HOWTO: Hoary ClearType-like fonts

[Roman2K]

Perfect HowTo, thank you a lot !

[Graben]

Wow, I was really doubtful about this and figured my fonts were great. Was I ever wrong, you can't realize how fuzzy the fonts are until you do this. I now use 10 point fonts instead of 12 in firefox because they are actually legible! I do have to add one point, times new roman is the ugliest font i've ever seen. I much prefer bitstream vera sans mono

Edit: Okay I've come to the conclusion that the bitstream all look better to my eyes, that being said I am still disabling hinting at resolutions below 12 point. This is actually a bigger improvement for crappier fonts. My reading up on the interpreter states that hinting does not look good on smaller fonts that do not have the information enclosed in them, and that most DO NOT have it.

[J. S. Jackson]

Wow, I was really doubtful about this and figured my fonts were great. Was I ever wrong, you can't realize how fuzzy the fonts are until you do this. I now use 10 point fonts instead of 12 in firefox because they are actually legible! I do have to add one point, times new roman is the ugliest font i've ever seen. I much prefer bitstream vera sans mono

Edit: Okay I've come to the conclusion that the bitstream all look better to my eyes, that being said I am still disabling hinting at resolutions below 12 point. This is actually a bigger improvement for crappier fonts. My reading up on the interpreter states that hinting does not look good on smaller fonts that do not have the information enclosed in them, and that most DO NOT have it.

Most serif fonts (e.g. times new roman) do not look good on a computer display. They are more appropriate for printing. Sans serif fonts always look better on a monitor.

In my opinion, Verdana is probably the best font at small sizes, on a computer monitor. It was designed for that exact purpose.

[23meg]

right, but linux just won't render anti-aliased Verdana at smaller than 11 pixels size properly. in fact anything below 11 pixels looks so bad, and using anything bigger than 11 defeats the whole purpose of using a high resolution display.

[23meg]

i've found a screenshot that exactly illustrates the way i want my fonts. it's nice seeing that this can somehow be accomplished in linux! (sad that it's a Gentoo screenshot )

here we go:

http://gnome-look.org/content/previe...me=gPerfection

needless to say, i'll very much appreciate any hints to get such small fonts looking so good in Ubuntu.

[addikt]

ok used this guide for my LCD display and the fonts, although they look similar to clear type on xp, are just too fuzy to be called good... infact, I liked the default ubuntu font rendering compared to this fuzziness ... is there a way I can fix this problem or a way to go back to the original font setup I had with Ubuntu Hoary ? this guide should really have a way of undoing the operations ...

[23meg]

you should back up the originals every time you make important changes to your config files, and take notes of each action, so that you can undo it if needed.

in my first crusade of applying every tweak i saw on every forum on top of every other one in the hope of getting my fonts the way i've shown on my last post (and i still haven't!), i messed things up so bad that a reinstall was the easiest way to fix things. sorry for you if this is your situation as well

[addikt]

actually I was able to undo the changes myself ... I'm lazy so I just wanted a quick fix but changing things back to what they were wasn't difficult .. however, I am very dissappointed. This is the 4th or 5th guide I have tried hoping to make my fonts look better but none of them have worked out for me. It apparantly works for some people but doesn't for me (and no my eyes aren't screwed up and I followed the steps properly .. I don't wear glasses) ... so I'm gona have to go back to windows xp wth cleartype ... it's just not worth screwing up my eyes over Ubuntu's fonts even though they are a heck lot better than most linux distros out of the box, not to mention Ubuntu's awesome speed, stability and ease of use ... but if I can't read things easily then it's useless ... feels like **** because Ubuntu is everything I want in an operating system except for the damn fonts....

[23meg]

i hear you. did you look at the screenshot i linked above? liked it?

[jodef]

I must say this little discussion was interesting and informative I never realised recent versions of linux had font problems. I remeber about 3 or 4 years ago I stopped used linux because of horrible fonts/font rendering but up to a year ago when I started back using linux I've had no problems whatsoever. I have never had to adjust a single thing in the over 30 or 40 installs I've done, save maybe screen resolution.

I can however understand how pissed one can get with problematic fonts....

[yuk]

i've found a screenshot that exactly illustrates the way i want my fonts. [...]

http://gnome-look.org/content/previe...me=gPerfection [...]

The creator of gPerfection theme is using:
bitstream vera sans
size=10
font rendering=subpixel smoothing (LCDs)
resolution=72 dpi
smoothing=subpixel
hinting=full
pixel order=RGB
(http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=22989)
but I don't know if it ll be so good in Ubuntu.

