Bug 5612

Summary:

Xft hinting with RGBA antialiasing needs to be greatly improved

Product:

xorg

Reporter:

Artem S. Tashkinov <aros>

Component:

Lib/Xft

Assignee:

Keith Packard <keithp>

Status:

RESOLVED INVALID

QA Contact:

Severity:

critical

Priority:

high

CC:

bugs.freedesktop

Version:

unspecified

Hardware:

x86 (IA32)

OS:

Linux (All)

Whiteboard:

2011BRB_Reviewed

i915 platform:

i915 features:

Attachments:

Description	Flags
Archive containing examples of font rendering by Xft and ClearType	none

Description Artem S. Tashkinov 2006-01-16 09:24:13 UTC

My .fonts.conf:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="hinting" >
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle" >
   <const>hintfull</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="rgba" >
   <const>rgb</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
</fontconfig>

freetype 2.1.10 installed with

#define TT_CONFIG_OPTION_BYTECODE_INTERPRETER

Xft font rendering quality is much inferior to Windows Cleartype. Some tiny
fonts aren't readable at all (Impact) and the hinting is erroneos in many cases.

Comment 1 Artem S. Tashkinov 2006-01-16 09:26:32 UTC

Created attachment 4358 [details]
Archive containing examples of font rendering by Xft and ClearType

Fonts comparison: Linux vs. Windows; files with _x postfix are rendered by Xft,
files with _c postfix are rendered Windows XP ClearType

Comment 2 Karl Tomlinson 2006-03-03 16:23:19 UTC

I actually prefer the clarity of arial_x and verdana_x down to 7 pixels and  
times_new_roman down to at least 9 pixels, but maybe my display is different  
from your's (147dpi RGB TFT, don't know the regularity in the spacing of the 
subpixels though) or maybe my eyes and brain work differently.  
  
For 5 or 6 pixels and below, yes, my brain can work out what arial_c and  
verdana_c are displaying but I wouldn't want to spend much time reading text  
this size.  
  
Perhaps Xft/freetype could hint to subpixels (instead of pixels) at such  
small sizes but overall I'd prefer to have an Xft system.  
  
(I can't say I like either version of impact.) 
  
Perhaps more configurability in the system to suit different displays and  
tastes could be an asset but I wouldn't want to lose the ability to render as  
is currently done in Xft.

Comment 3 Jeremy Huddleston Sequoia 2011-09-24 23:43:25 UTC

Keith, this sounds like NOTOURBUG, right?

Comment 4 Artem S. Tashkinov 2011-10-11 11:25:22 UTC

Whose bug is it then?

Comment 5 Adam Jackson 2018-06-12 19:09:32 UTC

Mass closure: This bug has been untouched for more than six years, and is not
obviously still valid. Please reopen this bug or file a new report if you continue to experience issues with current releases.

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