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Thread: Font rendering in xfce

  1. #11
    neu5eeCh is offline Grande Half-n-Half Cinnamon Ubuntu
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    Re: Font rendering in xfce

    Quote Originally Posted by Toz View Post
    Xubuntu uses lightdm now as well. You need to have a desktop file in /usr/share/xsessions for an option to appear at login.
    Thanks Toz. I installed Unity rather than the Ubuntu-Desktop. Doh!

    However, I still haven't gotten fonts to look as good as in Unity. They're acceptable, but in need of smoothing. I can't find an option for smoothing in XFCE.

    Also, as an unrelated aside, have you tried the XFCE global menu in 12.04? The errors are above my pay grade:

    -- The following packages have unmet dependencies:
    -- xfce4-appmenu-plugin :
    -- Depends: libindicator6 (>= 0.3.90) but it is not installable
    -- Recommends: appmenu-gtk2 but it is not installable
    -- E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

    But I thought I'd check with you, O grand wizard of XFCE.

  2. #12
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    Re: Font rendering in xfce

    I can't find an option for smoothing in XFCE.
    In Applications, Settings, Settings Manager, Appearance, Fonts. You probably want to enable antialiasing, and try out different levels of hinting. Beware that although most windows take on the new fonts immediately, Firefox seems to need restarting.

  3. #13
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    Re: Font rendering in xfce

    Quote Originally Posted by VTPoet View Post
    Also, as an unrelated aside, have you tried the XFCE global menu in 12.04? The errors are above my pay grade:

    -- The following packages have unmet dependencies:
    -- xfce4-appmenu-plugin :
    -- Depends: libindicator6 (>= 0.3.90) but it is not installable
    -- Recommends: appmenu-gtk2 but it is not installable
    -- E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

    But I thought I'd check with you, O grand wizard of XFCE.
    If you're using the ppa:the-warl0ck-1989/xfce-appmenu-plugin PPA, then have a look at this bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/xfce4-app...in/+bug/922615.

    If you still want to use it, looks like right now you need to download the code, make some edits, and build it manually. Or wait for the author to fix it.

  4. #14
    neu5eeCh is offline Grande Half-n-Half Cinnamon Ubuntu
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    Re: Font rendering in xfce

    Quote Originally Posted by The Cog View Post
    In Applications, Settings, Settings Manager, Appearance, Fonts. You probably want to enable antialiasing, and try out different levels of hinting. Beware that although most windows take on the new fonts immediately, Firefox seems to need restarting.
    Thanks Cog. I've already tweaked and twiddled those knobs and dials. I filed a bug with the XFCE devs, but they marked the bug invalid, saying font rendition has to do with the distros, not XFCE. Fair enough; but poor font rendition has turned a lot of users off of XFCE, fair or not. Right now, I'm in Unity rather than Xubuntu because I can't handle the lack of smoothing in FF, LibreOffice, and the whole DE in general.

    Is there a third party app that I could install in Xubuntu to manage system-wide font settings?

  5. #15
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    Re: Font rendering in xfce

    @VTPoet, can you post back the following:

    - the contents of ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xsettings.xml

    and the results of:
    Code:
    apt-cache policy xubuntu-default-settings
    apt-cache policy ttf-droid
    apt-cache policy dconf-gsettings-backend
    apt-cache policy gconf2

  6. #16
    neu5eeCh is offline Grande Half-n-Half Cinnamon Ubuntu
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    Re: Font rendering in xfce

    Where I really notice the poor font smoothing is when using apps like browsers, e-mail apps and libreoffice (basically anything where there's text). When booting up the Ubuntu-Desktop, the font smoothing in any of these apps is beautiful. It's night and day. I would post images but they never really demonstrate the difference.

    --------
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

    <channel name="xsettings" version="1.0">
    <property name="Net" type="empty">
    <property name="ThemeName" type="string" value="Ambiance-Voyager-Dark"/>
    <property name="IconThemeName" type="string" value="F-Dark-Withe"/>
    <property name="DoubleClickTime" type="int" value="250"/>
    <property name="DoubleClickDistance" type="int" value="5"/>
    <property name="DndDragThreshold" type="int" value="8"/>
    <property name="CursorBlink" type="bool" value="true"/>
    <property name="CursorBlinkTime" type="int" value="1200"/>
    <property name="SoundThemeName" type="string" value="default"/>
    <property name="EnableEventSounds" type="bool" value="false"/>
    <property name="EnableInputFeedbackSounds" type="bool" value="false"/>
    </property>
    <property name="Xft" type="empty">
    <property name="DPI" type="empty"/>
    <property name="Antialias" type="int" value="1"/>
    <property name="Hinting" type="int" value="-1"/>
    <property name="HintStyle" type="string" value="hintslight"/>
    <property name="RGBA" type="string" value="none"/>
    <property name="Lcdfilter" type="string" value="lcdnone"/>
    </property>
    <property name="Gtk" type="empty">
    <property name="CursorThemeName" type="string" value=""/>
    <property name="CursorThemeSize" type="int" value="0"/>
    <property name="FontName" type="string" value="Ubuntu 10"/>
    <property name="CanChangeAccels" type="bool" value="false"/>
    <property name="ColorPalette" type="string" value="black:white:gray50:redurple:blue:light blue:green:yellowrange:lavender:brown:goldenrod4:dodger blueink:light green:gray10:gray30:gray75:gray90"/>
    <property name="IconSizes" type="string" value=""/>
    <property name="KeyThemeName" type="string" value=""/>
    <property name="ToolbarStyle" type="string" value="icons"/>
    <property name="ToolbarIconSize" type="int" value="3"/>
    <property name="IMPreeditStyle" type="string" value=""/>
    <property name="IMStatusStyle" type="string" value=""/>
    <property name="MenuImages" type="bool" value="true"/>
    <property name="ButtonImages" type="bool" value="true"/>
    <property name="MenuBarAccel" type="string" value="F10"/>
    <property name="IMModule" type="string" value=""/>
    </property>
    </channel>
    -------
    apt-cache policy xubuntu-default-settings
    xubuntu-default-settings:
    Installed: 12.04.11
    Candidate: 12.04.11
    Version table:
    *** 12.04.11 0
    500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/universe i386 Packages
    100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
    -----

