Display Microsoft fonts like on Windows

[taisao]

looks quite like windows xp without cleartype turning on.

Doesn't look good on my LCD :(

thanks for the Tahoma fonts :KS

[calande]

Just out of curiosity, could you provide us with a screenshot of your current desktop? :)

[taisao]

this is the way it looks with yours xml files:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/WhyYouPickMyName/desktop/snapshot2.png


this is how I have it now (I like this more):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/WhyYouPickMyName/desktop/snapshot1.png

[calande]

Yeah, they look better, but is this the default Kubuntu configuration? These fonts look more polished than on a standard install to me. Could you give more details if you tweaked your configuration?

[taisao]

I have read and tried many howto.

But I think this are the one that I get the result with:

Firefox Widgets - http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=369596
Improved subpixel font rendering for Feisty - http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=343670&highlight=fonts
HOW TO: Improve Ubuntu font rendering. - http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=515947

and this are the settings

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/WhyYouPickMyName/desktop/snapshot3.png

[boob11]

Thank you

[calande]

Cool, well thanks for the tips, I have never used the Liberation fonts but they are clean on your screenshot, I'll try them this week-end ;)

[daWsOn_s]

Hi is there any possibilty to use this clear fonts only in the applications that require it? For example why if I use Sans Serif font as the default system font it applies Arial, why? I just want this font to display for example in firefox on a web site that use it in the CSS but still having my ubuntu default fonts. Thanks

[calande]

No. All applications use fontconfig these days, so if you change the configuration, it applies to all applications (almost).

[daWsOn_s]

Mmmm ok but why Arial? what file should I change to set another default font and how?

[gladstone]

Is it only me, or does Cleartype/Font Anti-aliasing/Smoothing whatever you want to call it look as bad as I think it does?

I really can't see the appeal of blurry fonts. Everyone say's it's designed for LCD's in mind, but I just can't get on with them on my laptop - perhaps it's my screen?

Anyway, running through this process (it's a shame I didn't find this thread to start with) was the first thing I did when installing Ubuntu - perhaps I'm being too hasty?

[crjackson]

Ok, I think I know what the problem is. Go to your Firefox font configuration and select generic family fonts, for monospace you will select "Monospace" instead of what there is currently.

Okay, I can't find anything called "generic family fonts", what am I missing here?

[RaviJ]

Hi
I got a problem with the fonts after installing. so i wanted to revert back as suggested in the 2nd page of this 27 pages long thread, but i couldnt. i'm denied permission. is there anyway in which i can undo my installation of these microsoft fonts on my ubuntu?
thanks a lot

[taisao]

Hi
I got a problem with the fonts after installing. so i wanted to revert back as suggested in the 2nd page of this 27 pages long thread, but i couldnt. i'm denied permission. is there anyway in which i can undo my installation of these microsoft fonts on my ubuntu?
thanks a lot

if you want to delete it with nautilus then run nautilus as root, do so:

pressing: Alt+F2
type: gksudo nautilus
type: **** <- yours superuser password

and delete the files

[RaviJ]

Hi
Thanks a lot. it helped. but the file is only 339bytes. i think the msfonts would be a lot because many files got installed during the installation process. by just deleting the small local.conf file would all the process be reversed?i

[taisao]

By deleting the local.conf you will get the fonts settings back like before, you still have the mscorefonts on yours system. That are just fonts file and you can just leave them like how they are.

[Naatan]

Thanks a lot mate! I really like the font smoothening in Ubuntu but it feels mighty refreshing to have the crispy windows font feeling back again, to be quite honest it's easier on the eyes

[walkerk]

Here's a script that'll complete this installation for Feisty or Gutsy...

Download and then...
cd /path/to/fonts.sh

Make it executable...
chmod +x fonts.sh

Run it...
./fonts.sh

I really prefer my fonts like this so I thought I'd contribute..

[taisao]

screenshots please?

[walkerk]

....

[gladstone]

Theres one on the first post here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1209754&postcount=1

[taisao]

Theres one on the first post here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1209754&postcount=1

I mean a screenshot of walkerk desktop :KS

Thank you walkerk,

[taisao]

Here's a script that'll complete this installation for Feisty or Gutsy...

Download and then...
cd /path/to/fonts.sh

Make it executable...
chmod +x fonts.sh

Run it...
./fonts.sh

I really prefer my fonts like this so I thought I'd contribute..

what change do I need to make if I want to enable sub-pixel hinting for those mscorefonts (cleartype in windows term)?

[calande]

what change do I need to make if I want to enable sub-pixel hinting for those mscorefonts (cleartype in windows term)?

You will want to comment out the line that defines the rules for the MS fonts: open /etc/fonts/local.conf and comment out this line from: <include ignore_missing="yes">msfonts-rules.conf</include> to: <!--<include ignore_missing="yes">msfonts-rules.conf</include>--> Or you can also rename msfonts-rules.conf to msfonts-rules.bkp.conf

Installing just the MS fonts without fontconfig would have had the same effect. Just enable sub-pixel hinting in your fonts control panel.

:)

[taisao]

You will want to comment out the line that defines the rules for the MS fonts: open /etc/fonts/local.conf and comment out this line from: <include ignore_missing="yes">msfonts-rules.conf</include> to: <!--<include ignore_missing="yes">msfonts-rules.conf</include>--> Or you can also rename msfonts-rules.conf to msfonts-rules.bkp.conf

Installing just the MS fonts without fontconfig would have had the same effect. Just enable sub-pixel hinting in your fonts control panel.

:)

oh :)

I choose to comment that one line out. Thanks :KS

[calande]

You welcome. Could you show us how it looks like? Is it as good as ClearType?

[taisao]

uhm, maybe I like Cleartype better, I don't know, I don't use it anyway. Here you decide it:

WindowsXP firefox:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/WhyYouPickMyName/compTemp/winxp_shot1.jpg (zoom 100%)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/WhyYouPickMyName/compTemp/winxp_shot2.jpg (zoom 140%)

Ubuntu firefox:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/WhyYouPickMyName/compTemp/sr7.png (zoom 100%)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/WhyYouPickMyName/compTemp/sr6.png (zoom 140%)




And this is what I use at the moment, Ubuntu firefox & don't use pages fontfamily preference:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/WhyYouPickMyName/compTemp/sr8.png (zoom 120%)



What do you think?

[JohnOhl]

I followed the tutorial to a T and I love the fonts how they are now.

I can't seem to get 'clearish-type' working on this feisty machine but as it is now it looks almost identical to a windows XP machine without cleartype enabled. Which is much, much better than the standard ubuntu fonts at small sizes.

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/5843/screenshotsx1.png

[xcafeus]

awesome! thanks man.

[mencho78]

I can't unpack the files in the fonts folder, it says I'm not the owner, and I don't know how to change permissions for root folders.... I'm running Gutsy

can anyone please help me? :confused:

[NilsE]

I can't unpack the files in the fonts folder, it says I'm not the owner, and I don't know how to change permissions for root folders.... I'm running Gutsy

can anyone please help me? :confused:
Go into a terminal and start Nautilus as root

gksudo nautilus

[NilsE]

I followed the tutorial to a T and I love the fonts how they are now.

I can't seem to get 'clearish-type' working on this feisty machine but as it is now it looks almost identical to a windows XP machine without cleartype enabled. Which is much, much better than the standard ubuntu fonts at small sizes.

