Unreadable Font Size for GDM Login/Password

[Andreas Schildbach]

In the default Breezy installation, the Font and Size used for GDM login and
password is unreadable. Letters are about 6 pixels high, which means that you
can't really distinguish between letters using a lens, let alone with unarmed
eyes or visually impaired people.

I have noticed that the font size is dependant on wether I have a second monitor
connected (actually it is not being used, I use the standard xorg.conf without
multimonitor stuff for testing). If its disconnected, the font is also very
small (about 9 pixels), but readable if you try hard. If its connected, the font
is unreadable (about 6 pixels).

I am using a Dell Latitude X1 (internal display: 1280 x 768) and a Dell 2405FPW
(1920 x 1200).

My proposals are:

- remove the size dependancy on the second monitor
- make the font for login a lot bigger (there is lots of space!)

Regards,

Andreas

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thanks for your bug. That doesn't seems to be the default setup. Maybe you could
get a screenshot using "gdmflexiserver --xnest" for that?

[Andreas Schildbach (schildbach)]

Could you tell me how to use gdmflexiserver or point me to some instruction? I
have not found a manual.

What do you mean by "default setup"? It happens on a clean Breezy install (as
well as my customized installation).

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Could you tell me how to use gdmflexiserver or point me to some instruction? I
> have not found a manual.

Install the "xnest" package by your prefered way (synaptic, apt, ..), go to
Applications,System tools, New Login in a Nested Window and you get the window

[Andreas Schildbach (schildbach)]

Created an attachment (id=4942)
image showing the problem

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The font is a bit small but no unreadable to me. Jeff, what do you think about that?

[Andreas Schildbach (schildbach)]

The issue is still present on Dapper Flight 2.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Could anybody try with current dapper? We did some change for that and it should be fixed

[Andreas Schildbach (schildbach)]

While the font size has indeed grown by one pixel, it is still only 7 pixels with an external monitor connected (not configured!) and 8 pixels without. Pre-configured standard font size is 10 pixels, why not use that? There is enough space on the screen.

I tested on a Flight 6 installation dist-upgraded today.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

$ grep font /usr/share/gdm/themes/Human/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
  font_name = "Sans 11"

We use that font by default. What theme do you use?

[Andreas Schildbach (schildbach)]

Your statement also returns "Sans 11" on my system. I am using "Human" theme - I can't remember I ever changed it.

Still, the font preferences say "10" for each font.

[Stefano Giunchi (stefano-giunchi)]

I have the same problem. Kubuntu 5.10, on a HP Pavilion dv1000 notebook, the graphics card is an Intel GMA 900.
When i connect the external monitor, I have the fonts small (almost unreadable); if I reboot without it, the font is ok

[Stefano Giunchi (stefano-giunchi)]

I resolved following this link: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=20976
and adding

DisplaySize 338 203 # 1280x1024 96dpi

in the first "Monitor" section of xorg.conf

[Philip Ganchev (philip-cs)]

Thanks for the workaround, Stefano.

However, the problem should be fixed for the *default* theme. It is an important usability issue that the typed username is hard to read. It is hard to use for me, who have 20/20 vision. For visually impaired people, it would be a big problem.

In addition, the small font in such a large, empty space is esthetically unappealing; it looks silly.

Moreover, it has long been noted that variable-width fonts are unsuitable for input fields, mainly because many characters are easily confused. For example a "1" looks like the "l" of other fonts. Charaters are much clearer in fixed-width fonts. This is why, for example, Apple Safari uses fixed-width fonts for input fields.

The user name and the password fields are the most important parts of the login screen, and the most-accessed controls. The text in the user name field should be clearly visible.

Please use a 14-point, fixed-width font.

[Chris Osborn (osb1842)]

Confirmed for clean install of Dapper (as well as Dapper-Upgraded-From-Breeze and Breezy itself). During the Breezy days I got around it by manually setting a font size for the password/login box in the Human theme. Alas, I've lost that hack during an upgrade, so I cannot post it at the moment. But this problem actually applies to _any_ of the text on the Options sub-menu. It must be able to be fixed somewhere deeper down.

