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Mazza558
December 27th, 2007, 09:14 PM
I'd like the interface on Ubuntu to take up less room than it currently does. Is there a way to get clean, smooth fonts as small as on Windows?

bonzodog
December 27th, 2007, 09:33 PM
which interface? Gnome?
Try deleting a panel, so you have one, then shrink the current panel height (default is rather big)
Use fonts at 10pt, and install the modified libs to get them crisp with bytecode enabled. I use liberation fonts, which are very clean and crisp.

Alternately, try another WM or DE like Xfce, or go to a really clean desktop like fluxbox, or openbox.

Arathorn
December 27th, 2007, 09:38 PM
Have you tried increasing your screen resolution? Here in Kubuntu I use 1600x1200, while on Windows XP I use 1400x1050. I use Legendum (http://home.kabelfoon.nl/~slam/fonts/fonts.html) for KDE's interface. IMO Vera and Liberation are too ugly.

Mazza558
December 27th, 2007, 10:02 PM
My resolution is at the max. What I mean is that I can fit more on the screen due to smaller and clearer fonts in Windows.

BreathEasy
December 27th, 2007, 11:16 PM
System menu -> Preferences -> Appearance -> Fonts tab.

The primary one you want is "Application font". I've changed mine from 10 to 9 (left it at sans); turns out, both sizes actually have the same height, but 9 is slightly narrower, and in my opinion much more readable as well as fitting in more text on the screen. Made a lot of difference.

Praadur
December 27th, 2007, 11:22 PM
I sincerely doubt this is going to be of any help as you (the OP) will likely know about this already, but just in case...

On my laptop (LCD display), the first thing I do to clean up my fonts is head into System > Preferences > Appearance > Fonts. There, I enable Subpixel smoothing (Best Shapes is on by default, I believe) and in the dialog that's accessed by pressing the Details button, I select slight hinting. Regardless of the font size, this always results in clearer fonts for me, but as they say, your mileage may vary.

BreathEasy
December 27th, 2007, 11:28 PM
I sincerely doubt this is going to be of any help as you (the OP) will likely know about this already, but just in case...

On my laptop (LCD display), the first thing I do to clean up my fonts is head into System > Preferences > Appearance > Fonts. There, I enable Subpixel smoothing (Best Shapes is on by default, I believe) and in the dialog that's accessed by pressing the Details button, I select slight hinting. Regardless of the font size, this always results in clearer fonts for me, but as they say, your mileage may vary.
Funny thing - I have an LCD screen too, but I just can't stand the Subpixel smoothing in Ubuntu. Reminds me too much of Cleartype in XP, gave me a headache. Now Vista, for some reason, has perfect smoothing that I can't seem to replicate, so I have to just settle for the "best shapes" preset.

urukrama
December 28th, 2007, 12:01 PM
Have a look at this (http://kmandla.wordpress.com/2007/12/27/still-better-font-smoothing/) post on K.Mandla's blog. Following what he says there made the fonts on my laptop very sharp.

JurB
December 28th, 2007, 03:54 PM
Not related to fonts, but i use this (http://art.gnome.org/themes/gtk2/1377) theme.
It's a compact version of Clearlooks that looses the wasted space. This, combined with 9pt Lucida Grande fonts make up a nice compact desktop.

tomauty
December 28th, 2007, 06:23 PM
This has been a question of mine for a while. While my fonts are at 8, programs in windows manage to cram in a lot more information in a similar sized window (i.e. Deluge vs uTorrent), what sort of thing can I change to get this to happen?

macogw
December 29th, 2007, 12:35 AM
I sincerely doubt this is going to be of any help as you (the OP) will likely know about this already, but just in case...

On my laptop (LCD display), the first thing I do to clean up my fonts is head into System > Preferences > Appearance > Fonts. There, I enable Subpixel smoothing (Best Shapes is on by default, I believe) and in the dialog that's accessed by pressing the Details button, I select slight hinting. Regardless of the font size, this always results in clearer fonts for me, but as they say, your mileage may vary.
That just makes them blurrier for me. I set mine on Best Contrast. I mean, think about it...smoothing...when you do that in the Gimp or Photoshop, that basically means blurring it into the background. Makes me feel like my glasses are too weak.

mrgnash
December 30th, 2007, 09:24 AM
Legendum and Garogier are the nicest fonts I have come across. It's just a shame that Legendum seems to have a problem where 'Fl' is displayed as 'L'. I still use them regardless :P

Arathorn
December 30th, 2007, 11:03 AM
That sounds like a ligature problem, but I don't seem to have the same problem. At least not in OOo or anywhere in KDE's UI.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v334/mfmeulenbelt/schermafdruk7.png

Mazza558
December 30th, 2007, 11:34 AM
I'm talking about the difference between this:

http://www.intelliadmin.com/images/Windows%20XP%20Theme.gif

and this:

Open these 2 images in 2 tabs and switch between them. See what I mean?

mthakur2006
December 31st, 2007, 06:35 PM
I'm talking about the difference between this:

http://www.intelliadmin.com/images/Windows%20XP%20Theme.gif

and this:

Open these 2 images in 2 tabs and switch between them. See what I mean?

fonts in ubuntu look smoother to me :confused:

eljoeb
December 31st, 2007, 07:23 PM
fonts in ubuntu look smoother to me :confused:

I don't think that's what they're asking for. Can you replicate the small and yet readable fonts of Windows in Linux? I have eyesight issues with small fonts, so I can't really help.

miggols99
December 31st, 2007, 07:29 PM
Well if you want to make it look like Windows, you could install the Windows fonts..

Methuselah
December 31st, 2007, 07:33 PM
Are the core founts for the web included by default?
I don't know if it's a matter of being used to the windows fonts but Unix fonts never seem quite right to me. Maybe the font technology is just better or there's some tweaking I haven't done.

aimran
December 31st, 2007, 07:41 PM
This has been a question of mine for a while. While my fonts are at 8, programs in windows manage to cram in a lot more information in a similar sized window (i.e. Deluge vs uTorrent), what sort of thing can I change to get this to happen?

+1

This issue has been bugging me as well.

samwyse
December 31st, 2007, 08:26 PM
Install Liberation Sans.

tomauty
January 6th, 2008, 06:34 AM
Bumping this for another question.

Are there any GTK settings I can change around to be able to fit more things on screen? A prime example as stated before is how many torrents are shown on a uTorrent screen compared to Deluge or KTorrent.

Please dont' tell me to use uTorrent in wine, that was an example, haha.