Hi,
updated two machines from F24 to F25, and now the fonts configured in Applications -> Settings -> Appearance are no longer on the same level of sharpness/clarity as they were in previous Fedora releases. It is considerably visible in Thunderbird and Firefox. While there was no problem to get clear and sharp fonts using antialiasing and hinting, it now seems to be impossible, at least in programs that adapt their fonts from the above mentioned setting.
Does anybody know what's going on and what I can do to get back pre-F25 behaviour?
Thanks, Heinz
On Sat, 26 Nov 2016 15:34:11 +0100 Heinz Diehl wrote:
Does anybody know what's going on and what I can do to get back pre-F25 behaviour?
I don't know if it will help, but I've always found this file to make all fonts look better:
/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-autohint.conf
<?xml version="1.0"?> <!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd"> <fontconfig> <!-- Use the Autohinter --> <match target="font"> <edit name="autohint" mode="assign"><bool>true</bool></edit> </match> </fontconfig>
Haven't tried it on f25 yet so I don't know if it works there or not.
I have always found default fonts in fedora to be inferior to just about every other linux release, with ubuntu always seeming to have the most readable default fonts. Possibly f25 has just switched all the themes to a different default font which looks worse, so the hinting above might not help.
On 26.11.2016, Tom Horsley wrote:
/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-autohint.conf
Thanks a lot, you saved my day!
But it was not the 10-autohint.conf. When I looked into the /etc/fonts/conf.d directory, I noticed a file called "10-hinting-slight.conf". After changing it to perform "hintfull", all is pretty much sharp and clear, just as it was in pre-F25.
Again thanks!
Heinz
On Sat, Nov 26, 2016 at 04:27:37PM +0100, Heinz Diehl wrote:
On 26.11.2016, Tom Horsley wrote:
/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-autohint.conf
Thanks a lot, you saved my day!
But it was not the 10-autohint.conf. When I looked into the /etc/fonts/conf.d directory, I noticed a file called "10-hinting-slight.conf". After changing it to perform "hintfull", all is pretty much sharp and clear, just as it was in pre-F25.
I'm not running Fedora or Gnome at this moment, so I may be barking up the wrong tree here:
I've always found (on RHEL or centos) that you can right-click on the desktop background, choose "change desktop background", then click on the fonts tab. Once there you'll be able to choose (under Rendering) several choices for the amount of detail you want in the fonts (where I assume that the more detail the more CPU is required). you can choose "monochrome", "best shapes", "best contrast", or "subpixel smoothing".
then click the details button and you have additional settings, you can choose among 3 settings for "smoothing", and four for "hinting". I always choose the "best" settings for all 3 of those properties, and I find the fonts look pretty good.
on that details screen you can also choose subpixel order, where I assume the choice should match how your display hardware works. How does one know how it works? I don't have any wisdom here, but I think you could examine the left edge and top edge of the LCD screen with a magnifier powerful enough to see the subpixels. Probably the defaul of "RGB" is correct for most screens, though.
So, there's no need to go hacking amongst system config files!
Fred
On 26.11.2016, Fred Smith wrote:
So, there's no need to go hacking amongst system config files!
The option you mention is not present in F25/XFCE, but in the "Appearance" menue. Anyway, hacking in the system config is definitely needed, because there are programs that presumably do not obey the antialiasing and hinting settings, as e.g. firefox or thunderbird, while others do.
I'll take a closer look at the remaining F24 system, where this wasn't of any problem. I bet it has to do with the file mentioned before.
On 26.11.2016, Heinz Diehl wrote:
I'll take a closer look at the remaining F24 system, where this wasn't of any problem. I bet it has to do with the file mentioned before.
For those who care: looked into it, and the file /etc/fonts/conf.d/10-hinting-slight.conf simply wasn't there in previous Fedora releases. At least not in F23/24. So the solution is to alter or replace the hinting here.
Heinz Diehl writes:
Hi,
updated two machines from F24 to F25, and now the fonts configured in Applications -> Settings -> Appearance are no longer on the same level of sharpness/clarity as they were in previous Fedora releases.
I haven't noticed any changes in font rendering. Perhaps this is something specific to your video hardware.
On 26.11.2016, Sam Varshavchik wrote:
I haven't noticed any changes in font rendering. Perhaps this is something specific to your video hardware.
No, it's definitely not. I have the same phenomenon on (now) three different machines. One has nvidia graphics, one AMD and one Intel Ironlake. On all three, changing the file mentioned in the mail before made the font sharp and crisp again.
If you use stock Fedora fonts, it may be that is why you didn't notice the effect. I have always hated blurry fonts, and highly prefer "as sharp and clear as possible".
What I'm doing is:
1. Recompiling freetype with subpixel rendering and the bytecode interpreter enabled.
2. Setting antialiasing and hinting to "max" (Applications -> Settings -> Appearance -> Fonts).
That sufficed to get the desired "as sharp as possible" effect, until F25. While most of the fonts where as sharp and crisp as before using 1 and 2, some were not, as e.g. in Firefox, Thunderbird and some other programs. Most probably because they obey the systemwide font config. This obviously wasn't the case in previous Fedora releases. As a "sharp and crisp" freak, I can tell that there's a *huge* difference if a font is slightly or fully hinted.
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Fred Smith -
Heinz Diehl -
Sam Varshavchik -
Tom Horsley