Xft Setup; Bad Font Quality

[Frank Some <some.frank@gmail.com>]

Subject: Xft Setup; Bad Font Quality

Hello,

I'm running Debian Squeeze.  I have installed the emacs-snapshot package.  Emacs reports:  GNU Emacs 24.2.50.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.20.1) of 2012-09-22 on cw-bkp0, modified by Debian.  I have further installed the Iceweasel backport packages from the Mozilla archive (which brings along a patched cairo version if that matters here).

I have a ~/.fonts.conf installed:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">

<fontconfig>
  <match target="font">
    <edit name="antialias" mode="assign">
      <bool>true</bool>
    </edit>

    <edit name="hinting" mode="assign">
      <bool>true</bool>
    </edit>

    <edit name="autohint" mode="assign">
      <bool>false</bool>
    </edit>

    <edit name="hintstyle" mode="assign">
      <const>hintfull</const>
    </edit>

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

    <edit mode="assign" name="lcdfilter">
      <const>lcddefault</const>
    </edit>
  </match>
</fontconfig>

I also have a ~/.Xresources:
Xft.hinting:    true
Xft.hintstyle:  hintfull
Xft.antialias:  true
Xft.rgba:       rgb
Xft.lcdfilter:  lcddefault
Emacs.FontBackend: xft
Emacs.font: Bitstream Vera Sans Mono-8:antialias=true:hinting=true:autohint=false:hintstyle=3

I have been trying for some time to get the editor font to match my system font but so far I didn't have much success with it.  I notice that the dialogue/menu fonts match the system font and they are OK however the rendered editor font is quite ugly.  I have selected the same font I use in gedit and gnome-terminal and they OK there.  By default the editor font is quite fat and blurry.  I however would prefer a thinner font just like what I use for gedit or the console.  Setting hintstyle=3 seems to do the trick here but now the font doesn't look like properly anti-aliased or hinted.  It's obviously rendered differently like in gnome-terminal or gedit.  How do I get a proper font setup?

What I don't understand is why the menus are OK but the editor font is so troublesome on my system?  Do they internally interface in different ways with fontconfig etc?

I'm about to give up but maybe somebody here got an idea...

Thanks,
Frank