Re: [Devel] Help me understand this... I'm loosing my sanity. Please.

[Anthony Fok]

On Thu, Apr 10, 2003 at 07:58:24PM -0400, James H. Cloos Jr. wrote:
> >>>>> "Mike" == Mike A Harris <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> Mike> Unless I'm mistaken, the Luxi TTF fonts are not hinted at all,
> Mike> so enabling the bytecode interpreter shouldn't make any
> Mike> difference at all with Luxi TTF fonts.
> 
> Earlier posts (perhaps here, or on an xfree86 list) indicated that
> B&H's outlines were auto-hinted / auto-instructed by URW when they
> were converted to type1 and ttf formats.

I think it may be also a good time to forward a new Debian bug report filed
by our Debian XFree86 maintainer Branden Robinson.  He mentions the slight
difference in bytecode-interpreted font display between 2.1.4 and a CVS
version shortly before the 2.1.4 release.  (Has to do with the "+ 32" added
to the FT_SetCharSize() (?) rounding code):

============================================================================

Package: libfreetype6
Version: 2.1.3+2.1.4rc2-4
Severity: normal
Tags: upstream

Such things are largely a matter of opinion, but with the fonts I use
(all DFSG-free), 2.1.3+2.1.4rc2-4 with AA on gave the best performance
yet with mozilla-xft.

You may find some screenshots at the following:
  http://redwald.deadbeast.net/fontshots/

Thanks for your hard work on this package.  Let me know if there is any
more information you need.  AA was turned off in these shots by having
the following .fonts.conf file:

        <match target="font">
            <edit name="antialias" mode="assign"><bool>false</bool></edit>
        </match>

When AA was on, I used no .fonts.conf file at all.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
Architecture: powerpc
Kernel: Linux redwald 2.4.19-powerpc #1 Mon Sep 9 09:01:43 EDT 2002 ppc
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=en_US

Versions of packages libfreetype6 depends on:
ii  libc6                         2.3.1-16   GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  zlib1g                        1:1.1.4-11 compression library - runtime

-- no debconf information

============================================================================

Is adding 32 or not adding 32 more correct?  I have no idea, although I am
pretty sure that the Luxi fonts in XFree86 has always been slightly
distorted with the bytecode interpreter turned on.  What do you think? 
:-)


As to Maurizio: Yes, I understand your concern, but please do read
through some of the bug reports in http://bugs.debian.org/libfreetype6
and note these:

  * Font rendering aesthetics is a very _subjective_ thing. Different
    people have widely different perceptions, as you can tell after
    reading through some of the bug reports.  For example, some LOVE
    anti-aliased fonts.  Some HATE it and want nothing but pure black and
    white.  Some complain Debian become unusable when MingLiU becomes
    garbled strokes instead of proper Chinese characters.  So you see,
    your opinion is just one among many.  No need to lose your sanity.

  * It is the Debian sid/unstable distribution.  We are allowed to
    experiment and break things from time to time so that eventually it
    will work better when the official release comes.  ;-)

  * It is a bug of the Luxi fonts, not FreeType, with the bytecode
    interpreter on or off.  You can choose some other fonts.  The
    ones in ttf-freefont are quite good.  I have quite often avoided
    the Luxi fonts for the same reason.

  * I have been doing frequent uploads to keep Debian's libfreetype6
    package update precisely I do care about font rendering issues.  I
    just haven't gotten around to deal with yours yet (no one has
    complained about the Luxi fonts + bytecode interpreter as loudly as
    you have), but I'll deal with it eventually.  If you like, feel
    free to file a bug report against libfreetype6.  Just don't set it
    to severity: grave/serious, or I'll downgrade it to the lowest
    severity.

As I said, the fuzziness problem has been dealt with in 2.1.4 (the
issue was real when I tried it with David Chester's very first xfthack
patch a year ago, but the rendering quality has gotten lot better since
then, thanks to both David C. and David T. and others), so I don't mind
turning off the bytecode interpreter again and "test" the water.
Also, with the help with other experts on the list, and with upcoming
configuration enhancements in FreeType 2 and fontconfig, I think this
issue will be dealt with soon enough.

Best regards,

Anthony

-- 
Anthony Fok Tung-Ling
ThizLinux Laboratory   <address@hidden> http://www.thizlinux.com/
Debian Chinese Project <address@hidden>       http://www.debian.org/intl/zh/
Come visit Our Lady of Victory Camp!           http://www.olvc.ab.ca/