[sun-wukong (sun-wukong)]

Hello,

Well, I got this bug as well and can reproduce at will, on a vaio pcg-z1rmp, based on an ATI Radeon Mobility M6 LY.

I tried many things unsuccessfully until...
until I found the bug or so I think.

Here is it :
One line is missing in the HumanCircle.xml file

Here is a part of that file :
<!-- password box -->
  <item type="rect">
   <pos x="50%" y="50%" width="box" height="box" anchor="c"/>
   <box xpadding="0" ypadding="0" spacing="5" orientation="vertical">
    <item type="rect">
     <pos x="0" y="0" width="box" height="box" expand="true"/>
     <normal color="#ffffff" alpha="0.3"/>
     <box xpadding="50" ypadding="15" spacing="10" orientation="vertical">
      <item type="label" id="pam-prompt">
        <pos x="0"/>
        <normal font="Bitstream Vera Sans Bold 18" color="#523921"/>
        <stock type="username-label"/>
      </item>
      <item type="rect">
        <normal color="#523921"/>
        <pos width="160" height="24"/>
        <fixed>
          <item type="entry" id="user-pw-entry">
            <pos y="1" x="1" width="-2" height="-2" anchor="nw"/>
         <normal font="Bitstream Vera Sans Bold 14" color="#000000"/> #<---here is the missing line
          </item>
        </fixed>
 </item>

I pointed out the line I added that shoult be between lines 98 and 99 in the original file. Sorry about that : I still lack some skills in Linux dev to produce a patch file. I hope it'll come (soon ! :-))

i set a 14 points font size because it feet my 1400x1050 screen, but a tinier font would probably suit better.

I don't know about others Themes but it may be good to have a look in their conf. file as well.
Best regards,
Sun Wukong

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your work on that. GNOME themes use "Sans 12" for that entry, maybe the Ubuntu theme should do the same?

[sun-wukong (sun-wukong)]

I think so, as it shoud be more consistent that way.

[John Dong (jdong)]

Noticed that backporters got subscribed. Is there something that we need to do?

[Philip Ganchev (philip-cs)]

I think size 14 or bigger for both the labels and the text box would be better for desktop and lapop displays.

This would make more certain that the label and the typed username are readable. This is important.

For small screens like PDAs there are separate projects (GPE, Familiar, etc) that can set a diferent font size there if necessary.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

John, no, nothing to backport

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

This upload fixes the issue:

 edgy-gdm-themes (0.3-0ubuntu2) edgy; urgency=low
 .
   * Human/Human.xml, HumanCircle/HumanCircle.xml:
     - use the "Sans 12" font for the user-pw-entry (Ubuntu: #36251)

[Eugenia Loli-Queru (eloli)]

This bug persists. On one laptop my gdm font size is normal (just like the gtk font size on apps), and on the other laptop, the font size is HUGE. I had to edit the .xml file to make that 12 a 7. Now, under normal circumstances that 7 would be really small. But it seems that GDM misenterprets the font sizes, under some circumstances.

I THINK that this happens IF the user tries out the accessiblity themes and then goes back to Human/Clearlooks. If the user just even tries once these big themes, from that point on GDM gets all messed up.

Could you reproduce?

[Andreas Schildbach (schildbach)]

I must say that I have more or less given up on this. On one computer, the font is huge (compared to the other fonts). On the other, it is still tiny (next to unreadable). It seems that since the released fix sizes have become a bit bigger in all cases, but this still means fonts are much too big in some situations. I have seen installations where I could only see the first 4 entered chars of my login name, and only the lower half of the characters (due to clipping at the field border).

I still think font size is dependant on (virtual) screen resolution. Why is it not possible to set a fixed size for the font, say 16px?

[Kenneth Wimer (kwwii)]

Using a fixed pixel size would be a mistake, as on very large resolutions it would be tiny.

I have no idea why this is happening but it sounds like the Xserver is not reporting the correct resolution or such.