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/5843/screenshotsx1.png
Go one more step in the font configuration and select the details page then select slight and close. Do not change anything on the main preference screen.

I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

[Zillion]

Here's a script that'll complete this installation for Feisty or Gutsy...

Download and then...
cd /path/to/fonts.sh

Make it executable...
chmod +x fonts.sh

Run it...
./fonts.sh

I really prefer my fonts like this so I thought I'd contribute..

Thanks.. very nice.

[calande]

Does it only return a warning message and unpack or doesn't it work at all? Are you logged as root or as user? You need to use "sudo".

[MemoryDump]

how can you tell if it's actually using the msfonts?
according to this screenshot I just took it seems to be the defaults to me.. and yes I did reboot :)

[calande]

Yes, these are the fonts (although the JPEG is so compressed that I can hardly see). Next time, please use PNG for your screenshots.

[Scimu]

Thanks a lot for this. I got it working first time! :D

[cookies]

Thanks for this tutorial!
I know this sounds insane, but can this be done for all fonts? Or, at least, this be the default setting? I have some fonts that still anit-alias for some reason.

[calande]

Thanks for this tutorial!
I know this sounds insane, but can this be done for all fonts? Or, at least, this be the default setting? I have some fonts that still anit-alias for some reason.

Yes, this is actually done for all Microsoft fonts. Could you show us a screenshot?

[cookies]

All my MS fonts do, but not certain fonts, which gets annoying in cases like this:

[calande]

There's nothing you can do in this case. The WINE web site is designed to use blurred fonts, unfortunately. Unless you're able to convince its webmaster to use sans-serif instead of Bitstream Vera Sans (which I doubt).

[cookies]

Blargh. Thanks for the info.

[Dynych]

Run it...
./fonts.sh
The Italic fonts still anti-aliased. How to fix it?

[tokinux]

The Italic fonts still anti-aliased. How to fix it?

Same problem here. Italic fonts are still AA'ed everywhere; system & browser

[Dynych]

Gutsy solve all my problems with fonts.:)

[shaula]

Hello All,

i did not managed to install msttcorefonts via all traditional methods due to an annoying error message.

i managed to install the MS-Win fonts by the use of kfontview (if you don't have it install it).

i initiated <sudo kfontview> from the terminal.
looked for the appropriate fonts in the windows drive (i have a dual boot XpPro-Ubuntu 7.10 machine) and simply installed (for all users) the appropriate fonts.

it is not elegant but it worked for me.

ShaulA

[calande]

Please use the xml files from here: http://www.sharpfonts.com
Italic fonts will be aliased as on Windows.

[tokinux]

Please use the xml files from here: http://www.sharpfonts.com
Italic fonts will be aliased as on Windows.

Thanks much! These new xml files worked perfectly. Everything nice and crisp now \\:D/

[cookies]

Me again. I feel like a Troll. D:

Verdana, Tahoma, and Trebuchet MS do not display properly in bold. They are blocky.

Also, could you pretty please apply these rules to non-latin, if you can? That'd be awesome.

[Elman]

Is there any way I can change Firefox's fonts without changing all the System's?

Websites look terrible in smooth fonts cause they're usually supposed to be seen in sharp fonts, but the rest of the OS looks awesome. I don't want Firefox to look so terrible, but I want to keep the rest of the fonts :(

Thanks.

[calande]

I only know how to do the other way around: sharp fonts in the system and polished fonts in Firefox.

[Elman]

I've found a "mozilla-fonts" package for NetBSD that seems to do what I want. Would that work in ubuntu? :S

EDIT: Nevermind. I fixed it by disabling the "Allow pages to choose their fonts" option and using Sans-Serif 16 as default.

[kingofpain]

Hey!

Sorry I don't have the time to read all posts here (over 30 pages... oohh)
So, maybe my question was already asked.
The tahoma bold font (I got it from my windows installation) looks very bad. Could something be done?
And if so, could you post this on the first page, pls...

[pcolamar]

Walkerk, Calande,
thanks a lot.
Everything has worked fine on my Gutsy installation.
That's an other step into my "escape from Windows" venture.

Cheers

Palmer

[calande]

The tahoma bold font (I got it from my windows installation) looks very bad. Could something be done?
And if so, could you post this on the first page, pls...

Could you show us a screenshot please?

[kingofpain]

Could you show us a screenshot please?

http://www.imagehost.ro/thumbnail.php/14020314473a3b4215633.png (http://www.imagehost.ro/viewer.php?img=14020314473a3b4215633)

http://www.imagehost.ro/thumbnail.php/14020425473a3b89f223c.png (http://www.imagehost.ro/viewer.php?img=14020425473a3b89f223c)

[calande]

Oh, wow, first time I see that... Are you using a standard installation? Are you using 96dpi? What desktop environment are you using?

[kingofpain]

Oh, wow, first time I see that... Are you using a standard installation? Are you using 96dpi? What desktop environment are you using?

Yes... I use Gusty now... this thing I've noticed also on Feisty.
And yes, 96dpi.
I am using Gnome (Ubuntu Gutsy).

You should try to replicate this. Just find tahoma.ttf and put it in your fonts folder.

[walkerk]

Here is a script for sharpfonts.com...

cd /path/to/file
chmod +x sharpfonts.sh
./sharpfonts.sh

Enjoy.

[gladstone]

Hey!

Sorry I don't have the time to read all posts here (over 30 pages... oohh)
So, maybe my question was already asked.
The tahoma bold font (I got it from my windows installation) looks very bad. Could something be done?
And if so, could you post this on the first page, pls...

I've had this before. Make sure you have tahomabd.ttf installed aswell as the normal tahoma font. For some reason Ubuntu wouldn't work with the font I copied from my Windows install, but you can get a working one from here: http://www.stchman.com/tools/MS_fonts/tahoma.zip (http://www.stchman.com/ms_fonts.html) - notice there's two font files

[maddog_326]

Thank you after all those years using windows the big font default on ubuntu was not a upside for me. Thank you for sharing this.:)

[iml]

For me the New York Times is the standard reference for serif, so I've got it to the point where it looks as good or better than Windows.

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/5614/s342tb0.th.png (http://img529.imageshack.us/my.php?image=s342tb0.png)

Subpixel smoothing and slight hinting. I also use NoSquint (http://urandom.ca/nosquint/) for Firefox with a default zoom of 110%.

[kingofpain]

I've had this before. Make sure you have tahomabd.ttf installed aswell as the normal tahoma font. For some reason Ubuntu wouldn't work with the font I copied from my Windows install, but you can get a working one from here: http://www.stchman.com/tools/MS_fonts/tahoma.zip (http://www.stchman.com/ms_fonts.html) - notice there's two font files

Thanks a lot! It works! =D>

[imbjr]

Thank you so much. After realising that my Tahoma fonts were incomplete and in the wrong location, I then applied your XMLs and my eyes are now crying with relief - though, oddly, they are now going to have to get back into the habit of looking at nice, crisp fonts.

Interestingly, the sharpfonts.com site process seemed overkill for me. All I needed was your original advice, no need to install anything else than the fonts and the XML.

