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-   -   How to Optimize Fonts in Slackware (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/how-to-optimize-fonts-in-slackware-640468/)

dugan 06-29-2008 02:17 AM

I know "works for me" isn't helpful, but it's the best I can do. I downloaded the Firefox 3 source, untarred it to create a "mozilla" directory, then typed "cd mozilla ; patch -p1 < /path/to/proposed.diff", where "proposed.diff" is the file I linked to earlier. To downloaded "proposed.diff", I opened it in a web browser and then saved it.

Toods 06-29-2008 05:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugan (Post 3198209)
Let me assure you that compiling a bunch of GNOME stuff will NOT fix the applications problem. I have GSlacky installed. Without the patch, I get a blank applications panel even when I specifically build Firefox with gnomeui and gnomevfs support. These are the only configure flags dealing with GNOME. On the other hand, I can apply the patch, compile gnomeui and gnomevfs support out of Firefox, and still get a working Applications panel.

No, I haven't tested it on a GNOME-free Slackware system. I suspect that the presence of GNOME isn't actually a factor here.

You apply it before compile. Use "patch -p1 < /path/to/patch", then run configure.

I too have re-compiled Firefox with the source patched and the 'Applications' panel in 'Preferences' is now correctly populated. I do not have Gnome installed.

Bill.

dugan 06-29-2008 01:37 PM

Quote:

echo "ac_cv_visibility_pragma=no" > .mozconfig
You don't need this. The bug it works around was fixed a long time ago.

http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=20297

Su-Shee 06-29-2008 01:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daedra (Post 3190777)
Hey Su-Shee, I am experimenting with somethings over here and I got firefox 3.0 compiled and working fine, but a quick questions I tried taking turners original patch and just editing the dirname like you did, but not all of the hunks succeeded 4 out of 10 failed, how did you get the old patch to work with cairo-1.6.4? There is a guy over at arch linux who is maintaining the patch now, but in order for it to work you also have to patch fontconfig or use fontconfig-2.6.0. I am basically just testing to see that this is really necessary of if the old patch can still work without patching fontconfig or using fontconfig-2.6.0. Not a huge deal just curious

(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.

Su-Shee 06-29-2008 02:20 PM

Your patch works also fine, I see no difference visually. I can't set the fontconfig settings though, too old of a version it seems.

Nevertheless, the more recent cairo patch seems to work.

And now I don't see anything at all anymore thanks to intensively staring on single pixels. ;)

Oh, and by the way: gtkrc font settings override FF3 specific font settings coming from "userChrome.css" (at least when I tested it..), so if STILL something seem really strange, tweak there.

I'm still not sure if I'm going to like gtk theme obedience or not...

Daedra 06-29-2008 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugan (Post 3198272)
I know "works for me" isn't helpful, but it's the best I can do. I downloaded the Firefox 3 source, untarred it to create a "mozilla" directory, then typed "cd mozilla ; patch -p1 < /path/to/proposed.diff", where "proposed.diff" is the file I linked to earlier. To downloaded "proposed.diff", I opened it in a web browser and then saved it.

Thanks Dugan, I got it. It was late and I wasn't paying attention I was passing the wrong -p option, lol. I have updated the buildscript with your suggestions.

Thanks Again.

r00tb33r 06-29-2008 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daedra (Post 3198218)
Yes Subpixel rendering is only for LCD's or CRT's with a triniton tube, if the CRT is Shadow Mask it will look awful. Also have you tried switching the RGB geometry in the .fonts.conf file? It's rare but not all LCD's are RGB. These are my settings, my geometry is RGB (Red,Green,Blue), but you can try a different setting. Here are the available settings if I remember correctly.

<const>rgb<const>
bgr
vrgb
vbgr

<match target="font" >
<edit mode="assign" name="rgba" >
<const>rgb</const>
</edit>
</match>

It might be worth a try.

I like text configurations as well but for folks that want it easy theres a tool to do just that.
http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/3651/uikp3.png
Personally I think that if you don't tell people they won't even notice the difference, its more of a thrill of fixing something thats not broken. I do see a problem with colored pixels however.

dugan 07-01-2008 01:16 AM

Now that I've tried some other subpixel patches, such as ones from this Gentoo thread, I really appreciate that you chose the best for us.

dugan 07-01-2008 09:03 PM

Which Arch packages are these patches used in? Is it the -lcd packages?