[Andreas Schildbach (schildbach)]

Kenneth, then why are the default font sizes after login in pixels rather than cm/inches? And why do all other elements on the login screen (including the login box border itself) have fixed pixel sizes? The login box font seems to be the only thing that is relative to something, and it goes wrong very often.

I would fix this by using a fixed pixel size that looks ok for 90-150 dpi, and would keep the perfect academic solution for a later date when the whole GUI is capable of measuring cm/inches rather than pixels.

[Troy James Sobotka (troy-sobotka)]

I think this becomes an upstream issue. It would seem like a "Good Thing" to have fonts sizes completely unchained from hard pixel counts.

Ken?

If it is viable, we should push this upstream and get some opinions on it, as I don't know of a way to do this with the current implementation.

Sincerely,
TJS

[Bram Stolk (b-stolk)]

I've seen an even more severe case of this.
The font *really* is unreadable.
Only 3 pixels high, on my Sony XBR4 (40 inch 1920x1080).
After setting display size in the monitor section of xorg.conf, it got better.
It is readable now, but still way too small.

  Bram

[Dylan (dylang)]

This is not fixed in 7.10 Ubuntu. Default installations of it (as well as upgrades from 6.06/7.04) on my ViewSonic 47" 1080p LCD / N4785P) has a login font size that is below 1mm effective when I am sitting on my couch. I edited the XML file used for the description of the size of the font in the display manager, and it appears that the 12pt "Username:" label is a normal 12pt, while the text-entry box next to it gets shrunk by a factor of two.

EG: If I set a font size of 12 pt, typed text appears as if 6pt. If I set a size of 24pt, the size of "Username:" typed in the text appears the same size as "Username:" in the label, etc. I have some pictures of this which I will upload later.

[Dick Dunbar (redunbar)]

I have had this problem of unreadably tiny username and password font sizes on Feisty and Gutsy, and now on Hardy. My system uses a 50" DLP TV as its monitor. No multiple monitors, or anything fancy, just my TV connected via a VGA cable. I would like to try setting the font size as mentioned above where the HumanCircle.xml was modified. But - where is this file located? I'm using a different login screen, so I figure I need to modify the .xml file for the login screen I'm using, rather than the Human circle one, but first I gotta find it. Can someone please enlighten me as to where these files are located?

[Dick Dunbar (redunbar)]

I'm using a different theme, happygnome-list, but I tried the equivalent of the fix suggested by Sun Wukong. My username and password entries are now a good, readable size, but to accomplish this I had to set the font size to 48! I believe that the original font size of 14 in the .xml file is reasonable, and that something other than the font size setting is causing this problem. In this theme, there are several other boxes where the font is unreadably small, and I found no way to increase their sizes. There are three boxes along the lower left side of the screen, which I think from looking at the xml code are "options", "session", and "last language". They are almost legible, but not quite. In addition, there are two boxes below the username/password entry box, which I think are labeled "OK" and "Cancel", again based on examining the xml code. Furthermore, the username list on the upper left part of the screen is also tiny. All the other text on the screen is readable size, things like the "enter password" prompt, the "caps lock is on" message and so forth. The items which are rendered unreadably small are those of type "button", "list", and "entry". I could find nothing in the xml code that would affect the font size of the "button" or "list" items, and the one thing that could be affected required a ridiculously large font size value to be made readable.

[Jim Bailey (jim-freesolutions)]

Fresh install of Jaunty 9.04 using a 1360x768 32" TV and a vga connector almost completely unreadable username and password fiddled with Human.xml to no avail.

[Tristan Schmelcher (tschmelcher)]

I can confirm that the bug still exists in Jaunty. I experience it out-of-the-box with a fresh Jaunty installation on a System76 Leopard Extreme. There is just a single monitor, with resolution 1920x1080 (actually an HDTV). The fonts in the options menu and username/password field are about 5 or 6 pixels high, so almost completely unreadable.

I am officially re-opening this bug against the package in Jaunty, ubuntu-gdm-themes.

[Kenneth Wimer (kwwii)]

I think that this is a problem with the detection/setting of the font size. On my 1920x1280 monitor everything is clearly readable.