I would like to share information on how to get better fonts on RHEL 4 for AMD64. This guide can be used for i386 too. First things first
1. Get Microsft core fonts from
http://corefonts.sourceforge.net. Download and install cabextract if you don't have it already installed.
2. Download the msttcorefonts spec file and build a rpm file by issuing this at command prompt. rpmbuild -bb msttcorefonts-----.spec
3. Depending on your architecture you will have a rpm built in the directory /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/x86_64.
Next in line is getting Byte Code turned on
1. The harder way first get hold of the freetype src rpm from here
http://astro.temple.edu/~anandp/Font....1.9-1.src.rpm
install it using rpm -ivh freetype-2.1.9-1.src.rpm
2. change your directory to file:/usr/src/redhat/SPECS
edit the freetype.spec file usign your favourite editor
the 3rd line should read
%define without_bytecode_interpreter 0
3. Save changes and build an rpm using rpmbuild -bb freetype.spec after some time you will have BCI enabled rpm files.
4. The trick with x64 architecture is that you have to compile for both the i386 as well x86_64 to get better looking fonts for both i386 and x86_64 freetype rpm files. It can be done by issuing the rpmbuild command using --target=XXXXX command.
5. People looking for a shortcut I have readymade files here
http://astro.temple.edu/~anandp/Fonts/
6. Depending on how you get the rpm file you have to get rid of the bci enabled freetype using the command "rpm -e --nodeps --allmatches freetype freetype-devel"
7. install the new freetype with BCI enabled using the command rpm -ivh freetype*
8. Assuming you have Microsoft fonts and Byte Code enabled Freetype installed go to control center and choose your favourite truetype font my choice is Tahoma and Verdana.
9. Choose use antialiasing for fonts and exclude range between 0 - 12 points choose Full hinting.
Apply and Save and restart X and viola you will see a marked difference.
But hey I am coming to the real deal , I am not done yet copy and paste this text into your /etc/fonts/local.conf
"
<match target="font">
<test name="weight" compare="more"><const>demibold</const></test>
<edit name="antialias"><bool>true</bool></edit>
</match>
<match target="font">
<test name="slant" compare="eq"><const>italic</const></test>
<edit name="antialias"><bool>true</bool></edit>
</match>
"
between <fontconfig> and </fontconfig>
what these lines do is they use antialiasing for Bold and Italic fonts.
Try changing the usechrome.css and usercontent.css files in Firefox to further improve your experience.
