fonts

[LinuxRocks]

Re: fonts

If you don't like the way bold fonts look, just delete the following lines:

Yeah, deleted that block in the file and now it looks great!

Thanks again for this.

Just out of curiosity, was there some document you used to work this file out or was it hit/miss until you got it just right?

I would like to learn more about the fonts system.

Thanks again!
Joe

[gurpal2000]

Re: fonts

Hold upppp

This is weird. It's the first time i've looked at .fonts.conf and how come mine doesn't have any of my droid fonts in there. It just has the subpixel clauses thats all.

Furthermore, every now and then KDE forgets my font settings. I havent been playing around with themes yet so there's no reason why it shouldnt persist.

Even now as i write this, the fonts dialog has all my setting correct. yet when i "cat" ~/.fonts.conf i only see this

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'>
<fontconfig>
 <match target="font">
 <edit mode="assign" name="rgba">
  <const>rgb</const>
 </edit>
 </match>
 <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="antialias">
  <bool>true</bool>
 </edit>
 </match>
 <dir>~/.fonts</dir>
</fontconfig>

WTF !?

and whats <dir>~/.fonts</dir> ?

i dont have that on my system. i only have

~/.fontconfig
~/.fonts.conf

weird.

[PainGiver]

Re: fonts

If you don't like the way bold fonts look, just delete the following lines:

Yeah, deleted that block in the file and now it looks great!

Thanks again for this.

Just out of curiosity, was there some document you used to work this file out or was it hit/miss until you got it just right?

I would like to learn more about the fonts system.

Thanks again!
Joe

I've got all these info from all over the net, including Arch Linux Wiki.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Font_Configuration
But don't believe everything you read. Some of these info are obsolete and sometimes flat out wrong. So, there was a lot of trial and error involved to see what looks good. I especially like font replacement (example: Bitstream Vera Sans replace Helvetica):

<match target="pattern" name="family" >
  <test name="family" qual="any" >
    <string>Helvetica</string>
  </test>
  <edit name="family" mode="assign">
    <string>Bitstream Vera Sans</string>
  </edit>
</match>

Some web fonts just don't look good under Linux and you can replace them with whatever you want.

[PainGiver]

Re: fonts

Hold upppp

This is weird. It's the first time i've looked at .fonts.conf and how come mine doesn't have any of my droid fonts in there. It just has the subpixel clauses thats all.

Furthermore, every now and then KDE forgets my font settings. I havent been playing around with themes yet so there's no reason why it shouldnt persist.

Even now as i write this, the fonts dialog has all my setting correct. yet when i "cat" ~/.fonts.conf i only see this

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'>
<fontconfig>
 <match target="font">
 <edit mode="assign" name="rgba">
  <const>rgb</const>
 </edit>
 </match>
 <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="antialias">
  <bool>true</bool>
 </edit>
 </match>
 <dir>~/.fonts</dir>
</fontconfig>

WTF !?

and whats <dir>~/.fonts</dir> ?

i dont have that on my system. i only have

~/.fontconfig
~/.fonts.conf

weird.

<dir>~/.fonts</dir> is, I think, added by KDE font installer (don't quote me on that). If you don't have it, then you probably don't needed. I deleted this line and it kept coming back (bug?) AND I don't even have .fonts directory either. So, I left it alone.

EDIT: <dir>~/.fonts</dir> is indeed put there by KDE Font Installer. This hidden folder/directory contains fonts that were installed just for user (NOT system wide). The directory is not created until you actually install font for ONLY yourself. Whether or not <dir>~/.fonts</dir> is added to .font.conf depends on which group you select when using KDE Font Installer: All Fonts, Personal Fonts, or System Fonts. The first two will add <dir>~/.fonts</dir>

[SteveRiley]

Re: fonts

I'm rather fond of the DejaVu fonts because they render very well. I've configured Firefox and Thunderbird to use them exclusively:

Next, in System Settings | Font Installer, I disabled the Liberation and Nimbus families, which web sites generally will choose in preference to DejaVu (you'll need to run as kdesudo systemsettings):

Then finally I modified .fonts.conf to replace regular DejaVu with the condensed versions:

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'>
<fontconfig>
 <match target="font">
 <edit mode="assign" name="rgba">
  <const>rgb</const>
 </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font">
 <edit mode="assign" name="hinting">
  <bool>true</bool>
 </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font">
 <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle">
  <const>hintslight</const>
 </edit>
 </match>
 <dir>~/.fonts</dir>
 <match target="pattern">
 <test name="family" qual="any">
  <string>DejaVu Sans</string>
 </test>
 <edit mode="assign" name="family">
  <string>DejaVu Sans Condensed</string>
 </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="pattern">
 <test name="family" qual="any">
  <string>DejaVu Serif</string>
 </test>
 <edit mode="assign" name="family">
  <string>DejaVu Serif Condensed</string>
 </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font">
 <edit mode="assign" name="antialias">
  <bool>true</bool>
 </edit>
 </match>
</fontconfig>

[gurpal2000]

Re: fonts

@PainGiver - i replaced my .fonts.conf file with yours. Rebooted. And guess what? no change. Then i bring up the Fonts dialog, and still see the same titchy Ubuntu config.

