Hi,

How do I make the Linux Fonts exactly like Windows?. I am using Mandrake 9.1 and KDE.

Here is what I have done so far.

I have installed all the MS TTF fonts into my Linux machine via Font Installer. Updated the freetype library to support true type fonts. After this the font quality is improved and I can see all the MS Fonts now. But the quality not as good as MS fonts.

For eg. If I open Mozilla Firebird with default settings both in Window and Linux, the Windows looks better than Linux. Similarly for other programs also.

BTW the way my screen resolution is same for both windows and Linux ( 1024x768 ?)

Any Ideas?.. Any of you have a better looking desktop and better Fonts in Linux compared to Windows?

Looking for your help..

A question for you.

Are you using LCD Screens, or regular plain old computer monitors?

The reason I ask is that Windows seems to do a better job on LCD screens, since they have (in my opinion) great sub-pixel hinting. Linux on LCD performs decently, and is quite useful for me. But Windows has an edge here.

Of course, if it's nothing to do with LCD's, then it must be something else.

To be honest, when I started using GNOME as opposed to KDE, I noticed a slight increase in font sharpness. But it's probably just me being insane.

Thanks for your reply..

No I am not using LCD screens. I am using Normal computer monitors. For the same monitor and same settings I find that windows font quality is better for many applications.

The Issue appears even after installing MS true type fonts properly!

In Gnome do you find your font quality comparable to that of windows?.. For me it is not!

Have you tried playing around with the anti-aliasing settings? That can make a world of difference

Yeah, I think I have done that. There is not much option available there , I think. Currently I am using the default settings. I tried ebabling sub-pixel hinting , once.

I am able to get good quality fonts for some desktop and windows. But many application like, Firebird , Gaim etc provides much better fonts in windows with default settings!. True for some other application also. These application uses same set of fonts in both Linux and winodws by default and windows looks much better.

I am surprised because of this! Any clues?

Try the Font De-Uglification page. There's heaps you can do and it answers some of the questions as to why windows fonts appear better.

Thanks. I am aware of this document and I had a cursory look at this. I think probably I need to go through this document carefully and experiment with the settings!. I was planning to do this as my last option though!

One ques: Did any of u get a better fonts in Linux than windows, especially for Web browsers, after going through these experiments? If yes I will defintely give a try...

Bladrick65,

Are you able to get better fonts in Linux than windows?

For windows, one of the cause could be a graphic driver with frequency setting (some users are particularly sensitive to this frequency setting to feel more confortable).
Usually, XFree requires a difficult process to set it correctly.

Then, if this is exactly the same you have to take car of two conditions at least:

- look carefully at Font Deuglification Xserver settings
- if using gnome, do not hesitate to paly with the Desktop Preferences/ Font / Font rendering

Hope this helps.

In Mozilla Firebird 0.61 and Mozilla 1.1 the fonts render as well as Windows.

In Mozilla 1.4 the fonts look better in Linux than Windows, because of the lovely anti-aliasing.

Some more Updates regarding the Linux Fonts.

I have gone through the Font De-uglification HOWTO to some extent. There are mailny two things that I have missed.

1) Putting the 100dpi infront of 75dpi in the config file
2) The default dpi was 81x81 in my computer. Now I have changed it into 100x100 dpi.

Even after this I don't see much difference. I have installed Mozilla 1.4. It looks better and is comparable to Windows but not better

But application like gaim doesn't provide good fonts even now. gaim version 0.70 looks much better in Windows then in linux with default settings.

Any Idea why this is happening?.. Is there any way to improve the font quality in all the applications like in Windows?
I would like to whether any one of you were to able to get quality fonts for all of your application like in Windows..
I am interested in small fonts...

Any help is appreciated..

one thing you should try out is enabling the byte code interpreter in freetype. There are rpm packages available. Go to
http://plf.zarb.org/~nanardon/urpmiweb.php
add PLF as a urpmi source, and then start prmdrake and look for packages named freetype and install them.

Thanks for your reply..

If you are mentioning about the True Type font enabling for free type, I think I hav already done it. What I have done is I have changed one of the header file's $define statement for enabling the true type as mentioning the font de-uglification docs. Correct me if I am wrong. I am using the latest version of the freetype library also.

Do I need to have anyhing else?
Please help..

you mean you changed
#undef TT_CONFIG_OPTION_BYTECODE_INTERPRETER
as it says in the doc? If so, you should have the byte code interpreter enabled after compiling and installing. This ought to make a huge difference for ttf fonts from microsoft especially without anti-aliasing. It can even have adverse effect if you have anti-aliasing enabled but I hate that blurry look of aa-ing. Also, no matter what people say, I think XP's font rendering is superb and rendering in linux just isn't up to snuff with that.

Yep.. I have done that. It made some difference also. But not for all the applications!. By desktop and FireBird provides much better fonts now. I haven’t tried it by disabling anti-aliasing though.

But as I mentioned earlier many applications like Gaim still provides ugly fonts.

Even after doing these, Gaim 0.70 in provides much better fonts in windows than in Linux. This I have mentioned earlier!. Why is this?..

What I want to know is that , Is there any way to improve the quality for all the applications in Linux?