Daedra 07-02-2008 12:17 AM

http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=16459

http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.ph..._Orphans=&SeB=

Daedra 07-03-2008 02:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Su-Shee (Post 3198607)
(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:fontconfiglibXftcairoPatches 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 SlackwareŽ 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 (Post 3206335)
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.

dugan 07-13-2008 03:00 AM

Here are some more font SlackBuilds:

Mac FontsLucida Grande, Apple Garamond, etc. Sets the Sans, sans-serif and Serif aliases to the appropriate Mac fonts. If you have the Monaco font (not included) then it will use that for the Monospace alias.

Microsoft's Core Fonts for the WebThe SlackBuild is all you need (it downloads the font archive).

I haven't tested these very extensively, so feel free to report problems.

H_TeXMeX_H 07-17-2008 02:49 AM

If I might add another tip, if you want really crystal clear fonts, besides doing the above, if you have an LCD screen make sure to run at native resolution, that way the fonts are not blurred.

larryhaja 07-18-2008 10:17 PM

I've implemented your solution for better font rendering on my Slackware 12.0 computer. There is an amazing difference in the quality of the fonts. This has been a worthwhile upgrade. I did run into one issue. When I logged into Hotmail I noticed that right after login Hotmail tells me to upgrade my browser (eg. IE 7, Firefox, etc.). I temporarily got around this by installing the UserAgent Switcher extension and changed my UserAgent settings. But I later noticed that there was a patch that is applied to the slackbuild script and this adds "Bluewhite64 12/1 " to the UserAgent string. I was able to change this without recompiling firefox by deleting that string from firefox.js located in "/usr/lib/firefox-3.0.1/defaults/pref/". The location may be different on your computer. Otherwise, this has been one of the most useful threads I've used.

todders 07-19-2008 04:33 PM

[QUOTE=dugan;3204590]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:

Dugan these packages are superb,the best fonts have looked on my slackware installation ever well done.

Just a small tip my fonts didn`t see much of a chnage until i completely rebooted my system just restarting x didn`t make much of a change

thanks again

todders

manwichmakesameal 07-19-2008 06:25 PM

I just found this thread, and did everything in 12. Amazing. I love the way everything looks now. Thank you Daedra.

Daedra 07-19-2008 08:17 PM

[QUOTE=todders;3220152]
Quote:

Originally Posted by dugan (Post 3204590)
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:

Dugan these packages are superb,the best fonts have looked on my slackware installation ever well done.

Just a small tip my fonts didn`t see much of a chnage until i completely rebooted my system just restarting x didn`t make much of a change

thanks again

todders


I am starting to wonder if when I tested the dugan ubuntu patches I did something wrong, could you post a screenshot so I can make a comparison.

alienDog 07-19-2008 11:52 PM

Strange things...
 
Installing that macfonts package created with slackbuild seems to have broken the new font rendering completely. The fonts look awful now :( Strange...

dugan 07-20-2008 12:13 AM

Remove /etc/fonts/conf.d/10-macfonts.conf, run fc-cache -f -v, and restart X. That will get your Sans, Serif and Monospace aliases back the way they were, and you'll still have the Mac fonts available.

alienDog 07-20-2008 12:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugan (Post 3220346)
Remove /etc/fonts/conf.d/10-macfonts.conf, run fc-cache -f -v, and restart X. That will get your Sans, Serif and Monospace aliases back the way they were, and you'll still have the Mac fonts available.

No help there, but it is indeed fc-cache that destroys the rendering. I tried uninstalling the macfonts (and in the process the /etc/fonts/conf.d/10-macfonts.conf got removed too, but the fonts are still ugly. I got the pretty fonts back by temporarily reverting to default libXft, cairo and freetype and running fc-cache. After that I re-installed the modifies packages from this thread, and the fonts were perfect until the next fc-cache run.

dugan 07-20-2008 12:47 AM

Then the Mac fonts weren't at fault, were they?

Sounds like you just don't like the way the new font rendering looks :). Just stick with the default Slackware packages then.

If you want to continue investigating, then you need a) mention which set of font packages you're using, b) post the contents of your fontconfig config file (.fonts.conf or local.conf), and c) post a screenshot of the "broken" font rendering. That will help us understand what your situation is.

alienDog 07-20-2008 01:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugan (Post 3220363)
Then the Mac fonts weren't at fault, were they?

Sounds like you just don't like the way the new font rendering looks :). Just stick with the default Slackware packages then.

