HOWTO: Improve font rendering; premade debs and instructions to patch yourself

[misha680]

New Foreword (Oct 30, 2006):

Note that since I have upgraded to Edgy I am now using mlind's edgy respository myself (see below) and I think these patches should still work on edgy (actually I know they will because they came from an edgy forum originally), so if you'd like to patch the debs yourself I think the instructions should still work. But I would just use mlind's repos.

Foreword:

The instructions below are for people who are using the compiz repositories for their font packages. They might also work for people who are not using the compiz repositories, but if you are not using compiz and want to patch the debs yourselves, you should definitely follow the instructions I made for people not using compiz that are found here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...14#post1402014

Edit: Compiz seems to have taken these font packages out of their repositories since I wrote this howto (several days ago), so the binaries should still work, but please follow the patching instructions in the link above and not the ones below, as you will not be able to get the latest versions of the packages to work with the patches below in the default ubuntu repositories. Thanks.

If you would like to add the compiz repositories and try the instructions below (the font packages are a little newer there, not sure what differences this would make, I use compiz on my system so I patched the compiz packages), do this:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

And put the following lines in there:

# XGL and Compiz
deb http://www.beerorkid.com/compiz/ dapper main
deb http://xgl.compiz.info/ dapper main
deb-src http://xgl.compiz.info/ dapper main

Also, you can also use the debs that user mlind has graciously made, which are found in his repository:

deb http://www.elisanet.fi/mlind/ubuntu dapper fonts
deb-src http://www.elisanet.fi/mlind/ubuntu dapper fonts

For edgy:

deb http://www.elisanet.fi/mlind/ubuntu edgy fonts
deb-src http://www.elisanet.fi/mlind/ubuntu edgy fonts

Thanks mlind!

---

This is based on this thread:

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=178737

and also this thread:

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=180647

but unfortunately those debs do not work after the latest updates, and I did not find any other instructions on how to patch them yourselves.

If you'd just like to install these patched font packages, make a "fonts" directory in your home directory, save the attachments there, open a Terminal, and type the following commands:

cd fonts
tar xvjf fontdebs1.tar.bz2
tar xvjf fontdebs2.tar.bz2
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
sudo cp local.conf /etc/fonts

Now go to Synaptic Package Manager, search for libfreetype, libcairo, and libxft, and "lock" the package versions by selecting the package files, going to the Package menu and selecting Lock Version. If you are, at any later points in time, having problems with broken packages (which you will at some point after enough updates have been made, especially if new packages in Dapper depend on new version of these font packages that currently do not exist yet, which is why the instructions about patching them yourself are key), just unselect the Lock Version for these packages (click on the "Status" button in Synaptic Package Manager at the bottom left hand corner, click on "Pinned," and you will see all packages you have locked version there) and update and you should be great.

Now, the really fun part:

HOWTO PATCH THEM YOURSELF

1. Get these patches (these are from this thread: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=235526)

http://www.magiclinux.org/people/sun...by-default.txt
http://www.magiclinux.org/people/sun...cleartype.diff

Also, the following commands should install everything (I hope) you need to compile the packages:

sudo apt-get install build-essential devscripts fakeroot
sudo apt-get build-dep libcairo2 libxft2 libfreetype6

2. Now get the code for your packages:

mkdir fonts
cd fonts
apt-get source libcairo2 libxft2 libfreetype6

3. Change the package version so that Update Manager will not try to update the packages if you lock their versions in synaptic manager. In each package directory, type:

dch -i

Enter a short descriptive phrase for the changes you have made ("Patched with David Turner's font patches" for example), close the file by pressing Ctrl-X and answering Yes so that the file is saved. Do this for all three packages.

4. Now patch the sources. Here is what you do:

For libcairo, the file you downloaded (0001-something) is actually an email, you need to edit it with gedit and get rid of the headers down to the line that reads 6b0d... Now:

cd libcairo-1.2.2 [or whatever version you got]
patch -p1 < pathtoyour0001filewiththeemailheadersremoved

Should see no errors here (if you do, perhaps the patch no longer works with some newer version that does not yet exist, or, probably, you just forgot to remove the headers or did not remove them completely, or removed too much, etc.).

For libxft, the patch is already in the right format. Do this:

cd libxft-2.1.8.2 [or whatever version you got]
patch -p1 < pathtoyourlibXft-2.1.10-etcpatchfile

Should get no errors.

Finally, for libfreetype, it is a little more complicated since there is no patch. Basically, what you do is this. In the directory created (freetype-2.2.1 for example) there will be a file called freetype-2.2.1.tar.bz2. You will extract it, edit the appropriate file, adn then re-create the tar.bz2 archive. Here is how you can do it:

cd freetype-2.2.1
tar xvjf freetype-2.2.1.tar.bz2
gedit freetype-2.2.1/src/autofit/aflatin.c

Now edit the file, find the part that reads:
    if ( mode == FT_RENDER_MODE_MONO || mode == FT_RENDER_MODE_LCD )
      other_flags |= AF_LATIN_HINTS_HORZ_SNAP;

Change that to:
    if ( mode == FT_RENDER_MODE_MONO )
      other_flags |= AF_LATIN_HINTS_HORZ_SNAP;

