How to Optimize Fonts in Slackware

Daedra · 07-03-2008, 02:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Su-Shee

(Sorry, I had to work and therefore a strict no-forums policy enabled.

)

First: I'm still on Slack 12.0 - no 12.1.

Pkg-config says, I'm using fontconfig 2.4.2 and I have no specific fontconfig patch lying around right now. For freetype and Xft, I'm using your already patched Slackware packages.

For recent Cairo versions, I use the patch you can check out here.

I just re-did it on a clean cairo (with changed filename and dirname) - with this result:

patch -p0 < PerfectFontStuff/libcairo-1.6.4-lcd-cleartype-like.diff

Code:

patching file libcairo-1.6.4/src/cairo-ft-font.c
Hunk #1 succeeded at 56 (offset 3 lines).
Hunk #2 succeeded at 509 with fuzz 1 (offset 15 lines).
Hunk #3 succeeded at 816 (offset 33 lines).
Hunk #4 succeeded at 1108 (offset 20 lines).
Hunk #5 succeeded at 1239 (offset 35 lines).

The patch was originally for a much older cairo-version (1.2.something); I really just adjusted dirname (and the filename of the patch..)

And matching the subject of the thread:

I compiled FF3 (and xulrunner) with this flags:

Code:

./configure --enable-system-cairo --enable-system-lcms
 --disable-gnomeui --disable-gnomevfs 
--enable-application=browser --enable-glitz 
--enable-xft --prefix=/opt/firefox

And yes, I forgot a handfull of more flags, I know.

I tried _your_ mentioned patch, which also patches cleanly (with some minor offsets) which I'm going to try now.

Hmm... I see now what you mean, I tested out your patch above and if I use cairo with your patch It works fine with fontconfig 2.4.2. I think I will update my page 2 post with this info, however there really is a slight difference in quality, its extremely minute, but is noticeable... at least to me

I took some screenshots and zoomed in on them just to compare and the only difference is that your patch with fontconfig 2.4.2 has a slightly lighter contrast to the text and the arch patches with fontconfig 2.6.0 has a little darker text. But you have to have good eyes to see the difference, very minute. For my eyes though I think the arch patches with the new fontconfig are slightly less "fuzzy"

dugan · 07-04-2008, 11:40 PM

I read, on the Arch Linux forums, about people taking Ubuntu's font patches and using them on Arch. I tried them on Slackware and the results are good! Are they better than the LCD patches that Daedra ported for us? I don't know. They're both good and the choice is tough:

Here are the Slackbuilds.

freetype:

fontconfig

libXft

cairo

Patches and package versions are the same as on Hardy.

And here are my font settings:

/etc/fonts/conf.d

10-antialias.conf
10-autohint.conf
10-hinting-full.conf
10-hinting.conf
10-sub-pixel-rgb.conf
20-fix-globaladvance.conf
30-urw-aliases.conf
40-nonlatin.conf
44-wqy-zenhei.conf
45-latin.conf
49-sansserif.conf
50-user.conf
51-local.conf
52-languageselector.conf
57-dejavu.conf
60-latin.conf
61-dejavu-experimental.conf
65-fonts-persian.conf
65-nonlatin.conf
69-unifont.conf
80-delicious.conf
90-synthetic.conf

/etc/fonts/local.conf

Code:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
    <dir>/usr/local/share/fonts</dir>
        <edit name="lcd_filter" mode="assign">
            <!-- This is CORRECT for this version of Fonconfig.
            It's lcdfilterdefault. NOT lcddefault! -->
            <const>lcdfilterdefault</const>
        </edit>
    <match target="font">
        <test name="family">
            <string>Andale Mono</string>
            <string>Arial</string>
            <string>Comic Sans MS</string>
            <string>Courier New</string>
            <string>FixedsysTTF</string>
            <string>Georgia</string>
            <string>Impact</string>
            <string>Tahoma</string>
            <string>Times New Roman</string>
            <string>Trebuchet MS</string>
            <string>Verdana</string>
            <string>Webdings</string>
            <string>Calibri</string>
            <string>Cambria</string>
            <string>Candara</string>
            <string>Consolas</string>
            <string>Constantia</string>
            <string>Corbel</string>
            <string>Segoe UI</string>
        </test>
        <edit mode="assign" name="autohint">
            <bool>false</bool>
        </edit>
    </match>
</fontconfig>

Daedra · 07-05-2008, 04:10 AM

Nice post dugan, I am going to try these tomorrow and see how they look, I'm curious to see the difference.

Alstare · 07-05-2008, 12:56 PM

I just tried the new "hardy fonts" method.

