Fonts look awful

[loonix]

I am running Kubuntu 14.04, with KDE 4.13.2 on an ARM PC. I started with plain Ubuntu 13.x? I upgraded my way to kubuntu, and kde. But somewhere along the way, the fonts began to look terrible. I've gone into System Settings and checked to make sure anti-aliasing is turned on. But that didn't help. I have gone into Application settings to change the font on the title bar and make it bigger, etc. They still look lousy.

Dialog boxes are simply unreadable. The text is english but it looks like rubbish. What am I missing?

[ronw]

I assume that is a GTK app. Do you have kde-config-gtk-style installed and set?

Although as weird as some of those letters look, that alone may not fix it. Do KDE apps (Dolphin, etc.) look that bad?

[Rod J]

I suspect a problem with your graphic drivers or the way you have the display set up in Kubuntu. I don't think it's the fonts themselves. If you boot with a live Kubuntu CD/DVD does it look the same?

[loonix]

I can't boot with a CD- it's a tiny little computer with just some USB ports and HDMI- like a Raspberry Pi with some serious guts.

[loonix]

If you can tell me a few common GTK apps- I will see if those have a problem. A few things look pretty okay.

[loonix]

Well, it appears that it is the GTK apps (Firefox, Sofwtware and Updates, Gedit, etc.) that have an issue. Other apps are okay. The systems where things are working do not have kde-config-gtk-style installed. The broken systems do have it. However, removing that package doesn't fix the problem.

NOTE: In System | Settings | Application Appearance selecting "GTK" crashes sometimes. Changing the theme doesn't help. I have several different kinds of machines that have GTK apps, like Firefox and Gedit, and apparently have GTK installed (there are various GTK files and directories). The ones that work don't have "GTK" in System Settings | Application Appearance, thos that do work lack this icon (and the corresponding settings).

[SteveRiley]

I wonder if you have some old font configuration files causing conflicts? What's the output of
find ~ -iname '*font*'

[Shabakthanai]

You are getting help from the best that Kubuntu Forums has to offer, but not being as savvy as those who responded, I will add my thought, even though it will probably prove a silly, and it was probably the first thing you tried anyway.

Try using the font named Ubuntu, simple, clean, and easy to read. Your font looks like some unusual design that is just plain difficult to read.

I am running Kubuntu 14.04, with KDE 4.13.2 on an ARM PC. I started with plain Ubuntu 13.x? I upgraded my way to kubuntu, and kde. But somewhere along the way, the fonts began to look terrible. I've gone into System Settings and checked to make sure anti-aliasing is turned on. But that didn't help. I have gone into Application settings to change the font on the title bar and make it bigger, etc. They still look lousy.

Dialog boxes are simply unreadable. The text is english but it looks like rubbish. What am I missing?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5054[/ATTACH]

[loonix]

I appreciate the help!!!!

Steve: It's a brand-new install, so no old font file. But here's the output:
/root/.kde/share/config/kcmfonts
/root/.kde/share/config/kfontinstuirc
/root/.config/libreoffice/4/user/psprint/pspfontcache
/root/.config/fontconfig
/root/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf


I have not idea what this means!

Shabakthanai: I am using the Ubuntu font already- it's the default, and it is on the working machines as well as those that don't work properly. And all fonts have the same issue- but when I make the size larger it becomes less noticeable. However by the time it's large enough to be acceptable (typically over 20 pts),, the font is too big to be usable.

I did a diff of the installed gtk packages on one of the working machines vs. a non-working. There are quite a few differences. The working machine has far fewer GTK packages installed. I'm methodically installing, or de-installing packages and rebooting, then restoring to the original state when I find that things are still broken. It's a tedious process.

I have considered that it might be a driver issue related to slightly different hardware but I don't think that's it, since it's been reported on a variety of platforms. One guy fixed it a number of years ago (http://www.geeklab.info/2012/07/gtk-...eadable-fonts/) but I can't apply his (old) solution. Steve- maybe you can take a look at the link and tell me if it has anything to do with a more recent Ubuntu installation. I removed the oxygen and another engine for GTK2 and 3, but it made no difference. It seems like that would accomplish the same thing the other guy did years ago. But I'm pretty much of a newbie, so I don't really know that.

Thanks again!

