[SOLVED] Changes to default freetype / font appearance on -current
SlackwareThis Forum is for the discussion of Slackware Linux.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Changes to default freetype / font appearance on -current
In the changelog;
Code:
l/freetype-2.7.1-x86_64-1.txz: Upgraded.
Subpixel hinting has been enabled upstream by default, but you may adjust
this in /etc/profile.d/freetype.{csh,sh}.
Wanted to try this out, so left this file as default. My fonts look alot nice with this on, notably in firefox and the xfce menus.
However, conky and urxvt look strange and i'm not sure what i need to change in my Xresources/conkyrc relating to fonts, to adjust for subpixel hinting being enabled.
Basically there is alot of spacing between the letters, and the font has become ultra large. I have tried adjusting/commenting some things, but not alot changes.
Here's my Xresources file as it has been before the freetype update, and i attached 2 images. The one with the large font is how it looks since the updated package, but ideally i want it to look as it did previously. Why the drastic change of appearance in urxvt/conky ?
Whenever I've tried changing any of the subpixel settings before it's only made things worse.
I haven't tried to re-tweak the settings for the new renderer yet, but I'll be watching this thread with interest as to what are the new recommended settings. I use an unaliased terminus bitmap font in xterm so that's not really affected by any of this stuff, but I'd be interested to know some good settings for DejaVu Sans | Sans Mono, which I also use.
As far as conky and urxvt go, it seems to be an issue with setting an xft font. I decided to drop back to using a normal x11 font for my Xresources which looks virtually as it should using xft anyway.
Now set them as so, for both conky and urxvt (using xfontsel)
Code:
# Xresources
*.font: -misc-tamsyn-medium-r-normal-*-16-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
# conky
use_xft no
font -misc-tamsyn-medium-r-normal-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
I guess that's a workaround for these 2 programs. However i noticed that tamsyn is no longer available to use as a font when using the xfce appearances tool...
Ah you are right, i see "Misc Tamsyn" and "xos4 Terminus" in the xfce appearences tool for setting the font. So i guess this has changed some font names?
Edit: Just updated my conkyrc and Xresources to reflect those font name changes, and it works again fine when using xft. I guess this was the issue, some fonts became renamed with the new package?
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.