How to Optimize Fonts in Slackware

vehn · 06-10-2009, 08:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toods

Yes, Dugan seems to have taken the 'fontconfig' SlackBuild down from his download site. It contained quite a few configuration patches, so my guess is that he is revising it for compatibility reasons with new versions or something.

Bill.

It work very nice for me on slackware-current. But I use binary package (fontconfig) from #106 post. I need patches from fontconfig's slackbuild. I also use /etc/fonts from xubuntu 9.04.

Screenshot: http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/8305/screenh.png

dugan · 06-10-2009, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vehn

Slackbuild for fontconfig from post #92 not available. Please upload it anywhere.

Carp! I forgot to upload the new Fontconfig SlackBuild! Sorry about that.

However, I can't upload it this week. I'm on vacation and I didn't bring my Slack box. Give me until Tuesday (when I get back).

In the meantime, though, you can patch Fontconfig yourself. The exact collection of patches (click on "files"), and the ebuild I based the SlackBuild on, are both here:

http://hg.core.ws/devnull/file/815c1...bs/fontconfig/

Gentoo ebuilds, like SlackBuilds, are human-readable. Read the ebuild to find out which patches you need for which rendering style. Figuring out each patch's p-level is a bit trickier. Generally, the ones that add configuration files are p0 and the others are p1.

dugan · 06-16-2009, 08:19 PM

I've uploaded the Fontconfig SlackBuild. See post #92 for the download link.

EDIT:

I've made changes to the other ones as well. Mainly refactorings.

The download link for the Cairo source package now correctly points to version 1.8.6.

tricqster · 06-28-2009, 12:09 PM

Thank you very much, I was looking for this for a long time. I thought, that I'll need to install ubuntu,

just because their font rendering was different (better for me) than in most distros.

Sure, it's matter of taste, and depends on your display, but I think for LCDs this is perfect.

dugan · 06-29-2009, 03:19 PM

I think I've found the optimal setting.

To begin with, I've installed both the Droid fonts and the SlackBuilds from post #92 (Ubuntu-style rendering). Webcore fonts from SlackBuilds.org are installed too.

My conf.d directory:

10-hinting-full.conf
10-hinting.conf
10-sub-pixel-rgb.conf
11-lcd-filter-lcddefault.conf
20-fix-globaladvance.conf
20-unhint-small-vera.conf
30-metric-aliases.conf
30-urw-aliases.conf
35-droid.conf
40-nonlatin.conf
45-latin.conf
49-sansserif.conf
51-local.conf
53-monospace-lcd-filter.conf
60-latin.conf
65-fonts-persian.conf
65-nonlatin.conf
69-unifont.conf
80-delicious.conf
90-synthetic.conf
README
50-user.conf

And the contents of 35-droid.conf:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
	<alias>
		<family>serif</family>
		<prefer>
			<family>Droid Serif</family>
		</prefer>
	</alias>
	<alias>
		<family>sans-serif</family>
		<prefer>
			<family>Droid Sans</family>
		</prefer>
	</alias>
	<alias>
		<family>monospace</family>
		<prefer>
			<family>Droid Sans Mono</family>
		</prefer>
	</alias>
</fontconfig>

So:

the bytecode interpreter is enabled in Freetype
the autohinter is disabled. That means the bytecode interpreter is active
antialiasing is disabled
having the bytecode interpreter active means Truetype fonts are rendered as on Windows
the sans, serif and monospace aliases are set to Droid fonts, which look good with both the bytecode interpreter and the autohinter
Liberation, DejaVu and Bitstream Vera fonts, which don't look good with the bytecode interpreter, are not used

Daedra · 06-29-2009, 03:38 PM

can you post a screenshot? I would like to see the results

dugan · 06-29-2009, 03:57 PM

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...screenshot.png

tricqster · 06-30-2009, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugan

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...screenshot.png

The best (or one of the best) I've ever seen. Thank you. I'm going to set it up.

Daedra · 07-05-2009, 07:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugan

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...screenshot.png

That's about as close to windows "cleartype" as I've seen. I prefer using different patch sets and settings that give a more bold look but that still looks great.

dugan · 07-13-2009, 09:51 PM

I just found out that if you install the Ubuntu patches and then put the following line in .Xdefaults, you get much nicer fonts in OpenOffice.org:

Code:

Xft.lcdfilter: lcddefault

I've tried it with the OpenOffice.org binaries (packaged with the SlackBuilds.org script) and with GnomeSlackBuild's custom OpenOffice.org package.

Now I'm experimenting with these Xdefaults settings, which seem to work even better:

Code:

! Xft.antialias: 1
Xft.dpi: 96
Xft.hinting: 1
Xft.hintstyle: hintfull
Xft.lcdfilter: lcddefault
Xft.rgba: rgb

tomtomjkw · 07-16-2009, 02:15 PM

Above confirmed, Open Office font rendering went from pathetic to ecstatic in one ctrl+c/ctrl+v. Thanks Dugan.

dugan · 08-08-2009, 04:53 PM

I've written up most of this thread's findings:
http://www.vcn.bc.ca/~dugan/slackware-fonts/

Daedra · 08-08-2009, 07:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugan

I've written up most of this thread's findings:
http://www.vcn.bc.ca/~dugan/slackware-fonts/

Nice Dugan, I was thinking that this post probably needed an overhaul when 13 hit. But you just did all the work for us, so thanks

Petri Kaukasoina · 08-10-2009, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugan

I've written up most of this thread's findings:
http://www.vcn.bc.ca/~dugan/slackware-fonts/

Hi,

you could consider adding --libdir=/usr/lib${LIBDIRSUFFIX} to configure flags in libXft.SlackBuild, cairo.SlackBuild and freetype.SlackBuild to put the libraries in /usr/lib64 in Slackware64.

dugan · 08-10-2009, 02:39 PM

I've fulfilled your request to the letter (didn't touch Fontconfig.SlackBuild). The new SlackBuilds are up. I haven't tested them though.