[23meg]

The creator of gPerfection theme is using:
bitstream vera sans
size=10
font rendering=subpixel smoothing (LCDs)
resolution=72 dpi
smoothing=subpixel
hinting=full
pixel order=RGB
(http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=22989)
but I don't know if it ll be so good in Ubuntu.

i know, it's me who asked him there and it's exactly as good in Ubuntu!

and believe it or not, everything looks exactly like on that screenshot on my desktop now. i've been so obsessed with Verdana and Tahoma, believed so blindly in their "perfect hinting" and "great on-screen looks" that i've completely ignored the wonders of Bitstream Vera Sans.

for some reason it seems the Bitstream fonts are rendered much better in Linux than Verdana (and others). maybe their custom hinting is handled better by the bytecode interpreter? and that of Verdana is handled better by Cleartype? perhaps. if you have the time and patience, get a screenshot of Verdana 10pt in 96dpi under both Windows xp and Ubuntu in the same screen resolution; you'll notice that you almost have two completely different fonts. and subpixel smoothing works much better with Bitstream Vera Sans than the Linux-Verdana.
__________________

[Czak]

Hi! Thanks for this very good HOWTO! I still have a problem with GTK1 apps though:

In GTK2 apps (firefox, gnome-terminal), the font looks fine, but in XMMS it's jagged. I have this in my .gtkrc.mine:

style "user-font"
{
  fontset="-microsoft-tahoma-medium-r-normal-*-11-*-*-*-p-*-*"
}
widget_class "*" style "user-font"

I know it reads from this file, because I can change the font size here. Another strange thing is that the font size in Gnome is 8, but it's 11 for GTK1 apps (and they're equally large). Why is that?
What should I do to have GTK1 apps render fonts properly?
Thanks in advance.

[kellie]

sigh.

ok. pulled the tahoma .ttf fonts off my windows harddrive. am trying to copy to ~/.fonts and they will not go!

any ideas?

using:

sudo cp tahoma.ttf ~/.fonts

right?

thanks in advance....


kellie

[nocturn]

sigh.

ok. pulled the tahoma .ttf fonts off my windows harddrive. am trying to copy to ~/.fonts and they will not go!

any ideas?

using:

sudo cp tahoma.ttf ~/.fonts

right?

thanks in advance....


kellie

Yes. Where you logged in as a user (not root)?
If so, you shouldn't have used sudo, because now the file in you font directory is owned by root.

The easiest way is to put the font systemwide,
sudo cp tahoma.ttf /usr/share/fonts/[somelocation]

Replace [somelocation] with a suitable directory below fonts.

[angrykeyboarder]

Hi! Thanks for this very good HOWTO! I still have a problem with GTK1 apps though:

In GTK2 apps (firefox, gnome-terminal), the font looks fine, but in XMMS it's jagged. I have this in my .gtkrc.mine:

style "user-font"
{
  fontset="-microsoft-tahoma-medium-r-normal-*-11-*-*-*-p-*-*"
}
widget_class "*" style "user-font"

I know it reads from this file, because I can change the font size here. Another strange thing is that the font size in Gnome is 8, but it's 11 for GTK1 apps (and they're equally large). Why is that?
What should I do to have GTK1 apps render fonts properly?
Thanks in advance.

GTK1 is the root of all evil, hence GTK2.

If you insist on your software resembling a microscopic version of a real live stereo amplifier, then I'd recommend Beep Media Player (BMP) (a GTK2 app). It's brought to you from the folks who left the XMMS camp cuz XMMS was determined to stay behind the times.

Of course it too, looks like a silly microscopic version of a stereo amplififier....

Scott

(Rhythmbox, amaroK, iTunes, WMP user......)

[kellie]

Yes. Where you logged in as a user (not root)?
If so, you shouldn't have used sudo, because now the file in you font directory is owned by root.

The easiest way is to put the font systemwide,
sudo cp tahoma.ttf /usr/share/fonts/[somelocation]

Replace [somelocation] with a suitable directory below fonts.

ah thank you!

still fairly new to the linux world.

worked like a charm.

fonts look awesome.

LOVING my ubunto...


kellie

[Segovia]

If you insist on your software resembling a microscopic version of a real live stereo amplifier

LOL. So true... The fonts are about .01 mm high.

All joking aside, it's the reason I don't use that damn thing. I run at 1600x1200, and it's nearly impossible to make out any of the fonts/controls unless I really get close and concentrate.

[Czak]

If you insist on your software resembling a microscopic version of a real live stereo amplifier, then I'd recommend Beep Media Player (BMP) (a GTK2 app).

Actually, I'm just used to XMMS and never considered a change. I will look into the programs you mentioned. On the other hand, I remember BMP as being quite unstable. Is it still?