Seems abit better in my case. I set in Firefox 3.0 to use the "liberation sans, liberation serif, liberation mono", and bumped up the size a little bit to 14.

Now fonts are 90% there.

I am still frustrated on this fonts topic though. I wish we could just have a simple consistent fonts approach across all platforms. My fonts are now the best I have ever seen them in slack but less spectacular then I have seen in other OS's.

I guess I need to do some more research into the understanding of this.

Thanks again guy's didn't want to come accross as non-appreciative for your work, I am very thankful for your work & has drastically improved my fonts. I am Just frustrated with the overall Linux font situation.

One question I do have?

Do we still use the "/home/user/.fonts.conf" file from the original post? I removed all the changes I made from post #1 prior to using this last method?

dugan · 07-05-2008, 02:05 PM

If you look in /etc/fonfs/conf.d and /etc/fonts/conf.avail, you'll see that 50-user.conf calls .fonts.conf and 51-local.conf calls local.conf. These files are loaded in numerical order, and options cannot be overridden once set. So if an option is set differently in .fonts.conf and local.conf, the .fonts.conf settings will be used.

Therefore, you were right to empty your .fonts.conf before setting up a local.conf.

Alstare · 07-05-2008, 02:52 PM

Ok makes sense now.

Thanks for the clarification.

Also something to note. I noticed in your "local.conf" you reference "/usr/local/share/fonts" and by default the font directory is "/usr/share/fonts" in slackware 12.1. I am not sure if this is something that was done on purpose or not, but I just made the change in my file and seems to have fixed my font issues and I returned my Fiefox settings back to default.

Everything seems to be good now.

dugan · 07-05-2008, 03:24 PM

You know how to install new fonts, right?

My local.conf file searches for fonts in /usr/local/share/fonts. So to install a new font, you just put the font file (.ttf, otf, .dfont, .pcf, etc) in /usr/local/share/fonts and then run "fc-cache -f -v" as root.

As for font recommendations, I recommend installing Microsoft's Core Web Fonts at the very least. If you go to the Unicode Font Guide, you will find a script to download lots of foreign language fonts. You need those to display Wikipedia.

My KDE desktop fonts set up according to an OS X Imitation Guide. My GNOME desktop fonts are set up the same way.

In Xfce, my UI font is 8pt Segoe UI (which I copied from my Vista partition) and my window manager font is Trebuchet MS Bold 11pt.

Alstare · 07-05-2008, 03:29 PM

Looks like I edited my post above the same time you were posting your response.

Daedra · 07-06-2008, 10:47 PM

I just got done with a full day of running the ubuntu-LCD and I have to say that its apples and oranges, no major difference that makes one better than the other. Nice work on the buildscripts dugan.

dugan · 07-07-2008, 01:26 AM

Thanks, Daedra. I'm currently revising the scripts to make them download the packages.

If you're wondering why I used Hardy packages and not Intrepid packages, it's because the libXft and cairo in Intrepid won't build against the fontconfig in Intrepid. Go figure.

Daedra · 07-07-2008, 03:34 AM

On my next day off I think I am going to try all 4 again and take screenshots... Just for fun. It seems like there are

-LCD
-Ubuntu-LCD
-cleartype
-xeffects

I think xeffects has been abandoned but I am going to check..

onebuck · 07-07-2008, 11:02 AM

Hi,

Daedra & Dugan I have placed links to major posts within this thread too 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!

Great work done by both of you and well worth the placement to assist others.

dugan · 07-07-2008, 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daedra

On my next day off I think I am going to try all 4 again and take screenshots.

Please take screenshots of a fifth as well. The fifth screenshot would be with all stock Slackware packages.

By the way, I've uploaded new versions of the Ubuntu SlackBuilds. They now download the source files. I'm also trying out a new system: they untar their sources in /tmp/build/source, package them in /tmp/build/package, and output tgz files to /tmp/build/output. The old system made my /tmp directory too messy.

Also, the names of the patches being applied are displayed in bold now.

Daedra · 07-10-2008, 10:40 PM

Hey dugan just an update, I decided not to mess with the xeffects patches because there pretty old and don't seem to be updated anymore, any between my original post and the firefox post and your ubuntu patches and shu-shee's patch for the original David Turner cleartype patch I think pretty much all the bases are covered, the biggest differences at this point would come from custom settings in fontconfig which I think we also supplied a pretty good base for

.

Su-Shee · 07-12-2008, 11:08 AM

Daedra: Do you know about the fir filter patch from Jinghua Luo? It's another freetype/cairo subpixel patch floating around which I've got tested - haven't used it anymore, because I like the config I have now.

I don't remember where I got it, so I put it at my place.