Some websites are barely readable

lioh · 10-03-2019, 04:12 AM

Hi all.

Some Websites which I open in Firefox are barely readable, e.g.:

https://www.switch.ch/aai/guides/sp/...cate-rollover/

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I have also tried in other browsers like Chrome, but it results the same. For testing purposes I have set up a Debian VM and within that, the website is displayed correctly.

Is there any way to improve the situation?

Greetings

Lioh

Slackovado · 10-03-2019, 04:44 AM

You need to "tune-up" your fonts config.
Have a look at these pages
https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...68/page19.html
http://duganchen.ca/writings/slackware/fonts/
But in a nutshell you want to end up with Infinality font setup.
You can probably find compiled packages or roll your own.
The final result is a display that's really easy on the eyes.

lioh · 10-03-2019, 04:54 AM

Hmm, I was not planning to use Infinality. I have set up : export FREETYPE_PROPERTIES="truetype:interpreter-version=35" which works the best for me and have defined DejaVu as my preferred font. When I look at this page, it makes use of a strange commercial font like:

font-family: "FrutigerNextW01-Regular",Helvetica,Verdana,sans-serif;

When I remove the "FrutigerNextW01-Regular" part the fonts are somehow displayed correctly. So there must be a font configuration around which replaces unknown fonts with 'not-so-good-looking' ones. This is what I would like to find out.

Greetings

Lioh

lioh · 10-03-2019, 06:47 AM

What is a bit difficult for me to understand is that normally, if the given font is not detected on the system, the browser should fall to the next available in the list. In this case it would be sans-serif which is available on Slackware.

rogan · 10-03-2019, 07:36 AM

You can set font preferences in the browser and tell it to not use other
fonts. Just go for the standard options and see if you like it.

I tried the page in your first post (with page chosen fonts) and the fonts
look somewhat ok on a 4k monitor in seamonkey. Perhaps that is what the
webdeveloper imagined everyone has.

dugan · 10-03-2019, 09:03 AM

Install this if you haven't already.

http://slackbuilds.org/repository/14...webcore-fonts/

Also, try -current (in a VM is fine) if you're not already running that. It has changes to the default font rendering settings.

allend · 10-03-2019, 09:46 AM

To me, it looks like a hinting issue.
I suggest that the OP tries in turn each of the possible slight, medium and full hinting configurations by creating the symlink for each configuration in /etc/fonts/conf.d
e.g. (as root, from within the /etc/fonts/conf.d directory)

Code:

ln -s ../conf.avail/10-hinting-medium.conf 10-hinting-medium.conf

Also, check that the subpixel layout for your monitor is correct, as detailed under "Font Configuration" in the excellent webpage from @dugan linked by @Slackovado in post #2.

Geist · 10-03-2019, 05:11 PM

Is infinality still a thing? I haven't touched it in years and my fonts are all good...
I don't even think I've got it installed anymore.
I don't yeah.

TheRealGrogan · 10-03-2019, 07:19 PM

Yes, it's still a thing. The infinality mode is built into freetype now... controllable by editing/uncommenting a variable in /etc/profile.d/freetype.sh (and/or freetype.csh for appropriate shells). Not enabled by default.

Code:

#!/bin/sh
# Configure Freetype properties. Here this is used to set the default mode
# for font hinting. Other controllable properties are listed in the section
# 'Controlling FreeType Modules' in the reference's table of contents.
#
# Three hinting settings are available:

# This is the classic hinting mode used in Freetype 2.6.x:
#export FREETYPE_PROPERTIES="truetype:interpreter-version=35"

# This is Infinality mode, which was never enabled by default. It is slower
# than the new subpixel hinting mode, but said to be more accurate:
#export FREETYPE_PROPERTIES="truetype:interpreter-version=38"

# This is the new default subpixel hinting mode used in Freetype 2.7.x. It is
# derived from the Infinality code base stripped to the bare minimum with all
# configurability removed in the name of speed and simplicity:
#export FREETYPE_PROPERTIES="truetype:interpreter-version=40"

Slackovado · 10-04-2019, 06:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheRealGrogan

Yes, it's still a thing. The infinality mode is built into freetype now... controllable by editing/uncommenting a variable in /etc/profile.d/freetype.sh (and/or freetype.csh for appropriate shells). Not enabled by default.

Code:

#!/bin/sh
# Configure Freetype properties. Here this is used to set the default mode
# for font hinting. Other controllable properties are listed in the section
# 'Controlling FreeType Modules' in the reference's table of contents.
#
# Three hinting settings are available:

# This is the classic hinting mode used in Freetype 2.6.x:
#export FREETYPE_PROPERTIES="truetype:interpreter-version=35"

# This is Infinality mode, which was never enabled by default. It is slower
# than the new subpixel hinting mode, but said to be more accurate:
#export FREETYPE_PROPERTIES="truetype:interpreter-version=38"

# This is the new default subpixel hinting mode used in Freetype 2.7.x. It is
# derived from the Infinality code base stripped to the bare minimum with all
# configurability removed in the name of speed and simplicity:
#export FREETYPE_PROPERTIES="truetype:interpreter-version=40"

That's right, Infinality with the Microsoft core fonts results in excellent font rendering.
Sadly, it takes a bit of time and effort investment to achieve understanding of all the components that come into play and to configure them correctly.
It's kind of a "right of passage" for Linux users, sort of what configuring Xserver used to be back in the day.

Poprocks · 10-04-2019, 04:22 PM

Yes. It's too bad that 15+ years after decent font rendering has come to Linux, that manual intervention is still required.

For me, installing the corefonts, including Tahoma, Calibri and Cambria, and deleting the symlink /etc/fonts/conf.d/60-liberation.conf is an absolute must to ensure that those dreadful Liberation fonts are neither seen nor heard.

rkelsen · 10-04-2019, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Poprocks

Yes. It's too bad that 15+ years after decent font rendering has come to Linux, that manual intervention is still required.

Is it? I've not manually tweaked anything font related for quite some time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Poprocks

For me, installing the corefonts, including Tahoma, Calibri and Cambria, and deleting the symlink /etc/fonts/conf.d/60-liberation.conf is an absolute must to ensure that those dreadful Liberation fonts are neither seen nor heard.

!

They look pretty good on my systems.

The fonts you mentioned are not licensed for use under Linux. They're not able to be packaged or distributed.

lioh · 10-15-2019, 02:07 AM

My goal is not really to switch to the propitiatory corefonts. As mentioned in my initial posting other distributions like Debian do not seem to have this issue, so it must be related to the fontconfig settings in Slackware. I still have not understood in which moment the rendering falls to such a strange mode. It must be related to the fact that the font cannot be found on the system.

@rogan setting the fonts manually in FF for all websites, now allowing web pages to set their own fonts, is not an option to me.

Another example is the website of my hoster: https://my.green.ch which forces 'HelveticaNeueW02-45Ligh' !important' and does not offer alternative fallback fonts. Still in such a case, the system should fall back to a default font imho (which is DejaVu in my case, not Liberation) but this process does not seem to work.

@allend The files 10-hinting-medium.conf etc are not available on my 14.2 box. I am going to check on -current as well.