[Bug 1965684] New: Fontconfig & Firefox font issues on KDE Spins since F32

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1965684

            Bug ID: 1965684
           Summary: Fontconfig & Firefox font issues on KDE Spins since
                    F32
           Product: Fedora
           Version: 34
          Hardware: x86_64
            Status: NEW
         Component: fontconfig
          Assignee: tagoh(a)redhat.com
          Reporter: pimk1n(a)gmx.com
        QA Contact: extras-qa(a)fedoraproject.org
                CC: ajax(a)redhat.com, caillon+fedoraproject(a)gmail.com,
                    fonts-bugs(a)lists.fedoraproject.org,
                    gnome-sig(a)lists.fedoraproject.org,
                    i18n-bugs(a)lists.fedoraproject.org, mclasen(a)redhat.com,
                    pnemade(a)redhat.com, rhughes(a)redhat.com,
                    rstrode(a)redhat.com, sandmann(a)redhat.com,
                    tagoh(a)redhat.com
  Target Milestone: ---
    Classification: Fedora



Created attachment 1787942
  --> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/attachment.cgi?id=1787942&action=edit
reddit.com poor font rendering

Description of problem:
Since F32 the KDE Spin has required manual creation of a local fontconfig in
order to restore font rendering quality in Firefox back to standards seen in
prior releases.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
F32 KDE onwards, Firefox 78 onwards.

How reproducible:
100% F32 KDE, F33 KDE, F34 KDE Spin
Reproducible with Fedora packaged Firefox, mozilla flatpak and direct Mozilla
download.
Confirmed on various hardware, all under X11.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open Firefox (KDE Spin)
2. Observe lack of smooth font rendering. eg: https://old.reddit.com,
https://bugzilla.redhat.org
3.

Actual results:
Poor quality font rendering, see screenshots.

Expected results:
Better quality font rendering, as seen in earlier Fedora 31 KDE and all tested 
modern KDE distros.

Additional info:
I have tried reporting this against Firefox since F32 Beta, but no fix.
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1830509

The single end user fix is simple, just create a
~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf as below, run fc-cache and restart Firefox.

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'>
<fontconfig>
    <match target="font">
        <edit name="antialias" mode="assign">
            <bool>true</bool>
        </edit>
        <edit name="autohint" mode="assign">
            <bool>false</bool>
        </edit>
        <edit name="hinting" mode="assign">
            <bool>true</bool>
        </edit>
        <edit name="hintstyle" mode="assign">
            <const>hintslight</const>
        </edit>
        <edit name="lcdfilter" mode="assign">
            <const>lcddefault</const>
        </edit>
        <edit name="rgba" mode="assign">
            <const>rgb</const>
        </edit>
    </match>
</fontconfig>

What changed with KDE or Firefox around F32 time that other distros have
accounted for, but Fedora has not?

Would love to see Firefox back to usual quality in KDE spin, by default, so new
users do not get this.
If this is still not the correct package to report against, please point me in
the right direction.


-- 
You are receiving this mail because:
You are on the CC list for the bug.

[Bug 1965684] Fontconfig & Firefox font issues on KDE Spins since F32

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1965684

Akira TAGOH <tagoh(a)redhat.com&gt; changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
           Doc Type|---                         |If docs needed, set a value
              Flags|                            |needinfo?(pimk1n(a)gmx.com)



--- Comment #2 from Akira TAGOH <tagoh(a)redhat.com&gt; ---
Did you really need to enable those all properties? basically most desktops has
default values for them and currently fontconfig's default configuration is
respecting them and is for something not having such default values.

That screenshot looks like making some difference between hinting. we have
10-hinting-slight.conf enabled by default but as I said still respecting
desktop's default. so if you drop hintstyle change from your conf and still see
"poor rendering" you said, I'm afraid that's not our problem.

Anyway good to try finding out what the root cause are.


-- 
You are receiving this mail because:
You are on the CC list for the bug.

[Bug 1965684] Fontconfig & Firefox font issues on KDE Spins since F32

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1965684

pk <pimk1n(a)gmx.com&gt; changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
              Flags|needinfo?(pimk1n(a)gmx.com)   |



--- Comment #3 from pk <pimk1n(a)gmx.com&gt; ---
Created attachment 1790152
  --> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/attachment.cgi?id=1790152&action=edit
Firefox showing font issues with default config

Recent reddit post suggesting Firefox specific issue has fix that greatly
improves the fonts for me (as new attachment)
This has been a problem with Firefox, but only in Fedora, for 3 releases.

> > Firefox also ignores the filter so you'll need to do this as
> well: sudo ln -s /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/11-lcdfilter-default.conf
> /etc/fonts/conf.d 

https://old.reddit.com/r/Fedora/comments/nwyva5/how_to_improve_fonts_on_f...


-- 
You are receiving this mail because:
You are on the CC list for the bug.

[Bug 1965684] Fontconfig & Firefox font issues on KDE Spins since F32

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1965684



--- Comment #4 from Akira TAGOH <tagoh(a)redhat.com&gt; ---
From FreeType docs:
Since 2.10.3 the LCD filtering is enabled with FT_LCD_FILTER_DEFAULT. It is no
longer necessary to call this function explicitly except to choose a different
filter or disable filtering altogether with FT_LCD_FILTER_NONE.

Even if we don't explicitly have 11-lcdfilter-default.conf enabled, FreeType
should deal with it properly. if you still really see difference with it,
something might be wrong.


-- 
You are receiving this mail because:
You are on the CC list for the bug.

