Firefox 3 terrible fonts

SrikarGottipati · Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 6:33 am Post subject: Firefox 3 terrible fonts

I installed Firefox 3 from the Testing repos and it works fine. But, somehow all the fonts look terribly disgusting. Fonts over FF 2.0.14 are fine. I set all the settings in FF 3 similar to those in FF 2.0.14, but still to no avail. Anyone else facing the same issues ? Any suggestions for resolving this ?

AnshulJain · Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 7:08 am Post subject:

Srikar,
I installed the version present in the testing repo..and with the subpixel patches enabled through libXft & libcairo2 and PLF's BCI, the fonts look great. Can't attach a screenshot here, because I don't know how!

-Anshul

SrikarGottipati · Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 7:33 am Post subject:

melk · Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 6:35 pm Post subject:

I've installed FF 3.0 from mozilla page and I had those ugly fonts too. All I've changed was the "default font" option - from "serif" to "times" and now it looks ok.

SrikarGottipati · Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 8:34 pm Post subject:

SrikarGottipati · Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 8:50 pm Post subject:

AnshulJain · Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 1:47 am Post subject:

The screenshot is at:- http://www.imageping.com/show.php/30448_Screenshot1.png.html

Now for the subpixel enabled fonts, I pulled those from the Fedora Forums and they have the latest Ubuntu patches...and no worry, work great on Mandriva. Shoot me a PM and I shall be glad to email them to you. There is *some* jugglery involved with it...but its not a big deal at all Smile

The patches are really awesome...trust me, I wish Mandriva (PLF) implements this soon..and fast!

-Anshul

SrikarGottipati · Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 3:01 am Post subject:

Thanks for the screenshot. The fonts look great, exactly similar to what I was looking for.

AnshulJain

Just a followup to the post on how to get great fonts for your new FF3 and also the desktop as a whole.

The genesis of these RPMs are from Ubuntu Hardy and were patched by a kind soul at the Fedora forum. PLF's RPMs enable only the BCI and not Cleartype-Subpixel stuff through cairo and libxft. Ubuntu incorporates the Cleartype stuff and some more patches that are supposed to go upstream in freetype (Adam Williamson summed it up in one of his Cooker posts)

To get the fonts, perform the following steps:-

1. Grab the Fonts.zip file from the following post:- http://fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=186789, they have RPMs for 32-bit and 64-bit systems as well.

2. Untar them to a folder, Fonts.zip, and open the console..login as root.

3. Remove the stock Mandriva RPMs:-
# rpm -e libcairo2-* --nodeps
# rpm -e libxft2-* --nodeps
# rpm -e fontconfig-* --nodeps
# rpm -e libfontconfig1-* --nodeps
# rpm -e libfreetype6-* --nodeps

4. Now to install the patched RPMs, navigate to the Fonts/i386 (or x86_64) folder and do the following (all from the console):-
# rpm -ivh freetype2-*
# rpm -ivh cairo-*
# rpm -ivh libXft-*
# rpm -ivh fontconfig-*

5. Enable subpixel hinting through your GNOME or KDE desktop manager. I prefer some Microshaft fonts like Tahoma which give perfect rendering (check the screenshot on my post above)

6. Restart X

And now enjoy your great desktop!

-Anshul

Gelsenbridge