Linpus Howto: Better antialiasing and MS fonts

Hi all

So apparently the default configuration for Fedora (and Linpus) is to disable the proprietary methods for font smoothing and hinting, and enable the not so great community ones. Luckily, there's a way to enable this functionality via a custom compiled package by yours truly.

You may or may not notice the difference, depending on what system fonts you use. I like to use Arial as my window and application font by default, and arial looks much nicer with this method.

Step 1 (Optional)
First, let's install some M$ Fonts... This isn't necessary for antialising, but it will make your webpages look nicer. (There are previous instructions posted by rhino in a comment, I'm reposting here so it's more visible.)

Download the following rpm, double click to install: http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/files ... noarch.rpm

This should install a couple of dependencies too.

Step 2 - Recompiled Freetype

Next download and install my recompiled freetype rpm (this is the same version as in the repository, except with proprietary antialising option enabled). As above, save anywhere, double click to install: http://www.annafilippova.com/aao/freety ... 8.i386.rpm

You may need to enable antialising and hinting in your system preferences. In your right click menu, Settings->User Interface Settings (or Alt+F2, type xfce-setting-show), look for font rendering and enable "Full" hinting and sub-pixel rendering. You can also change your system font here.

If you don't like it, you can always install the freetype package from the repository using your yum package manager and that will bring you back to the old anti-alising method.

Just for a taste of what it can look like:

 

Hi and thank you so much for taking your time to create this and so many other nice guides. They are very helpful.

The link, however, to the MS fonts doesn't work. But isn't there a way to directly copy Microsoft fonts (If you have access to XP/Vista) onto a Linux system? I'm pretty sure I read about it somewhere. Something about simply pasting the fonts into a font library or whatever and then pick up the font you prefer through a desktop modification gui.

 

hmm you could try creating a .fonts directory in /home/user and then pasting the .ttf fonts from your windows machine there. you may need to reboot

 

It does seem to have made things better on my system, the MS fonts improved FireFox's rendering of some sites, and I think the new freetype package has made the system/terminal fonts sharper.. but it's hard to be sure, might be all in the eye of the beholder, and I already had the anti-aliasing options turned on in the UI preferences.

But I had trouble installing the recompiled Freetype RPM. My system already has most of the xfce hacks and mods on it, and the installed freetype was already the same version as the downloaded one:

Code:

[root@susie ~]# yum install freetype-2.3.5-3.fc8.i386.rpm
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments
Examining freetype-2.3.5-3.fc8.i386.rpm: freetype-2.3.5-3.fc8.i386
freetype-2.3.5-3.fc8.i386.rpm: does not update installed package.
Nothing to do
[root@susie ~]# yum list | grep -i freetype
freetype.i386                            2.3.5-3.fc8            installed       
freetype.i386                            2.3.5-4.fc8            updates-newkey  
freetype-demos.i386                      2.3.5-4.fc8            updates-newkey  
freetype-devel.i386                      2.3.5-4.fc8            updates-newkey  
freetype1.i386                           1.4-0.4.pre.fc8        fedora          
freetype1-devel.i386                     1.4-0.4.pre.fc8        fedora          
freetype1-utils.i386                     1.4-0.4.pre.fc8        fedora          
[root@susie ~]# yum reinstall freetype-2.3.5-3.fc8.i386.rpm
Setting up Reinstall Process
No Match for argument: freetype-2.3.5-3.fc8.i386.rpm
Error: Problem in reinstall: no package matched to remove
[root@susie ~]# 

I'm guessing that yum/rpm cannot see this as an updated version of the installed package, after a bit of sniffing about (and trying 'yum remove freetype', which is absolutely NOT a solution since it would remove half of the OS if I'd said 'yes' :shock: ) I decided to remove the package with rpm and then reinstall:

Code:

[root@susie ~]# rpm -e --nodeps freetype
[root@susie ~]# yum --nogpgcheck install freetype-2.3.5-3.fc8.i386.rpm

This appears to have worked! I'd like to say any thanks for this (and all the other occasions where I have followed your advice but not said thanks!)

 

easytarget: thanks it's nice to know my tips have helped someone out there

I probably should have mentioned somewhere in the post that if its the same version, you can use

Code:

sudo rpm -U packagename.rpm

Maybe next time you can try that

 

For those searching for fonts package:

ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/suser- ... noarch.rpm