[Bug 1965684] Fontconfig & Firefox font issues on KDE Spins since F32

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1965684



--- Comment #5 from pk <pimk1n(a)gmx.com&gt; ---
Retested from live ISO of F32 KDE spin and confirmed issue present in Firefox
and adding symlink to 11-lcdfilter-default.conf does resolve.
This has freetype 2.10.1-2 & firefox 75.0-1.

F32 is when I first noticed it, not an issue in F31.

Debian 11 KDE has 11-lcdfilter-default.conf symlink by default and no font
issue in Firefox, openSUSE Tumbleweed KDE appears to work a bit differently,
but also not showing this issue.


-- 
You are receiving this mail because:
You are on the CC list for the bug.

[Bug 1965684] Fontconfig & Firefox font issues on KDE Spins since F32

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1965684



--- Comment #6 from Akira TAGOH <tagoh(a)redhat.com&gt; ---
Please try the supported releases. Fedora 32 has been EOL'd. and we have 2.10.4
in all the supported releases[1], which uses FT_LCD_FILTER_DEFAULT as the above
docs says.

[1]...https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/freetype


-- 
You are receiving this mail because:
You are on the CC list for the bug.

[Bug 1965684] Fontconfig & Firefox font issues on KDE Spins since F32

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1965684



--- Comment #7 from pk <pimk1n(a)gmx.com&gt; ---
I retested with F32 KDE as this is when issue started, and thought it might
predate freetype 2.10.3 you mentioned, which it does.

This issue is present in all KDE spin releases since F32, it is present in F33
and F34.
It is not present in F34 Gnome. 
Adding the lcdfilter symlink under the Gnome workstation does nothing that I
could see, but give noticable quality improvement under KDE spin. This brings
KDE spin back to parity with prior releases, and other KDE distrobutions.

You can reproduce just by booting a KDE spin iso and opening Firefox.

Thanks for replying.


-- 
You are receiving this mail because:
You are on the CC list for the bug.

[Bug 1965684] Fontconfig & Firefox font issues on KDE Spins since F32

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1965684



--- Comment #8 from Akira TAGOH <tagoh(a)redhat.com&gt; ---
*** Bug 1830509 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***


-- 
You are receiving this mail because:
You are on the CC list for the bug.

[Bug 1965684] Fontconfig & Firefox font issues on KDE Spins since F32

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1965684

Fedora Update System <updates(a)fedoraproject.org&gt; changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Status|NEW                         |MODIFIED



--- Comment #9 from Fedora Update System <updates(a)fedoraproject.org&gt; ---
FEDORA-2021-fdfef52cf3 has been submitted as an update to Fedora 35.
https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2021-fdfef52cf3


-- 
You are receiving this mail because:
You are on the CC list for the bug.

[Bug 1965684] Fontconfig & Firefox font issues on KDE Spins since F32

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1965684

Fedora Update System <updates(a)fedoraproject.org&gt; changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Status|MODIFIED                    |CLOSED
   Fixed In Version|                            |fontconfig-2.13.94-2.fc35
         Resolution|---                         |ERRATA
        Last Closed|                            |2021-07-20 12:29:15



--- Comment #10 from Fedora Update System <updates(a)fedoraproject.org&gt; ---
FEDORA-2021-fdfef52cf3 has been pushed to the Fedora 35 stable repository.
If problem still persists, please make note of it in this bug report.


-- 
You are receiving this mail because:
You are on the CC list for the bug.

[Bug 1965684] Fontconfig & Firefox font issues on KDE Spins since F32

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1965684

Akira TAGOH <tagoh(a)redhat.com&gt; changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Status|CLOSED                      |ASSIGNED
         Resolution|ERRATA                      |---
           Keywords|                            |Reopened




-- 
You are receiving this mail because:
You are on the CC list for the bug.

[Bug 1965684] Fontconfig & Firefox font issues on KDE Spins since F32

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1965684

Fedora Update System <updates(a)fedoraproject.org&gt; changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Status|ASSIGNED                    |MODIFIED



--- Comment #11 from Fedora Update System <updates(a)fedoraproject.org&gt; ---
FEDORA-2021-4ed84eee74 has been submitted as an update to Fedora 34.
https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2021-4ed84eee74


-- 
You are receiving this mail because:
You are on the CC list for the bug.

[Bug 1965684] Fontconfig & Firefox font issues on KDE Spins since F32

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1965684

Fedora Update System <updates(a)fedoraproject.org&gt; changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Status|MODIFIED                    |ON_QA



--- Comment #12 from Fedora Update System <updates(a)fedoraproject.org&gt; ---
FEDORA-2021-4ed84eee74 has been pushed to the Fedora 34 testing repository.
Soon you'll be able to install the update with the following command:
`sudo dnf upgrade --enablerepo=updates-testing
--advisory=FEDORA-2021-4ed84eee74`
You can provide feedback for this update here:
https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2021-4ed84eee74

See also https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Updates_Testing for more information
on how to test updates.


-- 
You are receiving this mail because:
You are on the CC list for the bug.

[Bug 1965684] Fontconfig & Firefox font issues on KDE Spins since F32

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1965684

Fedora Update System <updates(a)fedoraproject.org&gt; changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Status|ON_QA                       |CLOSED
   Fixed In Version|fontconfig-2.13.94-2.fc35   |fontconfig-2.13.94-2.fc35
                   |                            |fontconfig-2.13.94-2.fc34
         Resolution|---                         |ERRATA
        Last Closed|2021-07-20 12:29:15         |2021-07-24 02:16:30



--- Comment #13 from Fedora Update System <updates(a)fedoraproject.org&gt; ---
FEDORA-2021-4ed84eee74 has been pushed to the Fedora 34 stable repository.
If problem still persists, please make note of it in this bug report.


-- 
You are receiving this mail because:
You are on the CC list for the bug.