Anyway, that doesn't solve the problems with my fonts. Could someone please tell me - do you also have this problem?

[jebe]

interesting link:

http://www.objectsspace.com/encyclop...Fonts_on_Linux

btw: somebody played with recompiling freetype to enable hinting ?

[23meg]

btw: somebody played with recompiling freetype to enable hinting ?

there's still no official word on whether freetype's bytecode interpreter comes enabled in Hoary. plus, i'd like to know for certain whether my assumption that freetype's bytecode interpreter support isn't the same thing as the "bytecode interpreter" option in fontconfig and that it's the piece of code that handles subpixel hinting for lcd screens and autohinting as well is true.

[jebe]

there's still no official word on whether freetype's bytecode interpreter comes enabled in Hoary. plus, i'd like to know for certain whether my assumption that freetype's bytecode interpreter support isn't the same thing as the "bytecode interpreter" option in fontconfig and that it's the piece of code that handles subpixel hinting for lcd screens and autohinting as well is true.

i think they use a free bytecode inter.

see:

# Turn on bytecode interpreter, but use unpatented hinting
+ # and forces its use. Many thanks to Graham Asher for this great
+ # feature to circumvent bad Apple's patent. :-p

http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/poo....7-2.3.diff.gz

[CouchMaster]

You can always install Windows fonts, and here's how.
This is for the KDE desktop only, and works for any linux distro that uses it.

Go to a windows computer and make a folder called 'TrueType'.
Now open the font folder in the control panel.
High-light all of the fonts you want (I did them all) and click 'edit' then 'copy'. This copies the fonts to the clipboard.
Now go to the folder you created and paste them there.
Now burn them to a CD-R.

Now go to your linux distro and fireup KDE.
Copy the TrueType fonts to your home folder.
Now start the 'control center' > 'system administration' and select 'font installer' - you might have to click the Administrator Mode button and enter the root PW.
Now click 'add fonts' - browse to the font folder you just copied to home and select the fonts you want to install - then click OK - thats it.
Now you have tons of new fonts to work with.
In Konqueror I changed them to
Sans Serif
Courier New
Times New Roman
Arial
Arial
Arial
ISO 8859-1
Smooth as a babies behind!!!

[Segovia]

You can always install Windows fonts, and here's how.
This is for the KDE desktop only, and works for any linux distro that uses it.

Go to a windows computer and make a folder called 'TrueType'.
Now open the font folder in the control panel.
High-light all of the fonts you want (I did them all) and click 'edit' then 'copy'. This copies the fonts to the clipboard.
Now go to the folder you created and paste them there.
Now burn them to a CD-R.

Now go to your linux distro and fireup KDE.
Copy the TrueType fonts to your home folder.
Now start the 'control center' > 'system administration' and select 'font installer' - you might have to click the Administrator Mode button and enter the root PW.
Now click 'add fonts' - browse to the font folder you just copied to home and select the fonts you want to install - then click OK - thats it.
Now you have tons of new fonts to work with.
In Konqueror I changed them to
Sans Serif
Courier New
Times New Roman
Arial
Arial
Arial
ISO 8859-1
Smooth as a babies behind!!!

Or you could just "sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts"

The problem that 23meg is talking about is that when not anti-aliased (read: blurry as hell) the freefont module does not seem to be able to hint the MS fonts correctly. And the question is whether or not the byte-code interpreter is *actually* turned on or not. Yes you can select it, but it's not clear to anyone if it's actually enabled?

[dikki]

This is SOOOOO great! Thanks for the guide!

[acrylamid]

Okay, I'm already stuck

I skipped this part:
"Either restart X or reboot, after which verify the dpi setting is correct:
Code:

xdpyinfo | grep dimensions
xdpyinfo | grep resolution"

Because I cant find it, and I not sure what do to. Maybe it isn't so important.


So I have installed the "msttcorefonts package" with the nice Synaptic Package Manager. Then i should copy two fonts.
"Copy tahomabd.ttf and tahoma.ttf into /usr/share/fonts/truetype/custom/"
But where do I find there fonts, I searched after the file and I can't find it. In the terminal I stand in my home-directory and I believe i must stand where the file is. (Just as in the old DOS-days)

So where does Ubuntu put my fonts?



A question in advance.
Step 3.
"Select Bytecode interpreter or Subpixel rendering"
What are the differents?

[Athropos]

Many thanks for this tutorial!
I'm trying to move from Windows to Ubuntu, and fonts were a real problem for me. Many webpages use small font and I found them difficult to read, now I have a prefect rendering (IMO). Thanks!

[Fexx]

Ive done what you listed on page 1 and my front still look quite bad.

