Where to find libfreetype with subpixel hinting compiled in?

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hi all,

I just installed Leap 15.1 and the font rendering is terrible (as usual with Opensuse).
How to enable subpixel hinting on opensuse Leap?

https://doc.opensuse.org/documentation/leap/reference/html/book.opensuse.reference/cha.gui_desktop.html#sec.x11.fontsys

Thanks,

Teuniz

2

Yes, font smoothing in openSUSE is a piece of <self-censored>.

So,

  1. Simply don’t use font smoothing.
  2. Install Microsoft fonts - “Webcore fonts” packets: webcore-fonts and webcore-fonts-vista
  3. Some free fonts looks very bad - uninstall them.
  4. You can install font smoothing packages from Ubuntu.
3

Can you show me a screenshot of these terrible rendered fonts?
I’m just curious because I believe that the default font rendering is great for a few years now.

At least I think this looks fine:
https://paste.opensuse.org/view/raw/67055012

Operius.

4

Looks good to me once I zoom enough to see anything:
http://susepaste.org/view/raw/13784400

5

Ever since installing Leap 15, I happened to notice that YaST uses subpixel-hinting font rendering by default during setup and installation. This demonstrated to me that subpixel hinting must already be compiled into libfreetype.

After installing Leap 15.0, I just copied my old »infinality« settings (a great package, sadly no longer maintained) from Leap 42.3, and this essentially gave me the macOS-style font rendering I’ve grown used to (which I find a bit more rounded and more pleasant that Microsoft’s ClearType; maybe because of macOS’s DTP heritage, its on-screen typography is also more ink-on-paper-like, which, as the son of a letterpress printer, I also favor).

This is my /etc/fonts/local.conf (should be roughly identical to /home/$USER/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf):

<?xml version="3.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<!-- /etc/fonts/local.conf file for local customizations -->
<fontconfig>
 <match target="font">
  <edit name="lcdfilter" mode="assign">
   <const>lcddefault</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font">
  <edit name="autohint" mode="assign">
   <bool>false</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="pattern">
  <edit name="dpi" mode="assign">
   <double>96</double>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font">
  <edit name="rgba" mode="assign">
   <const>rgb</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font">
  <edit name="hinting" mode="assign">
   <bool>false</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font">
  <edit name="hintstyle" mode="assign">
   <const>hintnone</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font">
  <edit name="antialias" mode="assign">
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
</fontconfig>

Note: I have no settings in my ~/.Xdefaults as to how my X server should render its fonts. I also use no font-hinting of any kind and let FreeType auto-kern its letter spacing. Finally, setting the »lcdfilter« element to »lcddefault« seems to do that subpixel magic we’re after. Lately I’ve been liking FreeType rendering so much, I even use xterm with vector fonts rather than pixel fonts.

Using »Helvetica Neue« (comes with macOS, looks better to me than Microsoft’s »Arial«) and the Clearlooks-Phenix theme, this is what I’ve settled with since Leap 42:

http://susepaste.org/images/34849246.png

Haven’t tried these settings with TumbleWeed or Leap 15.1, but if you see YaST using subpixel hinting during installation, it should then be possible to use all of the FreeType goodies right out of the box. Cheers!