Yet Another Font Question [YAFQ]

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Yet Another Font Question [YAFQ]

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Started 12 years ago by cpcnw
Latest reply from Aleksej
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cpcnw

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Hi all - just installed Slitaz to my IBM X31 and have a question about fonts I was hoping someone may be able to help out with. The X31 has a small LCD screen and the font hinting / anti-alias or whatever looks pretty bad on gtk apps. I installed a few more fonts and tried some out on Obcfg but it didnt really help. Then I found a post [forgot what I searched on now] that had a sample .font.conf - and that hasnt helped either. I'd like sharp fonts with no aa / hints but they also need to be small [9 point max] to make good use of the small screen. Any tips? Thanks!

Posted 12 years ago #
cpcnw

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OK this is what I went with in the end in .fonts.conf [not .font.conf :)]

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
<match target="font" >
<edit mode="assign" name="lcdfilter" >
<const>lcdlegacy</const>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font" >
<edit mode="assign" name="hinting" >
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font" >
<edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle" >
<const>hintfull</const>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font" >
<edit mode="assign" name="rgba" >
<const>rgb</const>
</edit>
</match>
</fontconfig>

I tried various settings for hinting etc and didnt think that full would suite my eyes but actually
its about the best setting on this screen!

Posted 12 years ago #
Aleksej

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Hi cpcnw,

There are several places to configure font view.
1) LXappearance

It works with file ~/.gtkrc-2.0 (explain: it's hidden file in your home folder). Content of my ~/.gtkrc-2.0 (stripped hard):
```
gtk-xft-antialias=1
gtk-xft-hinting=1
gtk-xft-hintstyle="hintfull"
gtk-xft-rgba="rgb"
```
2) Settings in the ~/.Xdefaults (another hidden file in your home folder). Font related lines:
```
! Xft resources
!
Xft.dpi:       96
Xft.antialias: true      ! true
Xft.autohint:  false     ! bool
Xft.hinting:   true      ! true
Xft.hintstyle: hintfull  ! hintnone | hintslight | hintmedium | hintfull
Xft.rgba:      rgb       ! none | rgb | bgr | vrgb | vbgr
Xft.lcdfilter: lcdlegacy ! lcdnone | lcddefault | lcdlight | lcdlegacy

!Xft.scale:    1         ! double
!Xft.render:   true      ! bool
!Xft.embolden: false     ! bool
Xft.minspace:  true      ! bool
```
Comments beginned from '!'. I commented available values, i.e. Xft.hintstyle can be hintnone or hintslight or hintmedium or hintfull. Also here are some commented lines (started with '!'), and I not see any difference with or without them.

3) /etc/fonts
Here is subfolder /etc/fonts/conf.avail with available settings, and here is subfolder /etc/fonts/conf.d with current settings.

If you not need to change system-wide settings (you need root access), you can change your user settings. Make folder ~/.fonts.conf.d (yet another hidden folder named '.fonts.conf.d' in your home folder). You can put small xml files with settings here.

Content of my ~/.fonts.conf.d in the attachment. Here (not all):
- 10-antialias.conf — switch antialias on
- 10-hinting.conf — switch hinting on
- 10-hinting-full.conf — hinting: full
- 10-sub-pixel-rgb.conf — sub-pixel antialiasing: RGB
- 11-lcd-filter-lcddefault.conf — LCD filter: default
Also,

The autohinter and subpixel rendering are not designed to work together and should not be used in combination

Read more on Arch wiki…

You can ask me, why here is so many places to configure fonts? I don't know how to answer ☺ Here is programs based on several rendering engines, and they have different configs. You need to set same configs for all of them to see same fonts effects (but still some browsers like Firefox or Opera used own font engine ☺).
Attachments
fonts.conf.d.tar.gz (4.3 KB, 600 downloads) 12 years old
Posted 12 years ago #
cpcnw

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Member

Hi thanks for comprehensive reply :o)

Will check that out tomoz!

Posted 12 years ago #
Aleksej

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Coder-hobbyist
Oh, and of cource — changing the value
```
Xft.dpi:       96
```
in the ~/.Xdefaults you can change your font sizes globally. I hope you know what is dpi (dots per inch).

If you'll set real value of your screen's dpi, then you'll get real font sizes, where 1 pt = 1/72 inch (as expected). Not the fact that here is 9pt = 9 pix.

What do you think about font on my screenshot? It's "Arimo, 9pt" font with 96dpi, its compact for my small screen (1024×600 netbook).
What do you think about view of my fonts — antialias, hinting, etc…? And, restart your application, or, generally, log out/in to take effect with fonts.
Posted 12 years ago #
cpcnw

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Member

Hi Aleksej - I tried adding all those settings in .Xdefaults and it made things worse - so I removed and just left the dpi setting, I think your screen grab looks clear enough - where to get that font Arimo? I rem there is a font called 'Terminus' which is good in console. Which file does lxappearance touch?

Posted 12 years ago #
cpcnw

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>The autohinter and subpixel rendering are not designed to work
>together and should not be used in combination

So in lxappearance anti-aliasing should be off? But it doesnt save my settings anyways?

Posted 12 years ago #
Aleksej

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Coder-hobbyist
I've made some font packages for SliTaz Cooking. But anyone can use them in SliTaz 4.0 Stable too, because here are ttf/otf fonts only.

Here is (almost) full list of Cooking fonts packages (not only mine packaged, excluded programs packages that contains fonts):
- croscore-fonts : Chrome OS Fonts: Arimo (sans), Cousine (monospace), Tinos (serif), and Symbol Neu (symbol)
- droid-font : Font family from Google's Android project
- ttf-bitstream-vera : The ttf bitstream vera fonts.
- ttf-dejavu : DejaVu True Type Font
- ttf-inconsolata-dz : Monospace font for pretty code listings and for the terminal (modified to have straight single and double quotes)
- ttf-mgopen : TrueType fonts containing glyphs for the Latin and Greek alphabet
- ttf-open-dyslexic : TrueType font to increase readability for dyslexic readers.
- ttf-pingwi-typography : PingWi Typography (PWT) fonts
- ttf-roboto : Android Roboto Fonts
- ubuntu-font-family : Set of new libre/open fonts
- otf-gfs : Selection of open type fonts from the Greek Font Society
- wqy-microhei : 文泉驿微米黑，版本v0.2.0-beta (开发代号：远古大爆炸，Codename: BigBang)
Here I share look of some fonts (both 9pt) in Leafpad text editor with my current font rendering settings:

Arimo

DejaVu Sans Book

Droid Sans

FreeSans

Liberation Sans

Roboto

Roboto Condensed

So in lxappearance anti-aliasing should be off? But it doesnt save my settings anyways?

LXappearance save settings in ~/.gtkrc-2.0, but it seems like it font settings not takes effect at all.

~/.Xdefaults font settings woks for me, and I can control antialiasing and hinting from here.
Posted 12 years ago #
cpcnw

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Member

How to install above fonts?

Posted 12 years ago #
Aleksej

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Coder-hobbyist

I've give you links to search pages. On each page you can find link using it you can download package.

Click on link, save package to … let's say, your desktop.
Go to your desktop, double click package.
You'll see dialog that you need root rights, type root password (default root password is: root), click ok.
Now you'll see next dialog, what you want to do with this package: install or unpack. Click Install.
You'll see installation log from package manager. When you'll see that package is installed, click Close button.

Good luck to you! ☺

Posted 12 years ago #

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Yet Another Font Question [YAFQ]

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