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View Full Version : [ubuntu] 9.10 Problem: Disable Subpixel font smoothing in Firefox?


wisam
October 30th, 2009, 12:53 PM
Yesterday I made a fresh install of Karmic Koala. I hate Subpixel smoothing (aka ClearType). I always set the font smoothing method to Grayscale.

The problem is Firefox insists on using Subpixel smoothing in rendering pages and in the interface itself (menu bar, address bar and dialogue boxes). The big blurry thick fonts are hideous.

Gnome Help has nearly the same problem. The rendering engine also uses Subpixel smoothing.

Here's a screenshot to understand what I mean:

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/7917/bad2.th.png (http://img294.imageshack.us/i/bad2.png/)

Notice the difference between the fonts in Gnome's panel and those of Firefox's menu bar.

Note: My problem is the opposite of this (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1266781).

Any ideas?

EDIT: changed title to clarify that the problem is that of font hinting and not smoothing. See post below.
wisam
October 30th, 2009, 01:43 PM
The problem turned out to be an issue of font hinting and not smoothing.

Firefox doesn't follow Gnome's rules. It uses slight font hinting instead of full hinting.

The solution is as follows:


sudo rm /etc/fonts/conf.d/10-hinting-slight.conf

sudo ln -s /etc/fonts/conf.avail/10-hinting-full.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d/

Now I get my preferred thin and non-blurry fonts in Firefox.
Some might consider them ugly.
wmcbrine
October 30th, 2009, 09:05 PM
sudo rm /etc/fonts/conf.d/10-hinting-slight.confThanks -- for me, this first part seems sufficient to get Firefox looking like the rest of the desktop again.



Firefox doesn't follow Gnome's rules.This is a really bad regression IMHO. I'm surprised the Ubuntu maintainers let this through.
robhauge
November 1st, 2009, 07:27 PM
Hello.

Thank you for a solution for setting the font hinting.

I still have problems with subpixel smoothing in Firefox. My desktop and other programs are ok.

Anyone have a solution?

I use None Smoothing and Full Hinting in my Desktop settings. This gives me crisp and sharp fonts.
wisam
November 3rd, 2009, 08:56 PM
Hello.

Thank you for a solution for setting the font hinting.

I still have problems with subpixel smoothing in Firefox. My desktop and other programs are ok.

Anyone have a solution?

I use None Smoothing and Full Hinting in my Desktop settings. This gives me crisp and sharp fonts.

Edit /etc/fonts/conf.d/10-antialias.conf to replace "true" with "false" as follows:


<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
<!-- Use the Antialiasing -->
<match target="font">
<edit name="antialias" mode="assign"><bool>false</bool></edit>
</match>
</fontconfig>


EDIT: most people will hate their fonts without anti-aliasing.
If you want gray-scale smoothing with full hinting, follow post number 2.
fraserj
November 21st, 2009, 07:12 AM
THANK YOU WISAM! You've made my Firefox usable once again.
FWIW there's a bug report about this problem, see here. (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox-3.5/+bug/67226)