[cookies]

I was looking at the configuration files, and this Guide Here (http://www.convexhull.com/mandrake_fonts.html), and I realized that we can disable Anti-Aliasing for font sizes below and equal to 13 that are not bold, and substitute some fonts for Bitstream Vera and the like, so you can have Sharp Fonts anywhere.

The config files are attached if you're interested.

[gladstone]

cookies: I've applied your edited xml files, I was wondering what the difference is with these and the ones on sharpfonts.com??

[calande]

I'm not sure but I think the old XML files have Arial and Dejavu Sans as default font families for sans-serif while SharpFonts have Tahoma and Dejavu Sans Condensed for sans-serif.

[calande]

Interestingly, the sharpfonts.com site process seemed overkill for me. All I needed was your original advice, no need to install anything else than the fonts and the XML.

It's actually the exact same process, it just has more information and comments :)

[corefile]

I've found a "mozilla-fonts" package for NetBSD that seems to do what I want. Would that work in ubuntu? :S

EDIT: Nevermind. I fixed it by disabling the "Allow pages to choose their fonts" option and using Sans-Serif 16 as default.

wow, that is just what I needed, I'm fine with how my fonts looked, its was just the firefox ones, this fixed them up just right

[gladstone]

Is it possible to make only certain fonts "anti-aliased" - say Bitstream Vera Sans Mono, within using the "sharpfonts" xml files?

[calande]

Yes, the sharpfonts XML files do just that, with them you have antialiasing for all non-Microsoft fonts :)

[lmo]

I struggled, but eventually got the sharp fonts to work!:popcorn:

Personally, I much prefer putting my special fonts in my home directory under .fonts and as well as using .fonts.conf as the xml for special fonts instead of system wide.

[cookies]

cookies: I've applied your edited xml files, I was wondering what the difference is with these and the ones on sharpfonts.com??

Mine disable anti-aliasing for ALL fonts, calande's are for certain fonts.

[apothecaryaaron]

Worked for me. Thanks!

[lmo]

I was amazed that without the xml files, these fonts look remarkably similar to cleartype fonts. Adjustments to the rgba sub-pixel hinting of none, rgb, bgr, vrgb, and vbgr will then affect the colored-haze. With the xml files, you can't get the colored haze.

Then I went over to XP and fiddled with
ClearType Tuner PowerToy (http://www.microsoft.com/typography/ClearTypePowerToy.mspx) :-({|=

[Bandicoot]

I must say that I am very satisfied with the way my fonts look after I applied the xml file. My fonts look very crisp and webpages are rendered just the way I like them (I mean the displaying of text ofcourse). The only thing I dislike so far are when font are Italic, some font look really weird then. I have enclosed an example of tahoma 8 pt italic, they look very weird to me. I've also enclosed a picture to show just how sharp my webpages look now (big thumbs up !)

[calande]

Yeah, sadly the italic version is not as good as in Windows. I suspect this is due to Freetype's rendering algorythm, but I'm not 100% sure. If some one finds a way to enhance italic font rendering, I'd be happy to add it.
Thanks.

[lmo]

Tahoma maybe, does not have built-in italic ...

One of my "font.conf" files has this:
<!--
Artificial oblique for fonts without an italic or oblique version
-->

<match target="font">
<!-- check to see if the font is roman -->
<test name="slant">
<const>roman</const>
</test>
<!-- check to see if the pattern requested non-roman -->
<test target="pattern" name="slant" compare="not_eq">
<const>roman</const>
</test>
<!-- multiply the matrix to slant the font -->
<edit name="matrix" mode="assign">
<times>
<name>matrix</name>
<matrix><double>1</double><double>0.2</double>
<double>0</double><double>1</double>
</matrix>
</times>
</edit>
<!-- pretend the font is oblique now -->
<edit name="slant" mode="assign">
<const>oblique</const>
</edit>
</match>
Changing the "0.2" to "0.3" resulted in a better-looking italic for Tahoma. I haven't checked to see what it did to any other fonts, though.

[cookies]

Tahoma maybe, does not have built-in italic ...

One of my "font.conf" files has this:
Changing the "0.2" to "0.3" resulted in a better-looking italic for Tahoma. I haven't checked to see what it did to any other fonts, though.

Looks like it won't do much, it only does it for fonts with no italic form. (I wonder if this is possible for bold, too?)

[calande]

I know this snippet, it's intended to fonts that weren't designed with italic support in mind, it simulates italic, but Tahoma does have an italic variant. I'm on Windows XP at the moment and Tahoma Italic doesn't look very nice here either! :)
I think italic fonts don't look very well, be they aliased or not, actually :(

[lmo]

I must have missed a trick somewhere, because my Tahoma doesn't do its own italic and obeys the snippet. I must have been lucky -- I think it looks better. Looks like this:

[lmo]

Hey!

Sorry I don't have the time to read all posts here (over 30 pages... oohh)
So, maybe my question was already asked.
The tahoma bold font (I got it from my windows installation) looks very bad. Could something be done?
And if so, could you post this on the first page, pls...Some sources of these fonts have the bold that looks bad. At first, I got the ones that looked bad. To fix, I got the fonts from a different source.

I suppose that the fonts offered in this thread look good.

[gladstone]

Mine disable anti-aliasing for ALL fonts, calande's are for certain fonts.

And enable anti-aliasing on bold fonts right? I prefer yours with bold fonts, for example on Wikipedia headings

I want the anti-aliasing of bold fonts but the aliasing of only Microsoft fonts as per calande's XML files (so I can use Bitstream Vera Sans again)

Can someone help me with that?

[lmo]

I know this snippet, it's intended to fonts that weren't designed with italic support in mind, it simulates italic, but Tahoma does have an italic variant. I'm on Windows XP at the moment and Tahoma Italic doesn't look very nice here either! :)
I think italic fonts don't look very well, be they aliased or not, actually :(Since I am a font trainee, I don't know why one system thinks Tahoma has italic and another system thinks it doesn't. However, with my trusty sledgehammer, I was able to affect the slant of the Tahoma italic anyway by adding this section: <match target="font">
<!-- check to see if the font is ?HUH? -->
<test name="family">
<string>Tahoma</string>
</test>
<!-- check to see if the pattern requested non-roman -->
<test target="pattern" name="slant" compare="not_eq">
<const>roman</const>
</test>
<!-- multiply the matrix to slant the font -->
<edit name="matrix" mode="assign">
<times>
<name>matrix</name>
<matrix><double>1</double><double>0.2</double>
<double>0</double><double>1</double>
</matrix>
</times>
</edit>
<!-- pretend the font is oblique now -->
<edit name="slant" mode="assign">
<const>oblique</const>
</edit>
<!-- and disable embedded bitmaps for artificial oblique -->
<edit name="embeddedbitmap" mode="assign">
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>Modifying the "0.2" higher/lower made more/less slant. I don't know if the "bitmap" is needed or what it does. "-0.2" goes backwards. :)

[Bandicoot]

hmm very strange. I was playing around a little with Firefox 3, and noticed that it doesn't render italic for this forum while Firefox 2 does. I've included two screenshots from the exact same page, the first in Firefox2 and the second in firefox 3.

[cookies]

And enable anti-aliasing on bold fonts right? I prefer yours with bold fonts, for example on Wikipedia headings

I want the anti-aliasing of bold fonts but the aliasing of only Microsoft fonts as per calande's XML files (so I can use Bitstream Vera Sans again)

Can someone help me with that?

