Ugly font syndrome?

[Jerry Quinn <jlquinn@optonline.net>]

A while ago, I did an update on my system (testing/unstable) and many
of my fonts went from acceptable to ugly.  I do not remember what
package upgrade caused the change.

I'm finally getting around to asking if someone knows what the
configuration problem is.  I'm not (primarily) interested in finding
ways to fix it by hand - this seems like stuff that should work right
out of the box.  I'd rather try to track down why the default
configuration isn't OK.

Some relevant stuff I have installed:

msttcorefonts 1.1.2
libfontconfig1 2.2.0-2
libfreetype6 2.1.4-2
fontconfig 2.2.0-2
x-ttcidfont-conf 13
xfonts-100dpi 4.2.1-6
xfonts-75dpi 4.2.1-6
xfonts-base 4.2.1-6
xfonts-scalable 4.2.1-6
defoma 0.11.1

I have a 170K screenshot I can post to show the fonts I get in
gnucash.  My default font for emacs is also ugly, as are the menus in
gdm.  On the other hand, some gnome apps like gnome-term and galeon
have nice, clean fonts.

Thanks for any help,
Jerry Quinn