[ Closed ] font subpixel smoothing (Page 1 of 2)

Hello chameleon

I believe this can be achieved via an entry in ~/.fonts.conf. If you do not already have the file, create it and copy the following into it:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
<match target="font">
    <edit name="rgba" mode="assign"><const>rgb</const></edit>
</match>
</fontconfig>

Change rgb to bgr if you need to use B-G-R subpixel rendering. For system-wide use, add that text to /etc/fonts/local.conf.

The change takes effect immediately, but you may want to log out so that everything on the desktop is updated.

Ref: http://jmason.org/howto/subpixel.html

--

Not sure if this will be of interest to you, but hinting can also be achieved with an additional entry:

<match target="font">
  <edit name="autohint" mode="assign">
    <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
</match>

Ref: http://tombuntu.com/index.php/2008/10/1 … ppearance/

Hope this helps

Thanks for the suggestions. I will try ASAP after work.

how can I set the fonts to 96 DPI?  thx!

Alright I followed the directions, got some wierd messages about xml being in the first line and now I don't know if pixel smoothing is on or not (fonts still look pretty crappy to me).

I just opened an app. I installed (see unable to mount windows partition thread).  and after tyoing in the command in the terminal I got the message

Fontconfig error: "~/.fonts.conf, line 1: XML or text declaration not at start of entity
Fontconfig error: "local.conf, line 1: XML or text declaration not at start of entity

Please help me

Ok, thanks - but I still get the error for local.conf

Yes it is.  Do you have pixel-smoothing?  I honestly am not sure if the tweak has worked for me.

What s "restart X"?  BTW, I'm pretty sure I don't have pixel smoothing, though I have restarted the system since configuring .fonts.conf as suggested.

Or if you like Apple's rendering, try this -

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="autohint" >
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="rgba" >
   <const>none</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="hinting" >
   <bool>false</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle" >
   <const>hintnone</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
</fontconfig>

so here's how it works: the system looks first in your home directory for a file named

.fonts.conf

. Then it looks for a file called

/etc/fonts/local.conf

.

The file in your home directory is given preference--whatever's in there is applied. The system then says "Ok, so for these other settings...does the file in /etc say anything about those?"

The trick is that no matter what user you log in as, it always falls back to /etc/fonts/local.conf (to add that text, open /etc/fonts/local.conf in a text editor. You'll have to do that from the command line--since it's a system file, you'll need to use administrator privileges to edit it. Try:

gksu gedit /etc/fonts/local.conf

That should let you edit the file. Then just paste that text in to the end of the file. That SHOULD do it.)

The idea is I can set font rendering the way I think looks good, and so can my wife. We each have our own

.fonts.conf

in our own home directories.

What's not written in each file falls back to the settings in /etc.

So if you want to change things for everybody who ever might use the system, change the file at

/etc/fonts/local.conf

. If you just want to change YOUR settings, change

.fonts.conf

in your home directory.

When I was new to Linux, I tended to edit the system file (because I was pretty much the only user on my laptop). But the 'Linux way' to do it is to make the edits in your home dir. And here's why:

When you go to change distros or upgrade to Jaunty or whatever, you can backup pretty much all the config files in your home dir. Then if Jaunty's (or whatever distro you try) font rendering sucks, or whatever, you can just copy the old

.fonts.conf

file over to your new home directory and suddenly all the tweaking you're doing right now will be applied.

And that'll work on (almost) any distro you try out. It's not a hard and fast rule, of course, but anytime there's programs shared between distros, they're usually configured the same way. Which means the config file in your directory has all your tweaks in it. So you're good to go.

How's that for a long-winded response that probably doesn't quite answer your question?

I'll ask Zoids question over, what's the default DPI or how can I change it (via .fonts.conf)?

If you use an Nvidia driver, adding the the following option to the shown section below will make 96 dpi permanent:

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "Quadro FX 770M"
    Option         "DPI" "96 x 96"
EndSection

Last edited by theZoid (2009-08-02 21:55:28)