If I use Gnome, tweak my fonts (choose a specific font, make it antialiased with subpixel hinting with slight hinting and RGB), my fonts look good in GTK applications. However, if I install a Qt application such as Skype, my fonts don't look as good. This is because Qt applications don't find information regarding fonts settings, and therefore, use a default font-rendering configuration. A simple fix to this is, when changing font configurations in Gnome, creating also a ~/.fonts.conf file with the information for Qt applications. For instance:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
<match target="font">
<edit name="rgba" mode="assign">
<const>rgb</const>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font">
<edit name="rgba" mode="assign">
<const>rgb</const>
</edit>
<edit name="hinting" mode="assign">
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
<edit name="hintstyle" mode="assign">
<const>hintslight</const>
</edit>
</match>
</fontconfig>
This way, font rendering in Qt applications is always the same as in GTK applications, hence a more consistent desktop look and feel.
See before: http://lyncis.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/qt4-fonts-bad.png
And after: http://lyncis.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/qt4-fonts-good.png
More info: http://lyncis.info/post/189/en
Thanks,
This has been bugging me forever. Qt fonts ignore Gnome hinting setting.
About 10 days ago, this was fixed in Jaunty alpha 6. However, it did not last very long. After the next update, it reverted to the old behaviour again.
http://