FT 2.4.10 update in Arch linux gives weird fonts rendering!

[hadrons123]

I am using Arch Linux with latest packages from infinality freetype and fontconfig.
My font rendering in some webpages are wierd. Can't understand why?


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[infinality]

What are your settings in /etc/fonts/infinality/infinality.conf?

[hadrons123]

I did not change anything.
Here is what you asked for

Code: Select all

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

   <!-- Choose an OS Rendering Style.  This will determine B/W, grayscale,
        or subpixel antialising and slight, full or no hinting and replacements (if set in next option) -->
   <!-- Style should also be set in the infinality-settings.sh file, ususally in /etc/profile.d/ -->

   <!-- Choose one of these options:
      Infinality      - subpixel AA, minimal replacements/tweaks, sans=Arial
      Windows 7       - subpixel AA, sans=Arial
      Windows XP      - subpixel AA, sans=Arial
      Windows 98      - B/W full hinting on TT fonts, grayscale AA for others, sans=Arial
      OSX             - Slight hinting, subpixel AA, sans=Helvetica Neue
      OSX2            - No hinting, subpixel AA, sans=Helvetica Neue
      Linux           - subpixel AA, sans=DejaVu Sans

   === Recommended Setup ===
   Run ./infctl.sh script located in the current directory to set the style.
   
   # ./infctl.sh setstyle
   
   === Manual Setup ===
   See the infinality/styles.conf.avail/ directory for all options.  To enable
   a different style, remove the symlink "conf.d" and link to another style:
   
   # rm conf.d
   # ln -s styles.conf.avail/win7 conf.d
   -->

   <!-- Uncomment this to reject all bitmap fonts -->
   <!-- Make sure to run this as root if having problems:  fc-cache -f -->
   <!--
   <selectfont>
      <rejectfont>
         <pattern>
            <patelt name="scalable" >
               <bool>false</bool>
            </patelt>
         </pattern>
      </rejectfont>
   </selectfont>
   -->

   <!-- Ban Type-1 fonts because they render poorly -->
   <!-- Comment this out to allow all Type 1 fonts -->
   <selectfont>
      <rejectfont>
         <pattern>
            <patelt name="fontformat" >
               <string>Type 1</string>
            </patelt>
         </pattern>
      </rejectfont>
   </selectfont>

   <!-- Globally use embedded bitmaps in fonts like Calibri? -->
   <match target="font" >
      <edit name="embeddedbitmap" mode="assign">
         <bool>false</bool>
      </edit>
   </match>

   <!-- Substitute truetype fonts in place of bitmap ones? -->
   <match target="pattern" >
      <edit name="prefer_outline" mode="assign">
         <bool>true</bool>
      </edit>
   </match>

   <!-- Make (some) monospace/coding TTF fonts render as bitmaps? -->
   <!-- courier new, andale mono, monaco, etc. -->
   <match target="pattern" >
      <edit name="bitmap_monospace" mode="assign">
         <bool>false</bool>
      </edit>
   </match>

   <!-- Force autohint always -->
   <!-- Useful for debugging and for free software purists -->
   <match target="font">
      <edit name="force_autohint" mode="assign">
         <bool>false</bool>
      </edit>
   </match>

   <!-- Set DPI.  dpi should be set in ~/.Xresources to 96 -->
   <!-- Setting to 72 here makes the px to pt conversions work better (Chrome) -->
   <!-- Some may need to set this to 96 though -->
   <match target="pattern">
      <edit name="dpi" mode="assign">
         <double>72</double>
      </edit>
   </match>
   
   <!-- Use Qt subpixel positioning on autohinted fonts? -->
   <!-- This only applies to Qt and autohinted fonts. Qt determines subpixel positioning based on hintslight vs. hintfull, -->
   <!--   however infinality patches force slight hinting inside freetype, so this essentially just fakes out Qt. -->
   <!-- Should only be set to true if you are not doing any stem alignment or fitting in environment variables -->
   <match target="pattern" >
      <edit name="qt_use_subpixel_positioning" mode="assign">
         <bool>false</bool>
      </edit>
   </match>

   <!-- Run infctl.sh or change the symlink in current directory instead of modifying this -->
   <include>infinality/conf.d</include>

</fontconfig>

Edit 1:
If i install ttf-ms-fonts, the font rendering is fine , but I don't like MS fonts on other pages.

[infinality]

Ah, then you need to choose a different rendering mode if you don't install the MS fonts. See the bottom of the file you just pasted for instructions. (hint: infctl.sh).

[hadrons123]

Nope. Changing styles didn't make any difference. But this font rendering changed after the recent fontconfig update.

[infinality]

Nope. Changing styles didn't make any difference. But this font rendering changed after the recent fontconfig update.

Which update is that?

[hadrons123]

I believe it is fontconfig-infinality 1-20120615. I am not sure. It could be freetype2-infinality 2.4.10-1 too. I 'm not a programmer.
I will be happy to give more details.

[infinality]

I believe it is fontconfig-infinality 1-20120615. I am not sure. It could be freetype2-infinality 2.4.10-1 too. I 'm not a programmer.
I will be happy to give more details.

Well, I'm not sure exactly what is happening here, but I'm guessing it happens because of a weird interaction between the fontconfig rules and the fonts you have installed on your system. There have been changes in the way aliasing happens in the latest release, which may be affecting that.

My recommendation is to have the Windows fonts installed (that's *always* my recommendation), and "prefer" other fonts, by using infctl.sh to choose a different rendering style.

[hadrons123]

thanks for the suggestion.
I think the default fonts used to render is most of the webpages in linux is better than Windows fonts, when I use infinality.
The issue happens to me only for some sites, Like github, Techcrunch etc. But other sites are fine.
I booted into Fedora and found that the rendering in the above sites are good as it used to be.

In Arch linux even for the github and Techcrunch sites when I zoom in and increase the font size, the rendering is transformed with different fonts and it looks good.
I have removed the liberation fonts in fedora, a long time ago.
I 'm not sure what fonts I should install to have the same rendering.

[hadrons123]

After a long search I found a solution to my problem. Maybe its not FT issue at all.
All I had to do was to follow this thread and the problem was solved.
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php ... 70#p532370
I was having a package called xorg-fonts-misc, which was a dependency for arch linux xorg-server-common, was making the font rendering on some web pages look horrible.
I didn't want to install the MS fonts and so all the ms-fonts from web pages were rendered using the xorg-fonts-misc.
Following the thread solved my issue.
My font rendering in the particular web-pages is now as good as fedora.
I believe fedora doesn't ship those fonts.