That's doable. I'll fiddle around and see what happens. :p

Edit:
Try these files and tell me how they work. (http://files.filefront.com/font+config+filestargz/;9176747;/fileinfo.html)

[gladstone]

Cookies: Thanks, this is just what I wanted and it looks the best combination to my eyes!

One last thing I want to change is to put some AA on these:

http://thumbnails.freeimagehost.eu/163/a7f4351628239.gif (http://www.freeimagehost.eu/image/a7f4351628239)

e.g. Level 1 headings on Wikipedia

[JohnOhl]

Is it only me, or does Cleartype/Font Anti-aliasing/Smoothing whatever you want to call it look as bad as I think it does?

I really can't see the appeal of blurry fonts. Everyone say's it's designed for LCD's in mind, but I just can't get on with them on my laptop - perhaps it's my screen?

Anyway, running through this process (it's a shame I didn't find this thread to start with) was the first thing I did when installing Ubuntu - perhaps I'm being too hasty?

It could be your screen resolution, I only like it setup like this when the screen resolution is higher than 1280x1024 and the font sizes are set below 10, personally I prefer 8 :P.

Anything below 1280x1024 and any fonts > 10 look better in linux fonts imho

[cookies]

Cookies: Thanks, this is just what I wanted and it looks the best combination to my eyes!

One last thing I want to change is to put some AA on these:

http://thumbnails.freeimagehost.eu/163/a7f4351628239.gif (http://www.freeimagehost.eu/image/a7f4351628239)

e.g. Level 1 headings on Wikipedia

Try the attached file. Read the README, too, please.

[Bandicoot]

Is there a way to make my fonts in open office look smooth ? I know OO has its own rendering engine, I've set aliasing for fonts on 12 but the fonts still look horrible...I've enclosed a screenshot to show what I mean. Is this the best result I can get ?

[cookies]

Is there a way to make my fonts in open office look smooth ? I know OO has its own rendering engine, I've set aliasing for fonts on 12 but the fonts still look horrible...I've enclosed a screenshot to show what I mean. Is this the best result I can get ?

Try 17, OO.O is specifying pixel sizes, not point sizes.

[calande]

OO.o is weird. Try restarting it, it may change its rendering for Times New Roman. Here I restarted and it now displays fonts like WinXP.

[Bandicoot]

:mad: Still not good. The fonts keep looking smudgy no matter what I do..

[lmo]

I can't make Ooo look good either :mad:

[calande]

Just in case, OpenOffice.org uses its own font-rendering engine, so you have to go through the menu "Tools > Options > OpenOffice.org > View" and set "Screen font antialiasing" to "12px" or smaller.

[Bandicoot]

:( that's exactly what I allready did : in my first post about this I say:

Is there a way to make my fonts in open office look smooth ? I know OO has its own rendering engine, I've set aliasing for fonts on 12 but the fonts still look horrible...I've enclosed a screenshot to show what I mean. Is this the best result I can get ?

[lmo]

Oooooh ... I can get subpixel rendering everywhere except Ooo. :-s
Too unbelievable, but true... (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=406273)

[Orbital75]

Looks good..... thanks :)

[timzak]

To the thread starter...thank you! My eyes say "Ahhhhh!". I can't tell you how long I've been trying to get used to and "like" the font smoothing in Ubuntu. I thought it was me just being thick-headed, but moment I applied your fix, my eyes relaxed.

Maybe it's my monitor as I still use a CRT (19" @ 1280 x 960), but I've been using Ubuntu for 8 months now and just couldn't get used to the font smoothing.

A big thanks again.

[Bandicoot]

I made a small adjustment to your configuration file ( I made arial bold smaller than 12 aliased instead of antialiased) makes them look less smooth but alot sharper ..When using google arial bold looked a bit smudged and they look sharp now , but I gues that's a matter of personal preferences.

I was wondering if it is possible to turn italic off for some fonts ? I can't seem to find the setting to do that. As I mentioned before arial italic look awful so I was looking for a way to turn italic of for this font.

NB: I have enclosed a file which shows how google/Arial bold looks aliased instead of antialiased

[Naatan]

Anyone know how to uninstall this?

[calande]

Easy :)
Remove the files you installed.

[Naatan]

I don't think that would work as when you install it - it overwrites the default files, so when I would simply delete the installation files, wouldn't I be missing the files that I need ?

[calande]

What original files did it overwrite?

[Naatan]

I can't say if it did indeed overwrite anything but im guessing it should have, otherwise how would the system pick up on the changes..

the files it extracted in /etc/fonts/ are;

alias.conf
local.conf
misc.conf
msfonts-rules.conf

[unshareef]

Dear Charles, I would like to revert, but when I try to erase the local file it says I don;t have the permission to do so. Any way out?

Thanks

[calande]

I can't say if it did indeed overwrite anything but im guessing it should have, otherwise how would the system pick up on the changes?

Fontconfig works this way: fonts.conf checks if a local.conf file exists. If there is a local.conf file in the same directory, fonts.conf imports it. Otherwise, it doesn't generate any error.

Dear Charles, I would like to revert, but when I try to erase the local file it says I don;t have the permission to do so. Any way out?

Yes, you need to be root to remove system files. Here's what you need to do in your terminal:

sudo rm -f /etc/fonts/local.conf

Be careful not to running something else, because you have root privs.

[andrebrait]

wow! Worked like a charm! Very good! Some fonts, when anti-aliased, were annoying and very strange/unreadable, now they're good!

There should be a button somewhere to turn anti-aliasing on and off when you want

[calande]

wow! Worked like a charm! Very good! Some fonts, when anti-aliased, were annoying and very strange/unreadable, now they're good!

Cool! :)

There should be a button somewhere to turn anti-aliasing on and off when you want

There ya go :)

http://i31.tinypic.com/149d15y.png

[wyslij]

I've read the entire thread and still don't understand this - maybe I'm just not meant to work in Linux...

I've installed Gutsy and MS fonts and Tahoma from my Windows installation and the fonts work just fine... but without anti-aliasing (cleartype).

The rest of Linux fonts have cleartype and the MS fonts not really.

And I want all of my fonts and especially Verdana, Tahoma and Times New Roman to have anti-aliasing (cleartype) in web pages - I'm just used to that and I like it a lot.

Please can someone explain to me in simple steps how to enable anti-aliasing (cleartype) for all my Windows Fonts in my Gutsy (7.10) installation?

Please help...

[calande]

but without anti-aliasing (cleartype)

Cleartype means antialiased (polished) to make it simple.

Please can someone explain to me in simple steps how to enable anti-aliasing (cleartype) for all my Windows Fonts in my Gutsy (7.10) installation?

A default Linux distro such as Ubuntu already has antialiasing enabled by default. Nothing else to do, and especially, do not install the XML files from this tutorial.

[wyslij]

Cleartype means antialiased (polished) to make it simple.

A default Linux distro such as Ubuntu already has antialiasing enabled by default. Nothing else to do, and especially, do not install the XML files from this tutorial.

I know - and MOST of my fonts are antialiased, but when I installed Verdana, Tahoma and other Windows fonts - they are not antialiased and I want them to be...

Are your Windows fonts antialiased? Did you do anything to make it happen?

