Bug#550497: xterm: Xft packed fonts are excessively wide
Package: xterm
Version: 249-1
[This was initially reported as a comment on bug #549953, but as it
appears to be a separate issue, I'm filing a new bug for it.]
The "Packed Font" option, added in xterm 249 and enabled by default,
causes certain fonts -- e.g., "DejaVu Sans Mono:pixelsize=10" -- to be
displayed with a larger character width than normal. Disabling the
option with the X resource "*forcePackedFont:false", or interactively
through the C-mouse3 menu, restores the previous (and expected)
behavior.
The width in question is computed by the checkXft routine in
fontutils.c; a field named "min_width" is set to the *maximum* width of
characters in the ranges 32..127 and 159..255. In the case of DejaVu
Sans Mono, characters 0xD8 and 0xF8 (uppercase and lowercase "o with
stroke") are wider than the others; they are also wider than the font's
reported maximum width, which is what is used in the non-packed case.
In addition to the X resource workaround described above, changing line
1567 of fontutils.c by replacing 256 with 128 is also effective.
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