

All my libs in /usr/lib updated with the new compile however the one in /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/fonts/ has not. I tried linking that one to the updated one in /usr/lib, of course that didn't work.

Hello,

I followed the detailed HOWTO, and as some said above, everything *seems* to work
but there is no visble change. Fonts still look terrible with anti-aliasing off.

I also have tried to replace the freetype lib that X seems to load by default
/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/fonts/libfreetype.a
with the newly compiled/installed, but this will produce an error message:

Duplicate symbol BitOrderInvert in /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/fonts/libfreetype.a:wi nfnt.o Also defined in (built-in) Fatal server error: Module load failure

But, if I do not replace the X standard libfreetype.a, will it have any effect
to install a new version of freetype? Don't understand in detail when which lib file is loaded
by what process (does X load another one then KDE?!)

I also tried to experiment with /etc/font/*, for example by adding

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

to local.conf.

Sad...your screenshots are really looking great...But I'm near to give up.
Finding this thread already took me several days...

Maybe anybody has succeeded in getting this working with Debian/Sarge?

[UPDATE]

Hey!
I don't know what I did wrong before, but now it is working!
Finally I fetched the latest version of freetype (2.1.9), compiled, installed,
and it works!
BUT only with the additional lines in /etc/fonts/local.conf, as mentioned above.
I tried it out, removing the lines->ugly fonts, adding the lines->nice.

Well, as I tried out so many things now It could be that I did sth. else to get it work,
but I can't remember.

Hopes this is useful for anybody.

Cheers,
Dirk

Thanks for the detailed instructions.

One problem I had was the Firefox 1.0.2 kept crashing when printing to a postscript printer with:

/usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/firefox-bin: relocation error: /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/components/libgfxps.so: undefined symbol: FTC_Image_Cache_New

Reverting to use libfreetype v6.3.5 (the one that comes with hoary) resolved the problem.

Hi, Thank you for the HOWTO. After following the suggestion, my fonts are beautiful.

However, I don't know why, but my monospace font still looks ugly - rough. I tried monospace and courier new size 9 and 10, but they still look ugly, other fonts are ok.

I don't know if this is related, but I think BEFORE the xorg was upgraded to 6.8.2 (using rpm - FC3) the monospace fonts was OK. Since the xorg is upgraded to 6.8.2 my monospace font is rough.

First to say thanks to Franklin for this amazing how-to...
I've been searching many times on the net to find something good about fonts and now my head does not heart after many hours on my slackware box

But i have some problems yet to solve...

I followed the howto.All went ok.

if i am logged in as root:

mozilla && firefox and all GTK,GTK+2 apps work great when i created .gtkrc and .gtkrc-2.0(changing font to Verdana 10) files in /root/ . This apps work great on KDE , WindowMaker and FluxBox ... i don't have GNOME

--->
the problems starts when i log on as user:

I have created .gtkrc and .gtkrc-2.0 to my $HOME changing font to Verdana 10
contets of these 2 files in /root/ and $HOME are exactly the same. AA is turned off.

If i use KDE , GTK,GTK+2 applications look like the ones in the screenshots of Franklin (that means perfect !!)
BUT if I use WindowMaker (my default) or FluxBox ONLY GTK,GTK+2 apps look like they are Anti-Aliased !!!!!!ALL else look great

GTK,GTK+2 apps look to respond to .gtkrc and .gtkrc-2.0 because i changed the font size and i saw the difference.Also i tried to change the font to other MS-Fonts or NON-MS but results are the same they look AA

I have edited /etc/fonts/local.conf with some things suggested in this topic but nothing changed.Fonts permissions are OK.
Damn this problems seems to be hard because i repeat : if i use KDE as user all look ok , but if i use WindowMaker or Fluxbox ONLY the GTK,GTK+2 fonts look like Anti-Aliased DESPITE the fact that Anti-Aliasing is turned off in both WindowMaker and FluxBox....


Any ideas ???

using slack10.1 and i recompiled the freetype2.1.9 library from Pat's sources(slackware's sources) where there is also a patch that prevents breakings of many things :P
i have also installed freetype 1.3.1 that i needed to compile some other stuff, i hope that there is impication between those 2 libraries

just found out that by inserting the following into /etc/fonts/local.conf,
monospace can be AA (while others are non-AA)
- so I can like monospace in console and in code editor.

<match target="pattern">
    <test qual="any" name="family">
        <string>monospace</string>
    </test>
    <edit name="antialias">
        <bool>true</bool>
    </edit>
</match>

anyone else have the same problem as i do with GTK applications ?

Originally posted by small_boy22 anyone else have the same problem as i do with GTK applications ?

nvm i found the solution.
Even if i had AA disabled from the windowmaker panel i need to add some XML code in my ~/.fonts/local.conf to disable AA.
Now everything looks more than great !!!

Some kind soul has wrapped the MS Core Fonts and the recompiled Freetype into an installable Slackware package
http://www.fairylinux.org
You still have to make your own .gtkrc-2.0, though.

I don't wanna read through 6 pages of replies. Who can confirm this works on Ubuntu Hoary?

I have done this successfully for the following:

Slackware
SuSE
Ubuntu
Debian

I never remove the original package anymore - just

./configure --prefix=/usr
make
make install (as root)

I am using fretype 2.1.10

Those fuzzy fonts on Linux have been keeping me away from Linux for my main use. This solves it! I'm thrilled.

FYI for others with Fedora Core 4 and Gnome:

No need to mess with resolution, screen size, and dpi. Gnome handles this for you as far as I can tell.

Just recompile freetype, set your fonts, build the gtk file that Franklin mentioned, and restart X. It's a different world

Thanks...

Franklin

You said it works for ubuntu hoary, thats great.

I have not clear couple of things, excuse my linux ignorance and my English (im not English native speaker)

does ubuntu hoary (debian) come with the BCI enabled ?

having a LCD monitor Samsung sync 710 N, and enabling the BCI (recompiling freetype), makes fonts to look better ?

my ttf fonts look funny, some look a little thick (little blurry )

i m using sub pixel rendering and hinting full in gnome

i dont know if you need more info

thanks in advance

Hi Sierra,

Debian and Ubuntu "could" have a version of freetype with the bytecode interpreter enabled depending on where the mirror was that you installed from - i.e. non US mirror (this is what I remember reading regarding Debian at least - may not be true for Ubuntu - may not be true for Deb either )

In my experience, I have had better results for both distros by compiling freetype from source.
This implies that my installs did NOT have BCI enabled. I do not know for sure though.

I will also state that my monitor is a CRT - I do not like flat panels as a general rule.

LCD's are finicky and, from my limited experience with them, appear to look best at a particular resolution. You may need to play to get things to look nice to you.

Heck, you may like antialiased fonts better for the monitor you use. I can't help you with that.

In regard to the english - I am ashamed that I cannot speak any other language as well as you have just done with english.

In regard to linux - I don't think you ever stop being a newbie - certainly not me.

Later

Hello Franklin, hello all!

So glad that this thread exists and is still active! It helped me a lot - now hardly any eye strain when working with Linux :-)

However, I came across a strange phenomenon when following the above mentioned steps (recompilation of freetype, enabling bytecode interpreter): I tried the procedure using the Kanotix distribution (Debian-based, Knoppix-derivative) and resulted in having perfectly rendered (truetype) fonts when logged in as root - however, bytecode interpreter does not seem to be activated as normal user. How can I turn on the bytecode interpreter for a specific user? Generally, the compilation must have worked: as I said, everything OK as root...

Anybody out there who can help me??