I like how Ubuntu does anti-aliasing, but I don't understand why it doesn't to it to the Windows fonts...

Please help - I need to have my Windows fonts in Linux antialiased as well

[calande]

I know - and MOST of my fonts are antialiased, but when I installed Verdana, Tahoma and other Windows fonts - they are not antialiased and I want them to be...

As I said, if you want fonts to be antialiased, don't install the XML files of this tutorial.

Are your Windows fonts antialiased?

No they aren't. I use these XML files. What this configuration does is mimic the Windows XP way of rendering fonts, that is: Antialias any font at any size, except the Microsoft fonts under a specific size, and according to a few more criteria.

I like how Ubuntu does anti-aliasing, but I don't understand why it doesn't to it to the Windows fonts...

It doesn't do it to the Windows fonts because you installed the XML files.

Please help - I need to have my Windows fonts in Linux antialiased as well

Just remove the XML files you extracted, and hit Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to restart X.

[wyslij]

Thanks - you're so right... the XML file messed it up - I mean - disabled antialiasing - I removed the files and it works perfectly now - just the way I want it.

Enjoying Ubuntu and Windows fonts on Ubuntu :-)

[calande]

Arfh...At least show us a screenshot to celebrate! :)

[brijeshchauhan]

It works fine but has a small problem:confused:. All the fonts in firefox ()seems like they are squeezed horizontally. They are not as comfortable as in windows. Does anybody have the solution?

[brijeshchauhan]

I think this just removes antialising, its not changing any fonts for me. I can see that it has installed all the MS fonts, but it doesnt change any font.

Do I have to manually change the fonts for applications and all or the XML file should have changed the fonts for me?

[brijeshchauhan]

No, not a genius, but it took a fair amount of time due to sparse documentation.
Namaste,

Hey, you know Hindi or what?

[brijeshchauhan]

Nothing else to do, and especially, do not install the XML files from this tutorial.

Actually I have installed the XML file. How do I remove it? Should I just remove local.conf file?

[googlah]

Thanks :) Much easier to read now.

[deepclutch]

thanks!but with nvidia proprietary drivers,you dont need these settings?for me it works perfectly.

[MemoryDump]

does this how-to still work under hardy? is it even needed?

[kevin66]

Thanks alot.

[gladstone]

Just quickly, I was wondering if there is anything similar to Window's "standard" font smoothing? - When I say standard, it is an option from the following:

1. None - (what these configs achieve)
2. Standard
3. Cleartype

in display\appearance\effects (or something like that ;))

[cookies]

Just quickly, I was wondering if there is anything similar to Window's "standard" font smoothing? - When I say standard, it is an option from the following:

1. None - (what these configs achieve)
2. Standard
3. Cleartype

in display\appearance\effects (or something like that ;))

These technically are the "Standard" type in Windows.

[Woormy]

does this how-to still work under hardy? is it even needed?

I just set it up in Hardy and it works great.

[amisdar]

Thanks calande! When I first using Ubuntu a month ago, I wonder what is missing. The desktop, icon, etc looks great but somehow I just don't don't get the feeling when I'm working on it.

After a while then only I realized that my eyes don't feel comfortable with the font.

And here I am using your mods to fix it.

I really enjoy Ubuntu now!

Thanks again for this useful guide! :KS

[hanzahar]

tar: alias.conf: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: local.conf: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: misc.conf: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: msfonts-rules.conf: Cannot open: Permission denied
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

:(

[imbjr]

does this how-to still work under hardy? is it even needed?

I thought I'd try to tolerate the font-look when I installed Hardy but I soon cracked and went to sharpfonts.com to get ma fix.

[Ry12]

Is it possible to render these fonts like they are rendered under windows when using cleartype?

[audioduck]

Nice tip mate. That worked perfectly.

Cheers!

[djarcadian]

Thanks for this calande! Ubuntu looks much nicer now.

My only suggestion is to include instructions for changing directories. I download my files to the Desktop and had some trouble figuring out how to extract some of the files.

[dryder]

My only suggestion is to include instructions for changing directories.

Did you try googling "ubuntu change directories"? A lot of self-help info is out there. :)
David

[sempronius]

Just quickly, I was wondering if there is anything similar to Window's "standard" font smoothing? - When I say standard, it is an option from the following:

1. None - (what these configs achieve)
2. Standard
3. Cleartype

in display\appearance\effects (or something like that ;))


This is exactly what I would also like to achieve!

With anti-aliasing enabled, fonts in Linux look somewhat blurred and are hard on my eyes though they look nicer. With anti-aliasing disabled, my eyes feel all right (which, of course, is more important than anything else), but the look of the fonts is less than satisfying, fonts look "scratchy", dirty, not smooth at all.

When I compare this to Windows XP, I must say that I am disappointed!
Fonts in XP look GREAT, with anti-aliasing set to "standard font smoothing" (or whatever it is called in English versions of XP) (maybe "default font smoothing", maybe "standard font smoothing", I can't know for sure...).

I use a CRT monitor, so cleartype is not what I want. So instead of chosing cleartype in XP or disabling anti-aliasing I just select "standard font smoothing", and this gives me absolutely perfect font quality: easy on my eyes, but still smooth, not really blurry at all!

I would like to achieve the exact same appearance as this "standard font smoothing" in Linux, too. But how - if even possible?


Regards, sempronius

EDIT:
Here are some links to screenshots I made; I would like to hear which one you like most (which one looks the best, which one is easy or hard on your eyes etc.):

1.
http://www.ld-host.de/show/be6716929791fd987b0a7eccca67a8be.png


2.
http://www.ld-host.de/show/7a989da887607eb00a17acccccb3568d.png


3.
http://www.ld-host.de/show/86c9af5e8c9a4d060edb0ff1e42c2731.png

[hgurol]

Its #3 for me both for the "best looking" and "easy on eyes"...

#1 comes as second and #2 is nowhere near usable for me.

Which one is which setting?

Im also wondering if the experience will be the same as looking at your screenshots if I go ahead and start to use the same settings.

[sempronius]

Its #3 for me both for the "best looking" and "easy on eyes"...

#1 comes as second and #2 is nowhere near usable for me.

Which one is which setting?

Im also wondering if the experience will be the same as looking at your screenshots if I go ahead and start to use the same settings.


Congratulations, hehe :-)

Your choice (#3) is also mine. And, doh, it is windows xp with standard font smoothing (not cleartype). This is what I try to achieve in Linux, too.

#1 is my worst choice, however. It is Linux with anti-aliasing turned on. It is too blurry and the characters are a bit too thick as compared to xp.

#2, in fact, has been what I have been using in a long time under Linux!
It is without anti-aliasing. While the characters don't have a nice look, readability is not that bad - this lack of font smoothing is good for my eyes.


In the mean-time, I made some progress...

By comparing my regular Linux system to a so called live cd (called "slax" - it is slackware based) I found that fonts in Linux do NOT necessarily look that bad: Under Slax the font quality is almost the same as under XP for me.

So I wondered why, and I think, I already got some clues:

I found that under Slax the bytecode interpreter of libfreetype is NOT enabled - so paradoxically, I don't get bad font results, but, interestingly, better results when the byte interpreter is disabled.

What I also found is that on my regular system fontconfig-config was set to "native". I made a test and set it to "autohinter" and got better results than with "native"!!

dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig-config....