    apt-cache policy ttf-droid
    ttf-droid:
    Installed: 20101110+git-2
    Candidate: 20101110+git-2
    Version table:
    *** 20101110+git-2 0
    500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/universe i386 Packages
    100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
    -----
    apt-cache policy dconf-gsettings-backend
    dconf-gsettings-backend:
    Installed: 0.12.0-0ubuntu1
    Candidate: 0.12.0-0ubuntu1
    Version table:
    *** 0.12.0-0ubuntu1 0
    500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main i386 Packages
    100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
    ------
    apt-cache policy gconf2
    gconf2:
    Installed: 3.2.5-0ubuntu2
    Candidate: 3.2.5-0ubuntu2
    Version table:
    *** 3.2.5-0ubuntu2 0
    500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main i386 Packages
    100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

  7. #17
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    Re: Font rendering in xfce

    Quote Originally Posted by VTPoet View Post
    <property name="Lcdfilter" type="string" value="lcdnone"/>
    Did you try other values: "lcddefault" (that's probably the one you want), "lcdlight", and "lcdlegacy"? Either use xfconf-query or logout and edit manually the xml file.

    (you should probably set rgba to something else too, "none" isn't usually great, unless you're using an old crt screen)
    Last edited by mr_pouit; May 5th, 2012 at 11:31 PM.

  8. #18
    neu5eeCh is offline Grande Half-n-Half Cinnamon Ubuntu
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    Re: Font rendering in xfce

    Quote Originally Posted by mr_pouit View Post
    Did you try other values: "lcddefault" (that's probably the one you want), "lcdlight", and "lcdlegacy"? Either use xfconf-query or logout and edit manually the xml file.

    (you should probably set rgba to something else too, "none" isn't usually great, unless you're using an old crt screen)
    Thanks. Bumping up the DPI definitely helped with the menus.

    I twiddled with that already but apparently wasn't aggressive enough. Adjusting the lcd defaults didn't make any difference one way or the other. I set rgba to none. Using any of the four configurations turned text documents into rainbows.

    The problem of smoothing remains in text applications like Libre, Gimp, Scribus, Firefox, Chrome, etc... If I could bring XFCE's standards up to Unity's, I'd have this licked.

  9. #19
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    Re: Font rendering in xfce

    The Xfce default xsettings file (/etc/xdg/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml) is as such:
    Code:
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    
    <channel name="xsettings" version="1.0">
      <property name="Net" type="empty">
        <property name="ThemeName" type="string" value="Xfce"/>
        <property name="IconThemeName" type="string" value="Tango"/>
      </property>
      <property name="Xft" type="empty">
        <property name="DPI" type="int" value="-1"/>
      </property>
    </channel>
    The default xubuntu xsettings file (/etc/xdg/xdg-xubuntu/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xsettings.xml) is as such:
    Code:
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    
    <channel name="xsettings" version="1.0">
      <property name="Net" type="empty">
        <property name="ThemeName" type="string" value="greybird"/>
        <property name="IconThemeName" type="string" value="elementaryXubuntu"/>
      </property>
      <property name="Xft" type="empty">
        <property name="DPI" type="int" value="96"/>
        <property name="Antialias" type="int" value="1"/>
        <property name="Hinting" type="int" value="-1"/>
        <property name="HintStyle" type="string" value="hintslight"/>
        <property name="RGBA" type="string" value="rgb"/>
      </property>
      <property name="Gtk" type="empty">
        <property name="CursorThemeName" type="string" value="Human"/>
        <property name="CursorThemeSize" type="int" value="24"/>
        <property name="FontName" type="string" value="Droid Sans 10"/>
      </property>
    </channel>
    Maybe, as a test, try creating a new user account and before logging in as the new user, copying over /etc/xdg/xdg-xubuntu/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xsettings.xml to the new users .config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/ directory and see if it makes a difference.

  10. #20
    neu5eeCh is offline Grande Half-n-Half Cinnamon Ubuntu
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    Re: Font rendering in xfce

    OK. By Gad! Just to prove I'm not making this up, observe la difference:

    Xubuntu



    Now notice, in Ubuntu, how much sharper the W and V are, and how much less fuzz there is around the un-bolded fonts:

    Ubuntu



    These are both on the same install, same Firefox, same fonts.

    Edit: What's more, I'm writing this in Xubuntu and the png of the Ubuntu font looks as clean as if it were in Ubuntu.
    Last edited by neu5eeCh; May 6th, 2012 at 01:28 AM.

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