Step 4. Get yer subpixel hinted fonts: openSUSE 11.4, 12.1, 12.2

!! THIS POST  ALSO APPLIES FOR OPENSUSE 12.1 and 12.2 !!

Now to have better looking fonts on LCD/LED screens, just take the following steps:

1. Open "Repositiry Management" in YaST

2. After the repos load, press "Add" FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTION FROM BLOG-POST "STEP 1." - THE FIRST PART OF THE POST EXPLAINS HOW TO ADD A REPO.

3. Add a repo, you can name it "MUZLOCKER subpixels 11.4", "MUZLOCKER subpixels 12.1" or "MUZLOCKER subpixels 12.2" or choose a name of your own preference. The URL is:

http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/muzlocker/openSUSE_11.4/

and for openSUSE 12.1:

http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/muzlocker/openSUSE_12.1/


and for openSUSE 12.2:

http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/muzlocker/openSUSE_12.2/

4. Accept and finish the Repo Management.

5. Go to Software Management in YaST.

6. Now check out this screen shot and go step by step:
How to make a vendor change

1. Click "View", sellect "Repositiries"
2. Click the newly opened "Repositories" tab
3. Sellect "MUZLOCKER 11.4" or "MUZLOCKER 12.1"(or how you called it)
4. Press the "Switch packages to this repo" option...

This should sellect all packages from the list to upgrade to the version from this repository. We call it a vendor change.  

7. Choose to install the package freetype2-feature-subpixel-hinting before you accept and let the package installation begin.

Thank you for the comments. The above package does not exist anymore.

Here's my current list of packages from muzlocker repo:



8. After the packages get installed, open KDE's System Settings and go to "Appearance" -> "Fonts" and click "Configure", like below:
   
 9. In the following window sellect Use subpixel hinting, RGB, Full hinting. If you like Droid fonts (like I do for instance), choose your font type as on the screen above.

10. For experienced users, you might want to make the better fonts-rendering work in Firefox, which is not so obvious: Open your file browser with the following command:

dolphin ~/.mozilla/firefox/


You are now in /home/user/.mozilla/firefox/ folder. There is your profile folder named 1oifb15.default - the letters before .default are random and different... There, inside this folder, create a file user.js , that will contain the following lines:

user_pref("font.FreeType2.enable", "true");
user_pref("font.FreeType2.autohinted", "true");
user_pref("font.FreeType2.printing", "true");
user_pref("font.FreeType2.unhinted", "false"); 


You can use kwrite to create this file. Use it as normal, "non-root" user, do Firefox later has access to the settings, that you created.

11. It's advisable to use Dejavu fonts in Firefox'es page rendering, Serif and Sans, where applicable in Firefox'es Edit -> Preferences -> Content -> "Advanced" button in the font-section. For the monotype font choose Dejavu Sans Mono.

Here is a screenshot showing my exact settings of fonts in Firefox, if you like them, you can use the same, or set your prefered fonts (expert users!) :


The fonts choice in Firefox 4.0



Firefox'es font rendering was bad anyway during the last ~8 months. With the version 4.0 (not beta!), that my system upgraded to today, I can see the exactly perfectly rendered fonts, like in all Qt/KDE apps.

That's it. Now log out and log in. You should be presented with more juicy fonts, than before, if you use a LCD/LED screen.

Have fun!


Here some examples, how it looks with these settings CLICK TO ENLARGE:

Firefox 4.0

Firefox 4.0

smplayer, SSA/ASS subtitles enabled

Firefox 4.0




32 komentarze:

  1. Excellent post. I was searching post like this to make my opensuse look good. I had little trouble understanding your language (i am not sure which language it is), never mind Google translation helped me. Now my Kde desktop looks awesome.

    Thanks for the excellent post.

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  2. Same remark, I am new to openSuse, and your post help me a lot to get a better font display on my small netbook !
    Thanks a lot !
    A. LOUALI

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  3. What about LibreOffice? It still display's standard fonts, although I installed packages from your repository.
    Fonts in Gnome, Chromium etc. are ok.