Currently, I am recompiling and testing the most recent version of libfreetype and trying out:
a) with bytecode enabled / native
b) with bytecode enabled / autohinter
c) without bytecode / native
d) without bytecode / autohinter

Would like to hear your experiences, thanks for your reply, hgurol.


Regards, sempronius

[hgurol]

I dont have much experience to share sempronius, sorry.

A couple of months ago I wanted to completely switch to ubuntu. Installed 7.10 and spent sometime with it. During that time this fonts/anti-aliasing was a serious issue for me. I have tried whatever trick, config I have found on this forum but I have never managed to get the same look&feel of your #3 screenshot. However, I have managed to get to a point where I can still be happy with it.

The problem is; since I have tried so many different things at one time, reverted back some changes and kept some of them etc. I could never know which setting or config provided the closest XP look for me.

At that time I couldnt manage to perminantly move onto ubuntu due to some other issues(converting my pst files was a serious head ache for example). Now Im gonna try again. I might have less issues with 8.04 I wish I knew what config I did to improve my font rendering in the past. I need to figure it out once again.

Im sure this is not the experience you would expect to hear but unfortuantly this is the only one I have :)

Please keep us posted with your progress and findings...

[-Outcast-]

I am with sempronius on this one.

In ooowriter I was having font probs even with the MScore downloaded.

I did as this post instructed. but the system fonts changed and I did not like

With anti-aliasing on I know it's badddd. Then off I can at least write for hours without wondering if my eyesight is going bad.

But it still looks poor.

Tried Arial and it's better. Not my favourite to read but still better than times at the moment.

I removed the Local file, but there's still other stuff behind. Is it ok to remove that to?

Any one seen what Mint looks like?

[-Outcast-]

sorry forgot to subscribe

[kregg]

If everyone is experiencing Ubuntu having weird (but true to Microsoft) fonts on their system, they may like to change it to something different.

If you go to System>Preferences>Appearances and go to the Fonts tab and have the following setup:
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/3171/screenshotappearancepreom8.png (http://imageshack.us)
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/3171/screenshotappearancepreom8.6c1a8e573a.jpg (http://g.imageshack.us/g.php?h=84&i=screenshotappearancepreom8.png)

It should make your Ubuntu look nice again. :D (Font smooting is optional for you).

[hgurol]

Its not about choosing a better font, its about rendering the font...

[sempronius]

Its not about choosing a better font, its about rendering the font...

Exactly!

One can look for fonts all the time, but the basic problem will not be solved: having good font rendering.

There may, indeed, be some subtle differences between different versions of libfreetype that make fonts more or less blurry, but I cannot, as much as I try, achieve the same degree of good looking and easily readable fonts as under Windows XP - with "standard font smoothing". Cleartype is horrible, for me, on a CRT, but standard font smoothing is phantastic, beautiful!

1) Does someone know if there have been changes between windows 2000 (or windows 98/me) and windows xp regarding font smoothing?
I know that windows 2000 lacks cleartype, but it DOES offer normal, standard font smoothing. The quality, with otherwise identical settings, however, is worse than under XP - in fact, it is very much like the Linux quality I get. ;-)

2) Another question:
How many libraries can contribute to the the quality of font rendering and the degree of smoothing fonts? Does anybody know?
Well, obviously, libfreetype is important! And the way it has been compiled.
But what about libXft, libfontconfig, libXrender, libXfont......etc. etc.?

Does anybody know if playing with libfreetype alone is not sufficient, but that different versions of the above (or one of them) other libraries also change font rendering itself?


Another observation I made:
It is not just anti-aliasing (font smoothing) that makes Linux fonts blurry (for me) - the fonts even without any anti-aliasing are already less clear, less sharp than under windows xp. So it doesn't appear as a mere problem of anti-aliasing, it is a fundamental problem of Linux (or xorg) font rendering, methinks.

Ideas?

Oh, and something more:
For a long time I wouldn't realize, but working for hours under Linux reading texts in a browser caused severe eye strain and - quite often - headache, too.
I used to find this normal considering the fact that I was reading for hours.

But wait...
During the last few months I used XP quite often - and much to my surprise: I can read for hours and hours, and my eyes do NOT feel strained, my head does NOT start to ache.
Sad, isn't it?


Regards, sempronius

[-Outcast-]

sempronius: You wrote that well!

This thing really needs to be addressed. I can watch a movie on linux but not write a book!

I am forced back to Vista to write due to this issue on linux. Then again on vista openoffice writer lacks a keyboard buffer and hangs when autosaving so I am now thinking of having to quit opensource and go for Word. Depressing. But at least it works.

I never remember having these problems 5 years ago? Maybe it's just me.

Anyway. Do all Linux distros have this problem with rendering? OR is there one out there that displays a font well enough to write for 8 hours straight?

[pitup]

The joke is that MS started to use blurry antialiased fonts in Office 2007. Also Adobe Reader 9 for XP adopted such a way of displaying fonts.
But in MS Office 2007 and Adobe Reader 9 you can easily turn off antialiasing competely and everything looks great again.
As to Linux - I spend days in searching for a solution and found nothing satisfying... Some hacks allow to come rather close to XP, but still it's not match...

I can't thoroughly migrate to Linux because I really hate the look of antialiased fonts :(

Maybe we should add this issue into some Ubunu bug-tracker or wishlist?

[sempronius]

The joke is that MS started to use blurry antialiased fonts in Office 2007. Also Adobe Reader 9 for XP adopted such a way of displaying fonts.
But in MS Office 2007 and Adobe Reader 9 you can easily turn off antialiasing competely and everything looks great again.
As to Linux - I spend days in searching for a solution and found nothing



For me, it is not a question of anti-aliasing or not, but about the font rendering itself in Linux.

Actually, I like the way windows XP does anti-aliasing.
CAREFUL:
I do NOT speak of so called "cleartype", but of the standard method to do font smoothing, this method has already been available in windows 2000 and in windows millennium (and others, I guess). XP only added cleartype.

Using the standard method of font smoothing (not cleartype!), I get fonts that look great - okay, they are smoothed, but nevertheless, I do not find them blurry at all. I can compare between a CRT and a TFT monitor, but in either case I avoid cleartype and chose standard font smoothing. It is not as rough as no anti-aliasing at all and it is still not really blurry.

Linux, however, with or without subpixel hinting, does not reach the same degree of good looking, non-blurred, but still somewhat smoothed fonts.

I would welcome any useful comment to my question if it is possible to manipulate the DEGREE of anti-aliasing in Linux (the degree of anti-aliasing, NOT the degree of hinting - that is something different!).

To be honest, with a TFT monitor instead of my CRT things have improved. Now anti-aliasing combined with RGB subpixel hinting provide for comparatively good looking fonts. Still miles away from the crisp and sharp (but not rough) font rendering in XP.

What I also find highly annoying is the fact that fonts in Linux often look very thin and are - for this reason - hard to read, while all of a sudden they jump to some rather thick appearance when increasing the size. Both the very thin and the rather thick appearance doesn't please my eyes.

But it also depends on the web site makers. Some sites actually look quite good under Linux, and with anti-aliasing turned off!

Look here, for instance:

h**p://de.opensuse.org/Projektübersicht

This MS Trebuchet font on this site looks good for me.


