Check+Harmonise X/Fontconfig/Gtk+/Firefox/Chromium/Konq/Qt/KDE rendering preferences

[Paul Sladen]

(John Doe report until bits are tracked down). Currently various bits of the stack are using different font rendering settings for Freetype:

 * Gtk+ is using Gtk settings (lots of hinting)
 * Firefox is using Freetype default (little hinting)

The exact details of these need narrowing down, but see:

  bug #617862 (Konq rendering and GUI variation)
  http://www.ubuntu-inside.me/2009/07/howto-fix-firefox-35s-font-hinting.html (/etc/fonts/conf.d/ )

  bug #390975 (MASTER - Font hinting does not honour gnome-settings in Firefox)

the latter is coming from the settings in:

  ~/.fonts.conf (?)

[Mark Shuttleworth (sabdfl)]

 importance high

I think this is really important. We should have a policy on how we want
fonts rendered, and encourage folks to file bugs in cases where that
policy is not being followed. There may be reasonable exceptions to the
policy, but the debate should be documented and the decision with
rationale recorded.

In exploring this, please also include Chromium alongside Firefox, as
well as OO.o.

As a start to the policy, I would say that Ubuntu should aim for the
most accurate and visually pleasing rendernig of fonts possible, even if
that comes at a cost in performance. We should default to getting things
right in the eye of the designer - fully reflecting the hinting /
kerning of the font and using sub-pixel rendering to improve perceived
quality in a consistent fashion.

Since Freetype is the renderer in most cases, perhaps we could have it
log and apport cases where an application is using it in a way that
differs from policy or documented exception?

Mark

[soc (simon-ochsenreither)]

It should be made sure that the font preferences work in every application/framework and that every application honors the user's settings.

Nothing is more annoying than changing some rendering preference in Gnome's appearance-properties and having to repeat that step in Qt/KDE, Firefox, etc. Currently it seems that Java ignores these settings completely, depending on the specific theme used.

This has improved in the past, but is far from working.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

See also bug 379761, where Firefox uses different settings from other programs. (For me, Firefox and Thunderbird have been using "Full" hinting, while everything else uses "Slight" hinting, since about 10.04.)