Scheduled Maintenance: We are aware of an issue with Google, AOL, and Yahoo services as email providers which are blocking new registrations. We are trying to fix the issue and we have several internal and external support tickets in process to resolve the issue. Please see: viewtopic.php?t=158230

 

 

 

HOWTO install infinality font-settings for Debian

Share your HowTo, Documentation, Tips and Tricks. Not for support questions!.
Message
Author
User avatar
squeeze
Posts: 299
Joined: 2010-06-14 23:16
Location: thimbleweedpark

Re: HOWTO install infinality font-settings for Debian

#106 Post by squeeze »

“Have you tried turning it off and on again?”

DebbyIan
Posts: 158
Joined: 2013-05-09 12:12

Re: HOWTO install infinality font-settings for Debian

#107 Post by DebbyIan »

It's in the Experiment/RC repo. I compiled this and the fontconfig package independently and they seem stable as hell to me.

User avatar
stevepusser
Posts: 12930
Joined: 2009-10-06 05:53
Has thanked: 41 times
Been thanked: 71 times

Re: HOWTO install infinality font-settings for Debian

#108 Post by stevepusser »

As another data point, we released the Jessie-based MX 16 Linux with libfreetype6 2.7 and the modified fontconfig from this thread, and there have been zero problems with it.

I'll have to check to see how Debian configured their build, though.
MX Linux packager and developer

jim_p
Posts: 28
Joined: 2008-02-07 14:07
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: HOWTO install infinality font-settings for Debian

#109 Post by jim_p »

So, I was browsing aur earlier, and I came across these

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/free ... nfinality/
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/free ... -ultimate/

I see some patches there. Does it mean we can have infinality back with freetype 2.7.x?

DebbyIan
Posts: 158
Joined: 2013-05-09 12:12

Re: HOWTO install infinality font-settings for Debian

#110 Post by DebbyIan »

A generic question if I could pick on some of the knowledge and experiences here. With sub-pixel rgb rendering, ought to one be tripling the overall dpi resolution as well? The Xft.dpi value for Xorg.

User avatar
debiman
Posts: 3063
Joined: 2013-03-12 07:18

Re: HOWTO install infinality font-settings for Debian

#111 Post by debiman »

DebbyIan wrote:A generic question if I could pick on some of the knowledge and experiences here. With sub-pixel rgb rendering, ought to one be tripling the overall dpi resolution as well? The Xft.dpi value for Xorg.
i think you will notice the difference (HUGE fonts) so why not just try it?

DebbyIan
Posts: 158
Joined: 2013-05-09 12:12

Re: HOWTO install infinality font-settings for Debian

#112 Post by DebbyIan »

I did but then you decrease the font size. But is tripling the dpi resolution the right thing to do? Whichever way you look at it scalable fonts never seem as sharp as bitmap fonts. There's always the overhanging issue of blurring and/or color fringing. Another issue is the way glyphs fade from their stem to a light gray at certain regions.

User avatar
debiman
Posts: 3063
Joined: 2013-03-12 07:18

Re: HOWTO install infinality font-settings for Debian

#113 Post by debiman »

^ depends on screen resolution.
also some of the inifinality settings have now been taken over to the "normal" freetype packages, but it seems they still need some manual configging. i know at least the color fringing can be tweaked away almost compltely.

jim_p
Posts: 28
Joined: 2008-02-07 14:07
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: HOWTO install infinality font-settings for Debian

#114 Post by jim_p »

So... freetype 2.8 is out and here are its changes. Can someone explain in plain words what should we expect? Will font rendering reach (at least) cleartype levels?

http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_ ... 8-Released

User avatar
debiman
Posts: 3063
Joined: 2013-03-12 07:18

Re: HOWTO install infinality font-settings for Debian

#115 Post by debiman »

^ not sure why you want to link a phoronic article.
freetype documentation is here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/freety ... -docs/2.8/

anyhow i agree that it isn't so easy to find comprehensible advice on how to make fonts look good on linux desktops.

maybe archwiki is, once again, the best resource?

i don't know, one of these days i will have to read up on it myself. i think there's room for improvement for how fonts are rendered on my system.

jim_p
Posts: 28
Joined: 2008-02-07 14:07
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: HOWTO install infinality font-settings for Debian

#116 Post by jim_p »

The article on phoronix.com has some useful (and simple) info on the subject, while the files on sourceforge.net are just the sources to build the documentation of freetype and they do not even contain a changelog or something similar.

