Fonts rendering is ugly(without antialiasing)

spidernik84 · #1 17th March 2004, 03:33 PM

Hi everybody...
Firstly i would ask you to forgive me if i'm posting a question already asked many times...but i've been searching around for a solution to my problem without finding any

I've got, obviously, fedora core 1. Everybody likes antialiasing, probably with a good reason, but i really don't...i've been trying to live with it without succes

The problem is that if i'm disabling it the font rendering is damn bad...the only font displaying good is Helvetica with a size less than 10(with greater sizes no way to show it nicely).
On previous rh distros there was the pretty and easy option ":unscaled" with which i was used to solve the prob...now, even putting it in the xml file "local.conf" there ain't any way to get it work!

I'm near to desperation

Thanks for your (eventual) help and for your patience

Bana · #2 19th March 2004, 01:48 AM

Have you tried configuring xfs? It is the new font handler that Fedora uses AFAIK. I am sure you could find a howto somewhere around. HTH

spidernik84 · #3 12th July 2005, 10:44 PM

Well, up again!
I've installed fedora core 4 on my happy box, and still have that darn font problem...uglinessssss!

I've found this guide suggesting to use a bci enabled freetype...but the links there reported are dead (this one in particular http://avi.alkalay.net/software/msfonts/download/).

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/Font-HOWTO/#fix

So i searched google for an alternative package and i've found those repos by Pretty punk, updated freetype through yum, installed ttf core fonts and...and...still no go

Anyone sorted out how to make fedora ttf fonts look just as windows ones without antialiasing???

spidernik84 · #4 13th July 2005, 07:39 PM

Really none of you finds antialiasing frustrating? Oh please help me i've been passing my last 6 days trying to find out a solution

Furball · #5 13th July 2005, 07:55 PM

Fedora is using the freetype library with the bytecode interpreter disabled (because there are some patent issues on it)
This makes all fonts look not so nice as in windows for example. This applies to antialiasing enabled AND disabled. Especially TFT screens are affected by this "problem".
If you want to enable bci (bytecode interpreter) you have to recompile the freetype source rpm by yourself and change the following line in the spec file

Code:

%define without_bytecode_interpreter    1

into

Code:

%define without_bytecode_interpreter    0

If you don't know how to recompile a source rpm, look in the help files, in our forum or just ask here for help.
You will be surprised how good your fonts will look :-)
If you have a TFT screen also disable font antialiasing. They will look sharper then. Antialiasing is only good for CRTs in my opinion.

If you have an x86_64 architecture I can send you ready-to-install rpms, for i386 I haven't compiled them yet.

spidernik84 · #6 13th July 2005, 08:07 PM

Well, the problem is that i simply can't compile anything because fc4 won't install any compiler because of its poor package installer :\ so i had to use an rpm (i wrote the procedure i followed on the 3rd post of this thread...).
Even updating freetype nothing changes...i'm getting really MAD

Furball · #7 13th July 2005, 08:25 PM

Seems that you got a rpm without bci enabled (which makes no difference then).
What's the problem with your gcc ?
The easiest way to set up a complete software development environment is by using fedoras package managment tool 'system-config-packages' and mark the development tools to install them.

spidernik84 · #8 13th July 2005, 08:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Furball

What's the problem with your gcc ?
The easiest way to set up a complete software development environment is by using fedoras package managment tool 'system-config-packages' and mark the development tools to install them.

That's exactly what i've been trying to do...
The install can't even start because of these missing packages:

Netpbm
xorg-x11-libs

Required by netpbm-progs, xorg-x11-xfs and xorg-x11

I'm getting crazy, i've never had any problem like all of these with all the fedora releases i've tried (1 and 3)...

Furball · #9 13th July 2005, 09:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spidernik84

The install can't even start because of these missing packages:

Netpbm
xorg-x11-libs

Required by netpbm-progs, xorg-x11-xfs and xorg-x11

What does 'rpm -q netpbm' or 'rpm -q xorg-x11-libs' tell you ?
If you got something like not installed, try as root 'yum install netpbm' to install the missing package. Does that work ? Append any rpm package that is also missing. Then retry the above steps.

spidernik84 · #10 13th July 2005, 09:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Furball

What does 'rpm -q netpbm' or 'rpm -q xorg-x11-libs' tell you ?
If you got something like not installed, try as root 'yum install netpbm' to install the missing package. Does that work ? Append any rpm package that is also missing. Then retry the above steps.

To start: thx for your support, much appreciated

Second: they ARE installed...so, wtf is happening? I've installed apt-get but it looks like repos like freshrpms and dag wiers are not ready yet to deploy fc4 stuff :'(

Furball · #11 13th July 2005, 09:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spidernik84

Second: they ARE installed...so, wtf is happening? I've installed apt-get but it looks like repos like freshrpms and dag wiers are not ready yet to deploy fc4 stuff :'(

That does indeed sound wierd. I recommend that you start a new thread covering this topic as it isn't related to font rendering anymore.

But to conclude, the given fedora bci enabled freetype archive is dead for quite a long time so you will have to compile it for yourself. If I'll find another site with a bci enabled freetype binary rpm package I'll post a link here.

spidernik84 · #12 14th July 2005, 07:43 PM

Thx anyway for your time

meijer.o · #13 14th July 2005, 10:14 PM

dear spidernik,

This is how you do it,

Make sure you have the default development packages installd (develepment tools and X software development in Add and remove Packages.

Then:

1) Download the freetype source rpm in the official repository here.

2) Move to the download directyr, and extract the rpm with "rpm -ivh freetype-2.1.4-5.src.rpm"

3) Move to /usr/src/redhat/SPECS, and open freetype.spec with your editor of choice.

4) Change the 1 to a 0 in %define without_bytecode_interpreter 1 and save.

5) Build the rpm with "rpmbuild -bb freetype.spec". Note that this depends on the XFree86-devel package, so install it if you get errors.

6) Move to /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/. The packages should be there. Do a "rpm -Uvh --force freetype-2.1.4-5.i386.rpm". I installed the devel package too, but I'm not sure if that's necessary.

7) Now just restart X, and your fonts should be crisper and better-proportioned :-)

Install microsoft fonts.

If you do not manage, I can send you a RPM for fedora 4, fonts will be alike in windows XP.

Otto

spidernik84 · #14 15th July 2005, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meijer.o

dear spidernik,

This is how you do it,

Make sure you have the default development packages installd (develepment tools and X software development in Add and remove Packages.

This is exactly the problem...as u can read above, i've got serious problems installing development stuff

Quote:

If you do not manage, I can send you a RPM for fedora 4, fonts will be alike in windows XP.

Otto

Oh man, you would make me a great favour...i'm getting very tired of all this :S

meijer.o · #15 15th July 2005, 08:50 PM

here it comes, I hope I can upload it,

Please disable graphical boot before trying. Otherwise the boot process might hang.

Kind regards