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I have played very much with antialiasing with both libfreetype6 and the version with the bci enabled. And my conclusion is that its better to use and keep the bci enabled with Bitstream Vera fonts and I use the msfonts for openoffice, and it works for me. Msfonts don't look really good when they are antialiased with both bci enabled or disabled versions of freetype. The ideal way to get you fonts close to perfection is to make them look like they look like on OS X. If you want to use msfonts, then I suggest that you install them but disable antialiasing, this gives the msfonts a Windows 2000 effect and actually look really good, though I can't say the same for the rest of the fonts so make sure to move them to a back up folder before you enable system wide antialiasing.
I have forced the use of the native 'autohinter' instead of the 'Byte Code Interpreter' for non-MS Truetype fonts such as Bitstream as they render much better that way.
If anyone can help me optimise the XML to make it more compact, then I would be grateful.
Good work Toods it must have taken you a long time to get this going.
Yes, I can't believe that I'm spending so much of my valuable retirement time on Linux. Found Linux early December and don't want to count the hours spent on getting it configured etc..
In striving for a bit more perfection with the fonts, I found that I had an error in the script posted yesterday:
Arial Bold is anti-aliased at all font sizes in 2000/XP, so I have corrected this.
The thing that I am still not satisfied with is the rendering of Comic Sans which I seem to have got into the habit of using for emails. Certainly, the bold faces look much better when the 'Autohinter' is used instead of the 'Byte Code Interpreter' and I have modified my script to make this change. I still don't think that Comic Sans is rendering as well as in 2000/XP at font sizes of 10 and 12pt when not anti-aliased. I think they look a bit too 'blocky' if anti-aliased so I am leaving as is for the present. I tried the 'Chester Smooth Patch' which make a little improvement, but still needs AA turned on for it to work.
But like I said its all because you got that first one going, experience does matter. As for iptables related stuff I only changed two files on my shorewall config, I commented both action.ALLOWAUTH & action.REJECTAUTH. This fully hides port 113 from the internet. This gives me a fully stealthed system well at least according to shields up! test, that way I don't have to download and install+configure firestarter firewall.
Last edited by webterractive; 02-25-2006 at 04:31 AM.
I did look carefully, I might have changed it when I was trying to insert the code syntax to make it easier for peeps, and you might have seen before I looked at it again. Thanks though for point it out.
Last edited by webterractive; 02-24-2006 at 10:00 PM.
With the how-to and Toods' script, everything is great except for one thing so far: it appears to be anti-aliasing my Georgia font, but only after I applied the script (to local.conf). I was rather enjoying my nice, non-anti-aliased Georgia font. I don't see that Georgia is even mentioned in the script though, so I'm not sure what is going on.
There are still a few irregularities in other areas which were present from the start, like the 6 and the 8 characters being just a little bit odd in GTK apps, as well as the 2 in the avatar areas in this forum (such as in this: " webterractive
Member
Registered: Apr 2004
Location: Richmond, Canada
Posts: 230
Distribution: Mandriva 2006/XPSP2")
And also the large/bold capital "N" in the pop-up icon balloon on my KDE taskbar (hopefully you know what I an talking about) seems to have some spare-tire issues. The taskbar is set on Tahoma 10.
With the how-to and Toods' script, everything is great except for one thing so far: it appears to be anti-aliasing my Georgia font ---
Hi Rod,
Now to answer a few of your queries:
I have added the appropriate code to make Georgia font behave as in XP. You would of course need to add the appropriate code for any MS font not included at present otherwise they would be anti-aliased at all sizes.
Here is the updated code:
Code:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
<dir>/usr/local/share/fonts/truetype/</dir>
<!-- This template for local.conf or .fonts.conf was created on
27 February 2006 by Toods.
It attempts to render microsoft Truetype fonts in the same
way as would 2000 or XP, whilst leaving anti-aliasing turned
on for other Truetype fonts
Note: for this to work, Freetype must be built with the
Byte Code Interpreter enabled.