Nope ;) I _do_ like the way the new font rendering looks, it's beautiful. However, running fc-cache seems to mess it up for some odd reason. You are right about the fact that the problem is not with mac fonts. It just appeared after installing them because fc-cache got run when I installed them. The problem seems to be somehow related to the files in /etc/fonts/conf.d. I'll try to have a look at them when I have time. For now I just disabled fc-cache from the startup scripts as I'm not planning to install any new fonts.

dugan 07-20-2008 09:24 PM

If you're using the Ubuntu packages then try deleting 30-metric-aliases.conf from /etc/fonts/conf.d. I'm not an expert at reading Fontconfig files, but this one appears to override font choices. I would consider that a bad thing.

dugan 07-21-2008 01:08 AM

Here's a screenshot of what my desktop currently looks like.

todders 07-21-2008 05:32 AM

hello here is also a screen shot of my current desktop..

http://www.esnips.com/doc/aaabb763-7...d7df/slackware

regards

todders

Bruce Hill 07-21-2008 05:37 AM

Todders,

I can only view the little thumbnail on that website. If I click
on Large or Original Size, the small image disappears and some
obnoxious flash add pops up.

onebuck 07-21-2008 08:17 PM

Hi,

Bruce, You are going to the Olympics? What about the Chinese attempt to control the environmental problems before and during the games? I know it's off topic but just curious to get some info from someone who is over there. I know China is a big country but.

dugan 10-28-2008 09:39 PM

The people on the Gentoo forums have been making their own font packages:
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-511382.html
(start at the end and work backwards).

Nowadays, they store their font ebuilds on the devnull overlay. I converted them to SlackBuilds. Their ebuilds can compile for either Cleartype-style or Ubuntu-style subpixel rendering, and so can these SlackBuilds.

By default, they'll build for Ubuntu-style rendering.

If you want Cleartype-style rendering, then do the following before installing all 4:
Code:

export USE=cleartype
Then do the following when you're done:
Code:

unset USE
1. FreeType
2. Fontconfig
Previous versions of the Fontconfig SlackBuild had an extra configuration file that set the sans, serif and monospace alias to Liberation fonts. I suspect this file was largely responsible for the "Thanks Dugan, that looks AWESOME!" reactions I kept getting :).

I'm making available, separately, a version of the file that sets the sans, serif and monospace alias to Droid fonts instead:

35-droid.conf

Before reinstalling Fontconfig, I recommend deleting /etc/fonts. After installing it, I recommend the following steps:
  • symlinking /etc/fonts/conf.avail/10-autohint.conf into /etc/fonts/conf.d
  • removing /etc/fonts/conf.d/10-no-sub-pixel.conf
  • checking your subpixel order and then symlinking the appropriate file into conf.d (in my case it's 10-subpixel-rgb.conf)
  • putting the 35-droid.conf file into conf.d if you want the sans, serif and monospace alias set to Droid fonts (which you'll have to install separately).
  • rerunning fc-cache.

3. libXft
4. Cairo
I'm happily using these with Ubuntu-style rendering. As for Cleartype-style rendering, well, it compiles. :)

And here's a SlackBuild for a Firefox that respects subpixel rendering settings. It's outdated, but it should work with the latest version of Firefox if you bump the VERSION.

5. Firefox

Alstare 10-28-2008 11:06 PM

Thanks again Dugan...

I just updated to your new font setup and my fonts are great!

One thing to note I had to build the newest pixman package for my machine from the cairo site before i could get cairo to compile on a vanilla slack 12.1 setup. I just used the link provided in the failed build attempt for the cairo slackbuild.

In a side by side comparison my Slack fonts are as good if not better then the Ubuntu fonts on my laptop!

P.S - I have yet to try the new Slackbuild Firefox, I am currently using the slacky build and things still look great.

Stroker 11-22-2008 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by symatic (Post 3191162)
Also on a side note: The double loading can be eliminated by right clicking on the firefox icon and select configure firefox button. Go to Application, then advanced options and uncheck launch feedback. Since it doesn't try to load twice from the command line it had to be from the launcher.


I find some launch feedback helpful to prevent double-clicking.

Go to KDE control center > Appearance & Themes > Launch Feedback and set the time out lower.

I set it to 3 seconds and unchecked the Taskbar Notification. I find it annoying to continue longer anyway.