Here are 2 screenshots. Looks nothing like yours.

Edit: nm, fixed it. Your a god, thanks for the tutorial.

[hshin]

All this just so your Ubuntu can look like Windows Xp? How about making Ubuntu look like OS X by simply turning off hinting?

[Segovia]

All this just so your Ubuntu can look like Windows Xp? How about making Ubuntu look like OS X by simply turning off hinting?

I suppose everyone has their own personal taste in regard to fonts.

Personally I don't like the look of fonts in OS-X. The AA is heavy and the fonts look very "thick" and fuzzy - like they are bold all the time.

Windows XP has, IMO, the best looking font rendering. Very thin lines, sharp, etc. I think that's why many people wish to emulate it in Linux.

[Footer]

OK. I followed this "how to" and it's OK but I'm not as satisfied as I thought I would be with the end result. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to go back to the default settings. Anyone have any ideas how to do that? If nothing else, perhaps the default settings in FireFox when the browser is first installed? I used the example "Fonts & Colors" in FF given in the how to which is exactly like FF in Windows but I want to go back to default!

Any help, greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

[Footer]

I suppose everyone has their own personal taste in regard to fonts.

Personally I don't like the look of fonts in OS-X. The AA is heavy and the fonts look very "thick" and fuzzy - like they are bold all the time.

Windows XP has, IMO, the best looking font rendering. Very thin lines, sharp, etc. I think that's why many people wish to emulate it in Linux.

I agree 100%! But the question is, how? This how to guide didn't do it for me.

[rubengs]

An aditional improvement:

There is a distro called Munjoy Linux, this guy created special fonts for an integrated distro with a "unified look-and-feel" the fonts are "optimized for rendering with hinting disabled, but they may work fine with any configuration". The fonts are GPL so can be used in any distro, no need to use proprietary fonts any more.

My desktop looks really good now with the howto and this fonts, the link to download the tarball with the fonts is in this link:

http://www.munjoylinux.org/source/munjoyfonts.tar.gz

The distro page is: MunjoyLinux.org

[zafar]

I agree 100%! But the question is, how? This how to guide didn't do it for me.

When using the msft fonts, i set gnome to use tahoma with sub pixel rendering, and medium auto hinting and that makes it look VERY similiar to windows xp rendering on my samsung lcd.

[hshin]

I suppose everyone has their own personal taste in regard to fonts.

I guess you're right. However my eyes always hurt from prolonged reading on Xp. I had to bump the DPI up from 96 to 120 just for that.

Has it ever occured to you that, perhaps the fonts are smaller on Windows because it was originally designed for 640x480 and 800x600 displays?

[flargen]

Hi

First of all, thanks for the guide. At first it didn't work, but i fixed it.
The reason it didn't work (i think) - this may be the same for some others out there - was because I followed the instructions on the "Unofficial Ubuntu 5.04 Starter Guide" (http://ubuntuguide.org) on how to add fonts to the system, which tells you to enable the freetype autohinter module. The method the guide used was to edit the config file by hand. I don't know for sure, but i am guessing that this is what was stopping the options in sudo "dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig" from having any effect. I just replaced the edited config file with the original and everything worked fine. I hope this helps someone!

Thanks again for the great guide.

[navilon]

Are you guys crazy? Why don't you install windows instead? Who would want their ubuntu installation to look like windows?

I think ubuntu works GREAT as it is (read my signature).

this is more of a designers issue, the default fonts that come with most linux distros are sub-par

[c4pp4]

GTK1 is the root of all evil, hence GTK2.

If you insist on your software resembling a microscopic version of a real live stereo amplifier, then I'd recommend Beep Media Player (BMP) (a GTK2 app).

super tip, thanks! ...and it supports windows winamp skins

and mainly thanks to deelerious for this howto!!!!

btw:
for e.g. k3b appearance type command - "kcontrol"
for e.g. qtparted - "gksudo kcontrol"

[BIGtrouble77]

I got one sort of minor issue with this HOWTO... When I launch apps as root the .fonts.conf settings don't apply. I copied over my .fonts.conf file to /root/, restarted gnome and noticed no noticable difference. I'm using the second example that disables anitaliasing completely for smaller fonts.

My main work environment is in eclipse which I have to run as root (I'm too lazy to set up proper group permissions). I use a very small font size so it's easier on my eyes if antialiasing is turned off.

Any ideas on how to get my .fonts.conf to apply to apps launched as root?

TIA,
-bt

btw, this howto works perfectly, otherwise.

[hw-tph]

Any ideas on how to get my .fonts.conf to apply to apps launched as root?

Just edit /etc/fonts/local.conf instead of your personal ~/.fonts.conf.
Håkan