Bad Fonts

jchorn · 10-30-2007, 09:42 PM

I have an Nvidia GeForce FX 5700LE video card which gives me great looking fonts, but only in Suse 10.0. Since then I've tried 10.1, 10.2, and recently 10.3 (KDE only), and they look horrible. The desktop and application fonts are faint and barely readable. Some web sites come out pretty good as well as any documents opened in OpenOffice. I've searched this forum as well as in the Google Suse forum but can't seem to find a solution. I'm guessing I need to upgrade my video card. Anyone else having problems with the fonts, or with the 5700LE card in general? Any recommendations for a 8X AGP Nvidia card?

reddazz · 10-31-2007, 07:24 AM

Are you using the official nvidia drivers and have you tried changing the anti-aliasing and DPI via kcontrol (Appearance & Themes -> Fonts).

jchorn · 10-31-2007, 11:35 AM

Yes, I used the official Nvidia drivers. First time I downloaded the latest Nvidia version and installed it. On the second clean install I added the ftp site and installed the 2 Nvidia files, and afterwards installed the Ms fonts by running the fetchmsttfonts.sh script. I wrote down all my settings from Suse 10.0, but they're the same as 10.3. I also played around with the anti-aliasing and different dpi settings with no luck. I restored my image of Suse 10.0 and the fonts are excellent.

lambchops468 · 10-31-2007, 08:45 PM

maybe you can skim through this and find something useful?
http://en.opensuse.org/Optimal_Use_of_Fonts_on_SuSE

dahveed3 · 10-31-2007, 09:30 PM

My fonts look fine on OpenSUSE. That said, this is likely because I use a CRT monitor. It sounds like you've been bitten by the subpixel-hinting problem and the removal of proprietary stuff from that in newer versions of OpenSUSE and most other distro's as well.

The opensuse.org site has a wiki page devoted to restoring the glory of proprietary subpixal hinting. It is appropriately titled "Subpixal Hinting." Put that in the Search window over there and that page has whatever instructions needed I think.

How it is now looks fine with the default fonts even on LCD monitors, or so I've read, but once the Microsoft or other high quality fonts are used they really would benefit from, er, whatever it is that has been taken out of the font handlers so as not to infringe upon patents and such. On LCD monitors, anyway.

What you need to do is some surgery to put that stuff back.