User avatar
BubuXP
Posts: 29
Joined: 2014-10-27 00:41
Location: Oriental Sicily

Re: HOWTO install infinality font-settings for Debian

#117 Post by BubuXP »

I compiled last vanilla FreeType release, I didn't test the appearance of fonts very well, but I found with slight hinting a little improvement (maybe with full hinting it is better).
Also, last version of HarfBuzz is present.
Changelog: https://sourceforge.net/projects/freety ... type2/2.8/

msimsek
Posts: 2
Joined: 2017-05-12 11:52

Re: HOWTO install infinality font-settings for Debian

#118 Post by msimsek »

I found 2.8 with medium hinting and lcd-default offers the best font rendering I have seen so far. Fontconfig is from Experimental. I enabled FT_CONFIG_OPTION_SUBPIXEL_RENDERING and used Infinality style.

Here is how it looks: https://i.hizliresim.com/ldn3Ap.png

Building was easy. Just use checkinstall and create a dummy package for libfreetype6-dev. Packages are here if you want to use them: https://ufile.io/0mekx But you should build them yourself, there is no reason to trust me.

DebbyIan
Posts: 158
Joined: 2013-05-09 12:12

Re: HOWTO install infinality font-settings for Debian

#119 Post by DebbyIan »

dsc:

https://github.com/doa379/libfreetype6-2.8-

Settings could be tweaked to one's wit end. But if the fonts aren't well hinted in the first place then there's little point in going mad with settings. I'm finding some issues with fonts in the Debian repos. I'm having to download the very same font families from fonts.google.com instead and getting marginally (marginally) better results.

jim_p
Posts: 28
Joined: 2008-02-07 14:07
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: HOWTO install infinality font-settings for Debian

#120 Post by jim_p »

Despite the fact that my last question on freetype 2.7 and infinality remains unanswered, I will make a new one.

Freetype 2.8 + infinality patches on aur. Any chance of making one for debian?
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/free ... -ultimate/

DebbyIan
Posts: 158
Joined: 2013-05-09 12:12

Re: HOWTO install infinality font-settings for Debian

#121 Post by DebbyIan »

Why are you posting Arch material on this forum? Debian is not Arch.
This is the sort of attitude you get from Arch.

Second the overwhelming view expressed in the latter part of these forum posts is that Infinality is no longer necessary as the results from the standard package are 'good enough'. Personally I am fine with this.

Don't post another Arch link in this forum.

jim_p
Posts: 28
Joined: 2008-02-07 14:07
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: HOWTO install infinality font-settings for Debian

#122 Post by jim_p »

I am posting links on aur to prove that infinality patches DO exist for freetype 2.7 and 2.8, since there are NO changelogs, patches or something similar on infinality's github repo*, which in turn has been dead for a year now.

* https://github.com/bohoomil/fontconfig-ultimate

And no, the results on plain freetype are not good for me. Here is an image to prove how bad white text renders on black background on plain freetype. If that is not a problem for you, please do not read my posts.

Image

---edit
Ok, the image shows the font rendering in its absolute worse, I admit it.

User avatar
debiman
Posts: 3063
Joined: 2013-03-12 07:18

Re: HOWTO install infinality font-settings for Debian

#123 Post by debiman »

jim_p wrote:I am posting links on aur to prove that infinality patches DO exist for freetype 2.7 and 2.8
you can always look at the PKGBUILD and try to reproduce the compiling procedure on a debian system.

msimsek
Posts: 2
Joined: 2017-05-12 11:52

Re: HOWTO install infinality font-settings for Debian

#124 Post by msimsek »

Infinality patches are now in mainstream, you just need to enable them. Which is pretty easy to do actually.

Just download the source of 2.8, get the dependencies (you can check PKGBUILD for that), compile and checkinstall. This will also install development headers, so just create a empty package for libfreetype6-dev. You can also do things the Debian way and seperate the packages and all, but you don't really need that for your own use.

Configuration is simple and done from one file. Check here: https://www.freetype.org/freetype2/docs ... tml#builds

jim_p
Posts: 28
Joined: 2008-02-07 14:07
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: HOWTO install infinality font-settings for Debian

#125 Post by jim_p »

@debiman
I can't. Before finding bubuxp's debs on google drive, I had tried many, MANY times to build a proper package and failed. So I have used his ever since. And when freetype on the main repo was updated and broke infinality, I mailed bubuxp, literally BEGGING for an update.
And yes, packaging for debian is hard, at least for me.

@msimsek
Where are the infinality patches inside the source of 2.8? I can not find anything, neither inside the original freetype source*, nor on the one provided by packages.debian.org**

* https://download.savannah.gnu.org/relea ... 2.8.tar.gz
** http://http.debian.net/debian/pool/main ... rig.tar.gz

I insist on a working, infinality patched, freetype because good looking fonts are part of my setup which I use to do my everyday work. That's why I provided the aur links for infinality patched freetype 2.7 and 2.8. And I admit I almost lost my mind when I read on github that there will be no infinality patches from freetype 2.7 and on

https://github.com/bohoomil/fontconfig- ... issues/171

And for the screenshot above. I did not remember how to change opera to its dark theme in order to show the "white text on black background" problem, so I used its private mode which has white text on black background for the inactive tabs.

Post Reply