Note: this code only applies to the following MS fonts: arial,
Georgia, Times New Roman, Tahoma, Verdana, Lucida Consoile,
Trebuchet MS, Comic Sans and Courier New. Any other font
will be fully anti-aliased unless the appropriate code
is added. -->
<!-- Get the DPI of the LCD monitor right -->
<match target="pattern" >
<edit mode="assign" name="dpi" >
<double>96</double>
</edit>
</match>
<!-- It is best for my screen with the following off.
Although some web sites recommend setting this to rgb
for LCD screens, most modern LCDs automatically deal
with it and it is best to set to none -->
<match target="font" >
<edit mode="assign" name="rgba" >
<const>none</const>
</edit>
</match>
<!-- First turn on Hinting and Anti-aliasing for everything -->
<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="antialias" >
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<!-- Turn Anti-alias off for selected Font Family, Size and Weight -->
<match target="font" >
<test name="family" >
<string>Arial</string>
</test>
<test compare="less" name="pixelsize" >
<double>18</double>
</test>
<test name="weight" compare="less">
<int>200</int>
</test>
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font" >
<test name="family" >
<string>Arial</string>
</test>
<test name="slant" >
<const>italic</const>
</test>
<test compare="less" name="pixelsize" >
<double>12</double>
</test>
<test name="weight" compare="more_eq">
<int>200</int>
</test>
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font" >
<test name="family" >
<string>Georgia</string>
</test>
<test compare="less" name="pixelsize" >
<double>17</double>
</test>
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font" >
<test name="family" >
<string>Times New Roman</string>
</test>
<test compare="less" name="pixelsize" >
<double>19</double>
</test>
<test name="weight" compare="less">
<int>200</int>
</test>
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font" >
<test name="family" >
<string>Times New Roman</string>
</test>
<test name="slant" >
<const>roman</const>
</test>
<test compare="less" name="pixelsize" >
<double>15</double>
</test>
<test name="weight" compare="more_eq">
<int>200</int>
</test>
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font" >
<test name="family" >
<string>Times New Roman</string>
</test>
<test name="slant" >
<const>italic</const>
</test>
<test compare="less" name="pixelsize" >
<double>18</double>
</test>
<test name="weight" compare="more_eq">
<int>200</int>
</test>
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font" >
<test name="family" >
<string>Tahoma</string>
</test>
<test compare="less" name="pixelsize" >
<double>17</double>
</test>
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font" >
<test name="family" >
<string>Verdana</string>
</test>
<test compare="less" name="pixelsize" >
<double>17</double>
</test>
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font" >
<test name="family" >
<string>Lucida Console</string>
</test>
<test compare="less" name="pixelsize" >
<double>18</double>
</test>
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font" >
<test name="family" >
<string>Trebuchet MS</string>
</test>
<test compare="less" name="pixelsize" >
<double>17</double>
</test>
<test name="weight" compare="less">
<int>200</int>
</test>
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font" >
<test name="family" >
<string>Trebuchet MS</string>
</test>
<test compare="less" name="pixelsize" >
<double>12</double>
</test>
<test name="weight" compare="more_eq">
<int>200</int>
</test>
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font" >
<test name="family" >
<string>Comic Sans MS</string>
</test>
<test compare="less" name="pixelsize" >
<double>16</double>
</test>
<test name="weight" compare="less">
<int>200</int>
</test>
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<!-- Bold Comic Sans looks better with the Autohinter -->
<match target="font" >
<test name="family" >
<string>Comic Sans MS</string>
</test>
<test name="weight" compare="more_eq">
<int>200</int>
</test>
<edit mode="assign" name="hinting" >
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
<edit mode="assign" name="autohint" >
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font" >
<test name="family" >
<string>Courier New</string>
</test>
<test name="slant" >
<const>roman</const>
</test>
<test name="weight" compare="less">
<int>200</int>
</test>
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font" >
<test name="family" >
<string>Courier New</string>
</test>
<test name="slant" >
