Re: Why Are Some Fonts So Bad ?

[Nick Boyce <nick@glimmer.demon.co.uk>]

On Sun, 4 Jan 2004 10:57:28 -0600, Bart Dorsey wrote:

>On Saturday 03 January 2004 9:32 pm, Nick Boyce wrote:
>> I'm running KDE 3.1.4 with XFree86 4.1.0-16 on Woody, with anti-aliasing
>> switched on, and although the desktop mostly looks pretty slick, there
>> are still some *really* bad font renditions in some parts of some
>> windows.
>
>The lines do cause some distortion, but not as bad when Anti aliasing is 
>actually turned on.
>
>Make sure your card can do the RENDER extension (xdpinfo should list it)

Ok - I checked, and RENDER is present.  The full listing is at 
  http://www.glimmer.demon.co.uk/kde/xdpyinfo.txt
but the bit showing just the extensions present is :
    BIG-REQUESTS
    DOUBLE-BUFFER
    DPMS
    Extended-Visual-Information
    FontCache
    GLX
    LBX
    MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
    MIT-SHM
    MIT-SUNDRY-NONSTANDARD
    RECORD
    RENDER
    SECURITY
    SGI-GLX
    SHAPE
    SYNC
    TOG-CUP
    XC-APPGROUP
    XC-MISC
    XFree86-Bigfont
    XFree86-DGA
    XFree86-Misc
    XFree86-VidModeExtension
    XIE
    XInputExtension
    XKEYBOARD
    XTEST
    XVideo

>Also make sure you have fontconfig installed, 

I don't have a fontconfig command ... isn't that a Sid feature ? (I'm
running Woody).  FWIW, I don't have an fc-cache command either.

> .. and finally , make sure you have 
>anti aliasing turned on in the Kcontrol fonts dialog box.

Yep - I *do* have that switched on - see my screenshot of the relevant
part of the Kcontrol dialog, here :
  http://www.glimmer.demon.co.uk/kde/ctlcent-font-spec.png
but as I commented earlier in this thread, maybe it's lying to me ...

>Here's an example of what it SHOULD look like.
>
>http://thebucket.org/echo/kate-good-looking-fonts.png

Thanks for that - your version certainly looks a lot better than mine.

>BTW, apt-get install ttf-bitstream-vera 
>
>the font I'm using there is Bitstream Vera Sans.

Ok, thanks - I might try that - which font(s) do you have set to that
choice in the Kcontrol dialog ?

I confess - Linux font technology is dark magic as far as I'm
concerned - I haven't had the time to take the relevant degree in
Linux Font Physics ;-), and I wouldn't know a bitstream font from a
bitmap font.  I'm ok with monospaced vs proportional, and that's about
it ...

I only have the base Debian Xfree86 package fonts installed.  I'm
slightly wary of installing too many extra fonts for fear of the
resulting system slowdown that people report from time to time.

[Chris: I'm stunned & impressed that you have 1000 fonts installed -
do you have some monster multi GHz CPU by any chance ?]

Cheers,
Nick Boyce
--
Dinner is ready when the smoke alarm goes off.