The Firefox problem is apparently due to compiling without the --enable-startup-notification option. I couldn't find a reason why the Mozilla binaries are not being compiled with it. Perhaps Pat will have to start compiling his own?

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=416053

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=425934

It appears that this is part of 'session restore' that is new in Firefox 3?

Quote:

sessionstore-windows-restored New in Firefox 3 Sent by the session restore process to indicate that all initial browser windows have opened. Note that while the window are open and the chrome loaded the tabs in the windows may still be being restored after this notification.
https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Observer_Notifications

SqdnGuns 12-12-2008 01:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daedra (Post 3145406)

PATCHES
Cairo - http://webpages.charter.net/daedra/1...filter-1.patch
ignore the version number, it works

libXft - http://webpages.charter.net/daedra/l...type-like.diff
(I have read around that this might not be needed for desired results, but I used it anyway)

Freetype - There are not patches, you just have to follow step one, Pat's build script can take care of that for you with a simple edit of the build script. However there is one thing that need to be done if you are going to compile your self you need to edit two lines in the src/autofit/aflatin.c file. Find the lines that say this

if ( mode == FT_RENDER_MODE_MONO || mode == FT_RENDER_MODE_LCD )
other_flags |= AF_LATIN_HINTS_HORZ_SNAP;

if ( mode == FT_RENDER_MODE_MONO || mode == FT_RENDER_MODE_LCD_V )
other_flags |= AF_LATIN_HINTS_VERT_SNAP;

and then change them to look like this

if ( mode == FT_RENDER_MODE_MONO )
other_flags |= AF_LATIN_HINTS_HORZ_SNAP;

if ( mode == FT_RENDER_MODE_MONO )
other_flags |= AF_LATIN_HINTS_VERT_SNAP;

save and your ready to compile (assuming your using Pat's modified build script)

Anyone try these patches yet with 12.2? If so, what were your results/issues/workarounds?

Thanks!

Daedra 12-12-2008 01:57 AM

I just got 12.2 installed and I am experimenting with somethings right now. Should have a new post in a day or two. I plan on doing two this time one for cleartype sux-pixel rendering and one for traditional non-AA fonts.

mattydee 12-12-2008 02:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SqdnGuns (Post 3372611)
Anyone try these patches yet with 12.2? If so, what were your results/issues/workarounds?

Thanks!

I've tried the following:

- recompiled freetype using Pat's build script (with the appropriate lines uncommented)

- used this patch for cairo: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages/ca...d-filter.patch

- and used the same libXft patch Daedra posted

Everything looks good. :)

dugan 01-01-2009 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugan (Post 3324601)
1. FreeType
2. Fontconfig
3. libXft
4. Cairo

I just had a look at these, and there is no need to update them for 12.2. The Freetype, Fontconfig and libXft SlackBuilds are the same versions as 12.2's. The Cairo SlackBuild is newer.

Toods 01-15-2009 04:54 AM

I have been following the various threads on optimising fonts for LCD and I must say that there has been some great work put in by several people, particularly Daedra and Dugan who posted links to necessary files.

I guess that these patches have been test now by many people on Slackware and therefore any regressions should have been identified by this stage.

My question here is therefore: are we going to see any of these LCD optimisations appearing in 'official Slackware' and do we know what the views of Pat and his co-developers are on this?.

Bill.

Daedra 01-15-2009 05:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toods (Post 3409480)
I have been following the various threads on optimising fonts for LCD and I must say that there has been some great work put in by several people, particularly Daedra and Dugan who posted links to necessary files.

I guess that these patches have been test now by many people on Slackware and therefore any regressions should have been identified by this stage.

My question here is therefore: are we going to see any of these LCD optimisations appearing in 'official Slackware' and do we know what the views of Pat and his co-developers are on this?.

Bill.

Nope :(. The bytecode interpreter is a patent property that is held by Apple, that is why its not compiled by default with Slackware, you legally have to have a license or live in a country where the patent doesn't apply, and the various "cleartype" optimizations are patented by Microsoft. So unfortunately I doubt we will ever see them out of the box, I have heard that certain distributions have the bytecode interpreter enable by default, not sure if thats true. The best we can probably hope for is for Pat to include the patches with the source tree so that the packages Cairo and libXft can be easily recompiled from source with out chasing down the patches, kind of like he has a patch for the bytecode interpreter with the source freetype package. It's too bad though since it really makes a huge difference, but M$ and Apple won't bother with the end-user using these technologies but they would probably sue a distribution if they put them in.


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