<const>italic</const>
</test>
<test compare="less" name="pixelsize" >
<double>36</double>
</test>
<test name="weight" compare="less">
<int>200</int>
</test>
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font" >
<test name="family" >
<string>Courier New</string>
</test>
<test name="slant" >
<const>roman</const>
</test>
<test compare="less" name="pixelsize" >
<double>16</double>
</test>
<test name="weight" compare="more_eq">
<int>200</int>
</test>
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font" >
<test name="family" >
<string>Courier New</string>
</test>
<test name="slant" >
<const>italic</const>
</test>
<test compare="less" name="pixelsize" >
<double>18</double>
</test>
<test name="weight" compare="more_eq">
<int>200</int>
</test>
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<!-- For non-MS Truetype Fonts force use of Autohinter instead of BCI -->
<match target="font" >
<test qual="any" name="family" compare="eq">
<string>Bitstream Charter</string>
<string>Bitstream Vera Sans</string>
<string>Bitstream Vera Sans Mono</string>
<string>Bitstream Vera Serif</string>
<string>Courier</string>
<string>Courier 10 Pitch</string>
<string>Cursor</string>
<string>Luxi Mono</string>
<string>Luxi Sans</string>
<string>Luxi Serif</string>
<string>Utopia</string>
</test>
<edit mode="assign" name="autohint" >
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<!-- Turn BCI Hinting off and AA on for small font sizes -->
<match target="font" >
<test compare="less_eq" name="pixelsize" qual="any" >
<double>8</double>
</test>
<edit mode="assign" name="hinting" >
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
</match>
</fontconfig>
The "2" that you mention in the Avatar areas is Verdana 8. This does render strangely and I see no cure for this. It is just how the rendering machine in Linux is dealing with it.
Freetype version 2.1.10 can cause a few problems, so I have gone back to 2.1.9 until they are fixed (e.g."The FreeType Project - Bugs: bug #15553, bug rendering verdana bold" and "bug #15785, character "7" in verdana...").
I can't identify the "6, 8 and N" issues that you referred to. If you go into KDE > Control Centre > Appearance & Themes > Fonts you will be able to call up the various fonts and sizes and identify what the actual font is. If you do this, I will then have a look at it.
Here is the script that I am using currently with the msfonts package that I have downloaded. It has the same work that Toods used, and I added Georgia, and MS San-Serif to it.
The way I have set it up is using the same formula as Toods but mine allows for antialiasing of bold fonts, and I have kept the antialiasing on the Lucida Console,Lucida Unicode,Impact, and Comic Sans. Like I said this is just a custom version of the same script, and not a solution. You have to play around with until you find something you like. I like it this way it works for me very well.
Thanks! I guess I can add my own code then when I want a font that is un-antialiased, although I wasn't sure what the dual entries for "Times New Roman", for example, were for.
Edit: okay, it is Verdana bold that is the problem font. I used your script, webterractive, to make it antialias when bold. It still looks just slightly odd but oh well.
Yes, I am sure you have this problem with Verdana because you are using Freetype 2.1.10. You could try version 2.1.9 to test this. I have compiled/built several versions of Freetypes with different patches etc.. I keep them (3 files from each) stored in separate directories. There are only 3 files needed from the build: libfreetype.a, libfreetype.la and libfreetype.so.6.3.8 (or 6.3.7 in the case of version 2.1.9). To try out a different Freetype version I just copy/overwrite the 3 files in /usr/lib with the 3 test files. KDE will then most likely crash when you close it, but then just run ldconfig to reset things before launching KDE again.
My N's look the same as well. Its funny, but its not annoying enough to bother me. I did what Toods posted up and it made the N's look normal. I am using Mandriva 2006 so this is what I did:
rpm -e --nodeps libfreetype6-2.1.10-10plf.i586.rpm and then installed libfreetype6-2.1.9-6plf.i586.rpm, this one is the Mandrake 10.2 one that PLF has released. And then run ldconfig and restart X. Everything started fine and KDE didn't crash.
Last edited by webterractive; 02-27-2006 at 06:38 PM.
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I don't see that Georgia is even mentioned in the script though, so I'm not sure what is going on.