Anyway, fonts are a weak spot in Linux and if you ask me, something MUST be done to improve the situation.

Just out of curiosity, I burned a live cd of Freebsd, but since this OS also uses a normal Xserver, freetype etc. (if I am not wrong), fonts look as modest there as under Linux.


sempronius

[35712]

Hey guys!

I am pretty discouraged right at the moment. I cannot get my microphone working and my installed sharp fonts are ugly again. It began with Firefox and spread quickly after the attempt to reinstall the fonts again over the whole system. Now hinting still has an effect, but subpixel hinting and Anti Aliasing not at all.

All I did regarding fonts or anything was uninstalling Abiword mit all its parts. But that cannot have to do with it, can it?

Is this a known problem, that the sharp fonts just disappear?

Overall: They are still not as good as in Windows and I can hardly imagine working wuthout XP, cause it is really comfortable, though bloody slow.

[davidryder]

Wow that looks about 3x better. Thanks!

[Dark Ocean]

Wow that looks about 3x better. Thanks!

Indeed! Works great!

[prabath_fun]

Hi,
I copied the .ttf files from c:\windows\fonts and pasted in "microsoft"(folder created) at /usr/share/fonts/X11 in Ubuntu 8.04. I can able to use the Microsoft fonts in Open office, Thunderbird, etc., without any problem.
Is it ok. Or I need to follow the installation of msttcorefonts.
Please update me.
Prabath

[clubsoda]

On Xubuntu Intrepid this suggestion is giving me some wacky rendering...

http://ubuntuforums.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=97242

These should be Times New Roman and Trebuchet MS.
Any idea what´s going wrong here?


Edit: Fixed spelling of "whacky". Must've seen too many mafia movies.

[calande]

Wow...No idea, clubsoda, sorry :(
Any idea, anyone else?

[clubsoda]

I should have mentioned that I'm using a GeForce2 MX400 with the nvidia-glx-96 proprietary driver. So I just deactivated the restricted driver and did a test with the Xorg nv driver, which works perfectly! [Although glx-gears is back to 80 frames/second in this configuration.:)]

[calande]

Cool, nice to hear that, clubsoda, and thanks for sharing the info with us ;)

[Arup]

Thank you very much, fonts look very good in Opera and overall.

[calande]

You welcome! I'm happy you like the fonts, and Opera. Opera is my favorite application :)

[runbei]

Ruined my system fonts - menus in apps are now partially unreadable.

[square_wave]

For people who don't like antialiased fonts: try to change hinting from full to slight
In context of this guide it will be
<match target="font" >
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
<edit mode="assign" name="autohint" >
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
<edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle" >
<const>hintslight</const>
</edit>
</match>

in misc.conf
Will it help?

Also I tweaked msfonts-rules.conf to make antialiasing turn off at more adequate conditions (did not read the entire topic, maybe it was already done before)

[haddog]

Worked great in 8.04.2. Thnx!

[Pawel Andrzej]

Thank you, Charles. The instructions for downloading the fonts and then updating the XML repository worked perfectly. The fonts are nice and crisp now in 8.10.

I can finally read on-line newspapers without eyestrain.

-Pawel

[slickvguy]

I should have mentioned that I'm using a GeForce2 MX400 with the nvidia-glx-96 proprietary driver. So I just deactivated the restricted driver and did a test with the Xorg nv driver, which works perfectly! [Although glx-gears is back to 80 frames/second in this configuration.:)]

After trying to get this working on my Ubuntu 8.10 w/ no success, I stumbled upon this post that showed the exact same problem I had. So I deactivated the nvidia accelerated graphics driver (GeForce4), rebooted (just to be sure), and voila - the "mess" went away. Success. Thank you, Club Soda et al.

Unfortunately, I'm not so sure I like the way this looks. Maybe I just have to get used to it. Certain elements look great, other stuff not so great. The basic look and feel is more modern/pleasant - but the text appears thin and "scratchy" looking. 17" LCD, subpixel, slight. I understand that the antialiasing is off and that this is going for a clearer look versus a muddier/rounded look. But is this the best it gets? If you look at the image I posted, see where it says "SPY Options" on the toolbar? Pretty ugly. Crooked letters. Any way to improve that?

Been working on fonts tonight. After I d/l'd the msttcorefonts, webpages displayed on FF3 looked SO much better (I have it set for the webpages to use "their own" fonts). I also did that linking to the 10-autohint.conf "trick" which seemed to make a difference too.

[Pawel Andrzej]

If you look at the image I posted, see where it says "SPY Options" on the toolbar? Pretty ugly. Crooked letters.

It's still a great improvement over the original Intrepid fonts. I see where you're coming from though. It seems there should be a happy middle: crisp non-choppy fonts.

[slickvguy]

FWIW: I installed the Liberation fonts and find them to be a pleasant compromise.

[calande]

@slickvguy: I agree, they are nice (but only if antialiased and hinted).

[googlah]

Also look very good over here. Thanks for the tutorial, Ubuntu's default fonts.. you can't read it. Now it's acceptable. :biggrin:

[Psyche]

Hello,
I installed Windows fonts but they still don't look like in Windows. For example, some of the fonts are very small. The font in this textarea is pretty small and I can hardly read it without eyestrain. Do I have to do some extra configuration? Thanks.

[calande]

Yes, in your application (e.g. Firefox), select a larger size for minimum font size.

[toejamfootball]

I recently re-installed xubuntu on my PC, this How to worked before I did this, but now it doesnt work I get this error when I type sudo tar xvjpf fontconfig.tbz -C /etc/fonts/

tar: fontconfig.tbz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

I read through this whole thread and it might have already been asked, but I couldn't find it.

Cheers.

[toejamfootball]

this is how it looked when I got it to work.

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/3955/paypalk.th.png (http://img8.imageshack.us/my.php?image=paypalk.png)

This time it looks like this....

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/4899/screenshotrcg.th.png (http://img24.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshotrcg.png)

[calande]

This is not the way it's supposed to look like (on either screenshot). Could you return the output of this please:

ls -l

When you try to run the tar command please? (I suspect the file you're trying to extract isn't in your current directory).

[toejamfootball]

You just want me to type that in terminal?

james@jimjam:~$ ls -l
total 28
drwx------ 2 james james 4096 2009-03-18 17:29 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x 2 james james 4096 2009-03-18 01:12 Documents
drwxr-xr-x 2 james james 4096 2009-03-18 01:12 Music
drwxr-xr-x 2 james james 4096 2009-03-18 01:12 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x 2 james james 4096 2009-03-18 01:12 Public
drwxr-xr-x 2 james james 4096 2009-03-18 01:12 Templates
drwxr-xr-x 2 james james 4096 2009-03-18 01:12 Videos
james@jimjam:~$

EDIT: If possible I would like to have it look like my first screenshot, I really liked that. Wish Id written down exactly how I got there... :D

EDIT: Sorry here it is -rw-r--r-- 1 james james 2013 2009-03-18 17:29 fontconfig.tbz

[calande]

This is what I thought...You didn't put the fontconfig.tbz file where you're running your terminal. Put the file in your home directory before running the command. But in any case, the fonts will look like the default Windows XP font rendering (different from your screenshots).