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  4. Hi, thank you for your comments!

    Unfortunatelly I don't know how to set it for Libre Office. Same was for Openoffice. At least it works every elsewhere.

    If I find an answer I'll let you know!

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  5. Works for me, Thanks
    Nano Arago, Montevideo, Uruguay

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  6. Thank you very very much. That was the reason I was not moving to OpenSUSE, until now. Works like a charm.

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  7. Here is how to have outstanding fonts in Libre Office.

    Make an executable script file with the following stuff:

    #!/bin/sh
    echo "Xft.dpi: 96" | xrdb -merge
    echo "Xft.antialias: 1" | xrdb -merge
    echo "Xft.hinting: 1" | xrdb -merge
    echo "Xft.hintstyle: hintfull" | xrdb -merge
    echo "Xft.lcdfilter: lcddefault" | xrdb -merge
    echo "Xft.rgba: rgb" | xrdb -merge

    Put this file (or link it) in ~/.kde4/Autostart

    Log out and back in and then restart LibreOffice.

    Also, see: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=105913

    FYI,

    Gordon

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    Odpowiedzi
    1. Hey Gordon,

      I did make an executable script as you described above, but the main result was that I was not able to start any applications in KDE 4.8.1 as a regular user. I could not shutdown my computer either. Everything was working if a used kdesu or for another user that I created. It pretty much made my desktop unusable until I removed the script. I am not sure if it is distribution or desktop related. I am using

      Linux vaazka2.site 3.1.9-1.4-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Jan 27 08:55:10 UTC 2012 (efb5ff4) x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

      openSUSE 12.1 (x86_64)
      VERSION = 12.1
      CODENAME = Asparagus


      BR,

      Pavol

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    2. Hi Pavol,

      I haven't tried KDE 4.8 yet as I am currently running KDE 4.7.2 on OpenSUSE 12.1 (x86_64) where the script works perfectly. So, possibly there is a problem with the script on KDE 4.8? Otherwise, I don't know what the problem is.

      Gordon

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    3. Hello Gordon,

      I couldn't find anything specific neither, even after a few hours of searching and googling. If somebody encounters the same problem, just remove the script and everything will be back to normal.

      BR,
      Pavol

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  8. Installed the package and changed font settings - works great. Thanks a lot

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  9. What's the differences between your packages and those in M17N:Devel? M17N:Devel packages should also have the additional patches included.

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  10. I could not find freetype2-feature-subpixel-hinting package anywhere in yast. Not even in muzlocker repo. Can you please let me know from which repo can I download this font?

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  11. http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/muzlocker/openSUSE_12.1/

    Also, go to forums.opensuse.org and search for "muzlocker".

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  12. Vivek is right. Even with http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/muzlocker/openSUSE_12.1/ installed,
    there is no freetype2-feature-subpixel-hinting package.

    I had it in 11.4, but not in 12.1.

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  13. Yes, you are right about the freetype2-feature-subpixel-hinting package not being there. However, when I enabled the Muzlocker repo I installed the files that are listed below:

    S | Name | Summary | Type
    --+------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+----------
    i | fontconfig | Library for Font Configuration | package
    i | fontconfig-32bit | Library for Font Configuration | package
    i | fontconfig-devel | Include Files and Libraries mandatory for Development | package
    i | freetype2-devel | Development environment for the freetype2 TrueType font library | package
    i | libcairo-gobject2 | Vector Graphics Library with Cross-Device Output Support | package
    i | libcairo2 | Vector Graphics Library with Cross-Device Output Support | package
    i | libcairo2-32bit | Vector Graphics Library with Cross-Device Output Support | package
    i | libfreetype6 | A TrueType Font Library | package
    i | libfreetype6-32bit | A TrueType Font Library | package
    i | libpixman-1-0 | Pixel manipulation library | package
    i | libpixman-1-0-32bit | Pixel manipulation library | package
    i | libpixman-1-0-devel | Pixel manipulation library - development files | package

    So, install the packages above from the Muzlocker repo and you will love your fonts. My fonts are as good or better than anything I have seen from Microsoft or Ubuntu or anywhere else.

