Subpixel Hinting for 11.2- GTK Apps- Solution

[anshuljain]

I wanted to share this with the larger community. I was able to get perfect subpixel rendering on my 11.2 install for GTK apps in KDE (I've tested this on GNOME as well- it works fine).

Steps to enable subpixel rendering:-
1. Install the freetype2 packages from Index of /subpixel

2. I have a patched cairo located in my OBS repo at Index of /repositories/home:/anshuljain/openSUSE_11.2/i586. Install the cairo package. This patched version differs from the earlier patched versions in Index of /subpixel. I have enabled the original LCD patch, which looks a LOT better than the previous cairo patched builds in the Supixel - openSUSE-Community repo.

3. Create a file 10-lcd-filter.conf in /etc/fonts/conf.avail as, and copy the following contents :-

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
<!-- Enable freetype's new subpixel filter. Currently, only a cairo
version containing the patches from freedesktop #10301 respects this
setting. -->
<match target="font">
<edit mode="assign" name="lcdfilter">
<const>lcddefault</const>
</edit>
</match>
</fontconfig>

4. Create a file ~/.Xresources in your /home directory and paste the following contents:-

Xft.lcdfilter: lcddefault


5. Log out and login again.

Now for the necessary screenshots


Anshul

[postillion]

Thanks a lot. Perfect.

[Magnu5]

Thanks, this should be made the default.

[anshuljain]

Thanks for the feedback guys I'll be creating a new set of RPMs- freetype and cairo both, with a cleartype patch (its already done, waiting for upload). This will probably eliminate the need for a config file modification as in my earlier method. IMO, these set of patches make the font rendering better

[valurolafsson]

Great! Could you possibly also add the *-32bit packages for those of us using x86_64?

- Valur

[hermelin78]

Great job !!! Thanx

[Gofaizen]

Now hinting working fine. Thank you.

[GransRemedy]

Ok I've just upgraded to 11.2 and Firefox fonts are terrible (see pic below), but I cannot get this to work.

I've followed the steps above, and things look ok in Konq, but I prefer to use FF for general web browsing.

On the left is Firefox 3.5.6 (for Suse 11.2) on the right is Konq 4.3.1.
-------

--------
I know the differences are subtle, and only visible on LCD displays, but after looking at this for a while the font smoothing/sub-pixel hinting version is much easier on the eyes.

Cairo and Freetype installed as above. Any ideas?

Thanks

[valurolafsson]

Are you running 64-bit or 32-bit OpenSuse? I only ask, since if you are running 64-bit then I don't think that repo has the *-32bit files needed to run 32 bit applications, in case your Firefox is a 32 bit application, while Konqi is 64 bit.

[GransRemedy]

I'm pretty sure 32bit. Is there a way to tell from this (sysinfo)?

  OS:  Linux 2.6.31.5-0.1-pae i686
  System:  openSUSE 11.2 (i586)
  KDE:  4.3.1 (KDE 4.3.1) "release 6"

thanks