[SteveRiley]

Hm, you're logging in as root? That's not really a recommended way to operate. If you create a standard user and then log into that account, how do fonts appear? I'm curious because this process would create the default ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf file, which should render everything well.

The information in that post is pretty out of date. The current file is /usr/share/themes/oxygen-gtk/gtk-2.0/gtkrc, which specifies the engine oxygen-gtk.

More diagnosis, please. Before you try creating a standard user account, please post here the contents of
cat ~/.gtkrc-2.0

[loonix]

Here are the contents of ~/.gtkrc-2.0:

# File created by KDE Gtk Config
# Configs for GTK2 programs 

include "/usr/share/themes/oxygen-gtk/gtk-2.0/gtkrc"
style "user-font" 
{
    font_name="Ubuntu Regular"
}
widget_class "*" style "user-font"
gtk-font-name="Ubuntu Regular 9"
gtk-theme-name="oxygen-gtk"
gtk-icon-theme-name="oxygen"
gtk-fallback-icon-theme="oxygen"
gtk-toolbar-style=GTK_TOOLBAR_ICONS
gtk-menu-images=1
gtk-button-images=1

Thanks for the warning about GUI root access. I am familiar with the risk (though not expertly), and never use a browser, or even access the outside world other than using a package manager. Root makes this tedious process just a bit more bearable. The machine I am working on is a development platform, so there's no significant risk there. I am exposing my network possibly, but have taken precautions there too, so that's a minimal, manageable, and quite acceptable risk. If, knowing the foregoing, you think that I am taking a larger, more significant, risk than I am seemingly aware-of, I can actually isolate this machine from the network. That's a bit of a pain. I am not feeling well (for months), though this will pass. But for now ease is a valuable commodity, not so valuable that I want my secrets easily accessible though. I don't believe it would be easy to access them, but I am far from a network security whiz. Thanks again for your help- it is invaluable.

Once I get this done, I will go back to my normal login. However, I first experienced this hideous font rendering when logged in as a normal user, and it's still there when I login that way, even after a reboot.

I think this is significant (but don't know where it fits): When I go into System Settings, I can do pretty much anything I like, except Display and Monitor | Screen Locker. Selecting this (launching this) settings option always causes a crash right after about 1 second of very fast flickering in the application window. Other items work fine.

[loonix]

Q: Is the stuff going to stderr logged somewhere? If so, I'd like to look at that. I can connect a cable and see the output on another machine (and log it there), but I have been too lazy and wouldn't know what to make of most of that output anyway. But maybe...

[Shabakthanai]

When I supply input, I do so in case the person needing help is less expert like me. I see things that to the experts is so simple to be overlooked or assumed already considered. Sorry I couldn't help. Nevertheless, Steve who has responded next is about as good as the gurus get. Follow his instructions carefully and you should be OK.

I appreciate the help!!!!

Steve: It's a brand-new install, so no old font file. But here's the output:
/root/.kde/share/config/kcmfonts
/root/.kde/share/config/kfontinstuirc
/root/.config/libreoffice/4/user/psprint/pspfontcache
/root/.config/fontconfig
/root/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf


I have not idea what this means!

Shabakthanai: I am using the Ubuntu font already- it's the default, and it is on the working machines as well as those that don't work properly. And all fonts have the same issue- but when I make the size larger it becomes less noticeable. However by the time it's large enough to be acceptable (typically over 20 pts),, the font is too big to be usable.

I did a diff of the installed gtk packages on one of the working machines vs. a non-working. There are quite a few differences. The working machine has far fewer GTK packages installed. I'm methodically installing, or de-installing packages and rebooting, then restoring to the original state when I find that things are still broken. It's a tedious process.

I have considered that it might be a driver issue related to slightly different hardware but I don't think that's it, since it's been reported on a variety of platforms. One guy fixed it a number of years ago (http://www.geeklab.info/2012/07/gtk-...eadable-fonts/) but I can't apply his (old) solution. Steve- maybe you can take a look at the link and tell me if it has anything to do with a more recent Ubuntu installation. I removed the oxygen and another engine for GTK2 and 3, but it made no difference. It seems like that would accomplish the same thing the other guy did years ago. But I'm pretty much of a newbie, so I don't really know that.

Thanks again!

[loonix]

Of course, "Thanks for the help!" includes you.

[millusions]

i would check DPI and make sure its 96 or 100,
had a similar issue and Dpi fixed it