    Also, you should install msttfonts with the fetchmsttfonts package or alternatively, if you have a spare windows license, just copy the fonts from there.

    Good luck,

    Gordon

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  14. Actually, you should not use the Muzlocker libpixman packages since the OpenSUSE libpixman packages are newer.

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  15. Thank you all for your hints. I've made the necessary edition as you can see in the post.

    gldickens3:

    I just use all packages from muzlocker, not worrying that some are older than in the main repo.

    Cheers.

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  16. How can i revert all affected packages to versions i had before switching to muzlocker?

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  17. This worked for me. Fresh install of 12.1, with System Settings subpixel turned on, some fonts looked fine, but others looked horrible (especially desktop, KDE utilities, system, etc). Not sure why these files made the difference? When I have some time, I will investigate. Is it merely the fontconfig settings OR is there a difference in the code itself? libpixman needs to be the opensuse OSS version because it'll prevent other updates from installing (the muzlocker version of libpixman is too low for teh new packages being installed).

    Thank you.

    p.s. SegoeUI is the best system-wide font I have seen. Looks fantastic. Far better than even Liberation.

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  18. Hi,
    Thank you for this work. I installed Muzlocker repo and replaced system packages with the ones provided by this repo. The only drawback I experimented is with Midori web browser (I'm using LXDE), fonts in certain pages, i.e. Google or even this page menu fonts ("My Screenshots", "My Productions", ...).

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    1. Looks worse than before. I'd like to solve this. Do you have an idea about how to solve it? Do you want I send you a screeshot?
      Best regards,
      Luis Pablo

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    2. Hi, If you do not like these fonts, just go to SW Management, sellect to see by Repositories - and change every package affected to a version provided by system repository or Update reposiory. If you need an instruction with screenshots for this, please let me know. Regards.

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    3. Thank you for your reply. I'm very pleased by these fonts, I'm not complaining about them. I just wan to solve the Midori issues. Regards,

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  19. Recently I have received automatic updates of the Muzlocker packages for OpenSuse 11.4 and 12.1; now, all the applicatios that rely on Cairo (Firefox, Thunderbird, Gimp, etc) look really bad.
    No problem with KDE.

    This is a clear regression.
    I hope that the problem will be resolved quickly because the old packages are no longer available.

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  20. My 12.1 system is working perfectly fine after the update. You may need to reboot for everything to work properly.

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    Odpowiedzi
    1. Even after restarting the computer, there is still a clear difference between KDE fonts and Firefox/Thunderbird/Gimp fonts.
      KDE fonts are much clearer and sharper.
      The fonts of the applications linked to the Cairo lib are much thinner.

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  21. Make sure that you have configured your Personal Settings to use your KDE fonts in GTK applications with:

    Personal Settings > Application Appearance > GTK Styles and Fonts > Check "Use my KDE fonts in GTK applications."

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    1. GTK applications already use KDE fonts (Liberation Sans).

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  22. Is it possible to find the previous Muzlocker packages for openSUSE 11.4?
    I need to downgrade from the new packages.

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  23. Hi,

    Do you search and want to install Microsoft Windows 8.1 TrueType fonts in your Linux? Download it as
    ZIP ( https://www.dropbox.com/s/33no2hjkek950y8/MS_Windows81-TTF-FONTS.zip ), DEB ( https://www.dropbox.com/s/glk1qp6a344hjcb/ms_windows81-ttf-fonts-1-1_all.deb ) or RPM ( https://www.dropbox.com/s/jrs756euwkgno8m/ms_windows81-ttf-fonts-1-0.noarch.rpm ) package. Becides, almost all TTC fonts converted with fontforge to TTF format

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