Find the part that reads:
    if ( mode == FT_RENDER_MODE_MONO || mode == FT_RENDER_MODE_LCD_V )
      other_flags |= AF_LATIN_HINTS_VERT_SNAP;

Change that to:
    if ( mode == FT_RENDER_MODE_MONO )
      other_flags |= AF_LATIN_HINTS_VERT_SNAP;

Now, do:
tar cvjf freetype-2.2.1.tar.bz2 freetype-2.2.1/*
rm -rf freetype-2.2.1

Also do this to turn on the bytecode interpreter (I think this makes bold fonts better):

gedit debian/rules

Find the line that reads:
#        patch -p1 -d $(freetype_u) -i $(patchdir)/030-bytecode-interpreter.diff

And take out the # at the beginning of the line so it reads:
        patch -p1 -d $(freetype_u) -i $(patchdir)/030-bytecode-interpreter.diff

Great, you're done patching.

5. Make the packages:

In each package directory, just type:

dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -us -uc

Wait a while, you will get some errors about missing a private key, but other than that it should succeed, and your packages will be in the fonts parent directory that you created. Enjoy!

Misha

[snop]

Hi,

Thaks for those packages. Those patches are sooo much needed once you get used to them...

When using your packages some dependency errors are found for libcairo2-dev
and libxft-dev (if I remember correctly this happened with your first set of patches too).

Those broken packages must be removed in order to keep packages database sane. This is a little annoying because it's not possible to install some other dev packages (in order to compile some Gnome/Gtk stuff).

Apart from this they seem to work fine.

Thanks

[misha680]

Hmm... would you mind posting more info about the dependency errors?

Thanks
Misha

Originally Posted by snop Hi, Thaks for those packages. Those patches are sooo much needed once you get used to them... When using your packages some dependency errors are found for libcairo2-dev and libxft-dev (if I remember correctly this happened with your first set of patches too). Those broken packages must be removed in order to keep packages database sane. This is a little annoying because it's not possible to install some other dev packages (in order to compile some Gnome/Gtk stuff). Apart from this they seem to work fine. Thanks

[mlind]

Dapper's freetype doesn't use any automated patching system and rules file looks ugly as hell. You can put the patch to debian/patches and add this to debian/rules build-stamp: section.

# lcd rendering patch
patch -p1 -d $(freetype_u) -i $(patchdir)/libfreetype-no-stem-snapping.patch

Compiling libcairo2 with both cairo-1.0.2-embedded-bitmaps.patch (that's included by default) and David Turner's lcd smoothing patch is bit trickier because these patches modify the same codeblocks and won't apply cleanly with each other. Did you drop cairo-1.0.2-embedded-bitmaps.patch ?


For xft packge, you can use dpatch or quilt for easy patching without modifying the original source.

To use quilt

• put patch files to debian/patches
• create debian/patches/series and add names of all patches to this file
• add quilt to Build-Depends on debian/control
• add to debian/rules:
  

  #add to build-stamp: rule
  QUILT_PATCHES=debian/patches quilt push -a || test $$? = 2
  
  #add to clean: rule
  QUILT_PATCHES=debian/patches quilt pop -a -R || test $$? = 2

[misha680]

Oops, didn't notice that my libcairo2 source is from the compiz source deb repository:

deb-src http://xgl.compiz.info/ dapper main

It has no debian/patches at all by default.

Misha

Originally Posted by mlind Compiling libcairo2 with both cairo-1.0.2-embedded-bitmaps.patch (that's included by default) and David Turner's lcd smoothing patch is bit trickier because these patches modify the same codeblocks and won't apply cleanly with each other. Did you drop cairo-1.0.2-embedded-bitmaps.patch ?

[mlind]

Originally Posted by misha680 Oops, didn't notice that my libcairo2 source is from the compiz source deb repository: deb-src http://xgl.compiz.info/ dapper main It has no debian/patches at all by default. Misha

There should be one if you get libcairo2 source package from dapper-updates. I'm not sure if it's worth the effort to get embedded bitmaps patch to work with LCD rendering patch, so I decided to drop it

[misha680]

Hmm... so the patches I linked to don't even seem to work with the 1.0.4 version of libcairo at all (at least for me). Did you get them to work? If not, maybe you (or someone else) can let me know what the dependency problems are, so that I can just include those debs from the xgl repos?

Thanks
Misha

Originally Posted by mlind There should be one if you get libcairo2 source package from dapper-updates. I'm not sure if it's worth the effort to get embedded bitmaps patch to work with LCD rendering patch, so I decided to drop it

[mlind]

Originally Posted by misha680 Hmm... so the patches I linked to don't even seem to work with the 1.0.4 version of libcairo at all (at least for me). Did you get them to work? If not, maybe you (or someone else) can let me know what the dependency problems are, so that I can just include those debs from the xgl repos? Thanks Misha

Problem is not with dependencies, but with patches. Both apply fine to clean source, but won't mix together. You've got two ways to go here. Either you drop the cairo-1.0.2-embedded-bitmaps.patch and live without support for embedded bitmaps fonts or fix one of the patches to apply with another.

[giuliastro]

I get ugly "super bold" when using these patches, even when using your local.conf. Also "sudo dpkg-reconfigure fontconfig" doesn't show any options anymore. Any ideas?

[pt123]

Any screenshots to show the improvements?