Upgrading Firefox 3.0 to 3.6.4 (Mozilla Security Team PPA) breaks font rendering on Hardy 8.04

[sc00ter]

Binary package hint: firefox

After testing the upgrade, based on the instructions given in:

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2010-June/030811.html

It is clear font hinting behaviour is handled differently between 3.0 and 3.6.4. In fact, the font rendering on 3.6.4 is significantly worse than that in 3.0. There has been no modification to font rendering to this installation of hardy, nor any .fonts.conf resident in the home folder.

The system font configuration (as defined in under Apperance) is as follows:
Smoothing = Subpixel (LCD)
Hinting = Slight
Subpixel Order = RGB

I have attached a .zip file with screen-grabs of both before (ff-3.0.19-hardy.png) and after (ff-3.6.4-hardy.png) the upgrade so you can see the difference. The font rendering under FF 3.0 is more aesthetic and smoother than the font rendering under 3.6.4, which looks thinner and jagged.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Hi

Could you please create a ~/.fonts.conf with the following contents, restart Firefox and tell me if the fonts return to normal

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
  <match target="font">
    <edit name="hintstyle"
mode="assign"><const>hintslight</const></edit>
  </match>
</fontconfig>

[sc00ter (gosdenj)]

Hello, I have applied the ~/.fonts.conf file with the contents above. Although there is a marked improvement, there are still obvious rendering differences between the original FF 3.0 screen-shot and the version using the .fonts.conf.

I've attached a new screen-shot for reference.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

The issue is that Firefox 3.6 doesn't honour the GNOME font preferences (which is bug 559149). The fontconfig settings I gave you will set the hinting to the same setting you already have in your preferences, so the font rendering in Firefox should closely match the rendering in your other applications. The rendering in Hardy with these settings looks the same as 3.6 on Lucid here.

Remember that there will be some noticeable differences between 3.0 and 3.6 in hardy - this is not a normal minor update

[sc00ter (gosdenj)]

The font rendering in firefox 3.6 is just plain awful.

Interestingly ...

Chromium suffered from the same problem, but the .fonts.conf appears to have fixed this issue. The strange thing is, under chromium, where the hinting wasn't being adhered to within the viewport for web pages, the application menus and dialogs honoured the Appearance settings correctly (prior to the .fonts.config hack).

Where as in FF 3.6 the application menus / dialogs were displayed in the same "poor" manner as the rest of the web pages.

I think for the time being I will "lock" FF 3.0 until I'm ready to upgrade to Lucid.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

TBH, it's difficult to tell what the fonts really look like in a compressed image. The fonts on my hardy box with the hinting set to slight are pretty much identical to the fonts on Lucid

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Ah, sorry, there is a difference with the Firefox fonts on Hardy, even with the tweaked fontconfig settings. What is happening is that there is no Xft.lcdfilter property on the X server in Hardy, and Firefox is falling back to the wrong filter. I'll fix this and upload tonight.

A fix for it not honouring the GNOME font settings will most likely appear in one way or another next week

[sc00ter (gosdenj)]

Hello. I've just upgraded my Firefox 3.0 to the latest 3.6.4 (hardy) and I can happily report that the font rendering issue is now fixed.

[Andrea Montefusco (andrew-montefusco)]

Hi all,

I just (automatically) upgraded my Firefox to the latest 3.6.6 on Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS and I can report that the problem is here again.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

We've fixed the actual rendering issue already, which was caused by not using the freetype LCD filter. I'd be surprised if you are really seeing a problem with rendering. Are you sure that your issue is not just that Firefox isn't honouring the settings in the GNOME font dialog? (which was mentioned in the release notes).

What font settings do you use?

[Andrea Montefusco (andrew-montefusco)]

> Are you sure that your issue is not just that Firefox isn't honouring the settings in the GNOME font dialog?

Indeed the other Gnome applications (and Gnome itself) don't change appearance.

> Xft.lcdfilter property on the X server in Hardy

How can I check if this parameter is in place ?

Anyway I report my settings.
In Appearing Preference I have the following setup:

Rendering: monochrome
Smoothing: None
Hinting: full
Subpixel order: RGB

My ~/.fonts.conf is

--- cut here ----
<fontconfig>

<dir>~/.fonts</dir>

<match target="font">
    <test compare="more" name="pixelsize" qual="any">
        <double>0</double>
    </test>
    <test compare="less" name="pixelsize" qual="any">
        <double>16</double>
    </test>
    <edit mode="assign" name="antialias">
        <bool>false</bool>
    </edit>

</match>

<match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="rgba" >
   <const>rgb</const>
  </edit>
</match>

<match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="hinting" >
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
</match>

<match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle" >
   <const>hintfull</const>
  </edit>
</match>

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

</fontconfig>

--- cut here ----

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Kathy,

Please leave the status of these bug's alone, and don't change them without leaving an explanation. You've done this to several bugs now, and it creates unnecessary work for people