[toejamfootball]

This is what I thought...You didn't put the fontconfig.tbz file where you're running your terminal. Put the file in your home directory before running the command. But in any case, the fonts will look like the default Windows XP font rendering (different from your screenshots).

Yeah thanks, I have had a friend helping me and we figured this much out.

Do you have any ideas how I could achieve the look of my first screenshot? I loved it that way.

[calande]

Actually, I would try tweaking "hinting" in the font settings, and I would try Windows fonts (be it Vista fonts or regular MS fonts). You could try the free Liberation font pack. You need to turn antialiasing on to smoothen your fonts. But uninstall the Sharpfonts tweak, as thuis is not what you are looking for ;)

[toejamfootball]

Ok I will try this. I am pretty certain I followed this How to the first time around though, and got that first screenshot.... *shrugs*

[toejamfootball]

Well, I am not having any luck. I guess I will put up with these blurry fonts for a while. Maybe what I did previously will come back to me, I know to write everything down now haha. Thanks for you help.

[calande]

Your distro should already provide smooth fonts like in Windows Vista or ClearType, with clean shapes. Most do...

[toejamfootball]

I gave up in my search for my previous settings. I have installed Ubuntu now over Xubuntu and am liking the fonts just fine how they are.

Thanks again for the help.

[calande]

@toejamfootball: FYI, I chose smooth fonts on my Gnome desktop (Intrepid Ibex), installing the Liberation font package, then I went to "System > Preferences > Appearance". I clicked the "Fonts" tab, selected Liberation fonts for the different drop-down menus. I selected "Subpixel smoothing (LCD)" for font rendering. In "Details", I selected "Hinting slight" and RGB". See attached screenshot. This is not the sharpfonts rendering, but it's still nice.

[deviant78]

Easiest way I found was to backup all my TFF fonts from a Windows installation to a disc, then in home folder create a folder called .fonts, pasting the fonts in there.

They are now available to select, I find Segoe UI a good font.

Also enable subpixel smoothing for LCD screens.

[calande]

@deviant78: Yes, but not everybody has Windows (let alone Vista!). And in this case, you don't have sharpfonts, you have smooth fonts (like ClearType).

[patocardo]

Make sure your /etc/apt/sources.list has these lines.

How I am supposed to make sure of that. What do I have to do?

[pepemosca]

How I am supposed to make sure of that. What do I have to do?
What do you want to add to the "/etc/apt/sources.list"

Try running this command (Press Alt+F2):

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

[n0_mad]

Hi, i made changes from first post and all fonts perfect but some of them very blocky. Is possible to make them smooth like others?

[croash]

Nice! now how do i disable?

[IronArjen]

The second seems appealing It works...........and it sucks bigtime (hence appalling). If you agree just uninstall the microzoft file and remove the four confs from your etc/fonts, logout and in and OK

[fabdango]

This messed my whole font config and there's no way of putting it back to default. I get:

Fontconfig error: Cannot load default config fileAnd it's all over.

Anyone knows a way to restore the default settings? And it's not like just deleting the files. It won't do.

Thanks.

[iClouseau88]

How come you introduced "nicefonts.tbz" all of a sudden, whereas you had "fontconfig.tbz" before? How do I get this "nicefonts.tbz" file, because I got an error saying: tar: nicefonts.tbz No such file or folder?

Another error message: /etc/fonts : No such file or folder

I read the instruction from page 1 to page 5 several times!

[iClouseau88]

PROBLEM SOLVED!

Nicefonts.tbz is just a joke. I retried the original solution and used "fontconfig.tbz" instead. However, I was not too thrilled with "msttcorefonts". I found that Segoe UI is a much better font. I downloaded and extracted it to my Desktop, then sudo nautilus, then dragged the 2 Segoe UI ttf files over to the nautilus-opened desktop, put them in /usr/share/fonts folder. The link and original instruction is in http://ubuntusite.com/fix-get-best-firefox-font-linux/

Now I am quite happy! I am using this new Segoe UI fonts on my Linux Mint laptop!

;-))

[m_ad]

Nice! now how do i disable?

:lolflag: I have the same question.. I like the new font config but in case I want to revert.. how do we?




Also, some of the text in firefox is a little blocky. I've messed with the hinting options under Fonts, but it doesn't seem to affect Firefox. Is there a way to fix this?

[npss84]

Please some1 tell how to reverse, it looks really bad for me, and I can't do any changes at all in the appearance program...

Thx

[Szise]

The idea, the size and type of the fonts are good, however still not good for eyes, must be improved to be used. Don't understand why other smart guys are not working to fix it, can be a revolution for our Ubuntu desktops. :(

[corsakh]

Works great, but Chromium is still using the old font. How do I change it?

ps Firerfox uses the new font.

[Szise]

Try the real Google Chrome browser: http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/eula_dev.html?dl=unstable_i386_deb

[DamitDan]

I would just like to note that the simplest way to get the MS core fonts along with a bunch of other good things (flash, JRE, codecs) is through installing the "ubuntu restricted extras" package through Synaptic or Ubuntu Software Manager.

[zika]

I would just like to note that the simplest way to get the MS core fonts along with a bunch of other good things (flash, JRE, codecs) is through installing the "ubuntu restricted extras" package through Synaptic or Ubuntu Software Manager.Simplest way for getting MS fonts is installing ttf-mscorefonts-installer. You do not need a whole bunch of other stuff. Flash-plugin from ubuntu-restricted-extra is not 64-bit. There is newer jre also. It is always better to install one by one and choose the latest version. Just my $.01...

[dooglo]

This tutorial now has a web site: http://www.sharpfonts.com/ :)

I tweaked the fontconfig XML files so that fonts look like on Windows. This code is borrowed from PC-BSD (http://www.pcbsd.org). First, let's install the Microsoft fonts. You have 2 ways of doing so:

Either download the fonts (http://www.osresources.com/files/centos-windows-fonts/msfonts.tbz) into your home directory and install them on your system:

sudo tar xvjpf msfonts.tbz -C /usr/share/fonts/truetype/

Or, enable non-free, universe and multiverse repositories and install the Microsoft fonts:

sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts

You now have the Microsoft fonts installed. Let's configure your system now.

Download the xml files (http://www.osresources.com/files/centos-windows-fonts/fontconfig.tbz) and extract the file into /etc/fonts/ as root:

sudo tar xvjpf fontconfig.tbz -C /etc/fonts/

Log out from Ubuntu and relog in. Here's how your desktop will look like:

http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/6972/ubuntu5ui.th.png (http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/6972/ubuntu5ui.png)

It's a lot more complex than disabling antialiasing at small font sizes :)

DIGG IT! (http://digg.com/linux_unix/Display_Microsoft_fonts_in_Unix_like_on_Windows)



This is what I've been looking for. I've downloaded XML files folder, but how do I extract them to the suggested foledr?

D.

[dooglo]

Bumpit bump bump

[zika]

This is what I've been looking for. I've downloaded XML files folder, but how do I extract them to the suggested foledr?

D.Read the third "code" in the message You've quoted.

[haddog]

Try the real Google Chrome browser: http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/eula_dev.html?dl=unstable_i386_deb

Chromium browser fly's!

[haddog]

Try the real Google Chrome browser: http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/eula_dev.html?dl=unstable_i386_deb

I use it more often than FF now...