Like i said, on my vanilla install, the the System Settings dialog simply isn't writing *any* font info to my ~/.fonts.conf file.....

[PainGiver]

Re: fonts

Remove/uninstall/purge package kubuntu-default-settings then try again. kubuntu-default-settings sometimes overwrite changes you made with default settings. I had this problem before. Not sure if it's the same problem you're having.

[gurpal2000]

Re: fonts

Remove/uninstall/purge package kubuntu-default-settings then try again. kubuntu-default-settings sometimes overwrite changes you made with default settings. I had this problem before. Not sure if it's the same problem you're having.

Hi didn't make any difference. Purged the package you mentioned. My dialog box says "Droid Sans" all over it, yet the fonts config is still the same as yours. I don't even have a Tahoma font as your config specifies!

Something tells me it's a bug and/or KDE doesn't read this file.

[gurpal2000]

Re: fonts

ha! i was right. I grepped for "roid" in my ~/.kde and found

user@pc:~/.kde/share/config$ grep -r "roid" .
./kdeglobals:desktopFont=Droid Sans,11,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0
./kdeglobals:fixed=Droid Sans Mono,11,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0
./kdeglobals:font=Droid Sans,11,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0
./kdeglobals:menuFont=Droid Sans,11,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0
./kdeglobals:smallestReadableFont=Droid Sans,9,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0
./kdeglobals:taskbarFont=Droid Sans,11,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0
./kdeglobals:toolBarFont=Droid Sans,11,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0
./kdeglobals:activeFont=Droid Sans,11,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0

So why do people think ~/fonts.conf holds font config when it doesnt....

Note to self: http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=35283 and http://askubuntu.com/questions/69191...-default-fonts

things like this really make KDE fail. I mean this is CORE functionality. how long has KDE been out!?

[PainGiver]

Re: fonts

So why do people think ~/fonts.conf holds font config when it doesnt....

I don' have the problem you're having. It could be problem with default configuration/setup with Kubuntu 11.10. You may want to file bug report if you think this is a bug. However, the reason "...why do people think ~/fonts.conf holds font config when it doesnt..", as you've put it, is because that's where per-user font configuration is stored. The other location is /etc/fonts/local.conf, which is global. Per-user config file has precedence over global config file.
You can read more about font config here:
http://www.freedesktop.org/software/...nfig-user.html

Don't assume that this is a KDE bug. It could just be the case of Kubuntu devs f**king things up.

[gurpal2000]

Re: fonts

I see, i will raise a bug. But what you're saying is USER config supposed to go in ~/ right? but in my case it's not. it's almost as if my settings are going into globals.

what version of kubuntu are you using paingiver?

[kubicle]

Re: fonts

I see, i will raise a bug. But what you're saying is USER config supposed to go in ~/ right? but in my case it's not. it's almost as if my settings are going into globals.

The file that holds your font choices is ~/.kde/share/config/kdeglobals (in your home directory).
~/.fonts.conf holds the config of how the fonts should be drawn (and not what fonts you have selected to use)

[gurpal2000]

Re: fonts

I see, i will raise a bug. But what you're saying is USER config supposed to go in ~/ right? but in my case it's not. it's almost as if my settings are going into globals.

The file that holds your font choices is ~/.kde/share/config/kdeglobals (in your home directory).
~/.fonts.conf holds the config of how the fonts should be drawn (and not what fonts you have selected to use)

Ah that explains it, thanks. I have some observations based on a fresh install in a VM:

1. Freshly installed, there is no ~/.fonts.conf file and you see a reasonably okay font system-wide. Now i'm guessing this is the default-kubuntu package setting.

2. Now bring up the System Settings, and open Appearance. As soon as you click Fonts icon, you'll notice that the ~/.fonts.conf file gets created. Grepping it you'll find medium hinting and some other settings in there. Your Use AntiAliasing box says "System". Again that confirms some kind of default settings in place.

3. I can modify the hinting to say Full, and that wil reflect correctly in ~/.fonts.conf.

So far so good.

4. Now CLOSE the whole System Settings applet. And Re-open it. BANG! you'll see all the fonts go small and everything NOT the way it was at the fresh install. What's happened is that the Ubuntu font settings and so forth in the fonts dialog have actually taken effect.

So...in my opinion it's a kubuntu dev bug (as PainGiver mentioned). The install should reflect immediately the dialog settings on a freshly installed system.

Now other observations, from a couple days ago is that, randomly, the settings do not stick/persist. This seems to happen when i browse System Settings applets but without actually changing anything. Something somewhere is reverting the user settings (kdeglobal).

hope this clarifies and this is fully reproducible every time.

[CathPazou]

Re: fonts

Thanks PainGiver, your fonts config file and now i have a very nice look in thunderbird and firefox !

[SteveRiley]

Re: fonts

So...in my opinion it's a kubuntu dev bug (as PainGiver mentioned). The install should reflect immediately the dialog settings on a freshly installed system.

I suspect this is a KDE bug, not specific to Kubuntu. I've noticed occasional unexplained font changes. For instance, a few days ago I built a system from the Precise mini.iso, then installed kde-plasma-desktop. Midway through my usual system settings, something changed the default font and hinting disappeared. I've not seen this happen enough yet to detect a pattern, though.