inferior subpixel hinting on gutsy compared to previous versions of Ubuntu - no way to revert to previous hinting method

[Simon Ruggier]

Upon upgrading from feisty to gutsy on my main machine, I noticed that fonts are generally blurrier, in both GNOME and KDE applications, with my current settings, which are subpixel antialiasing, with full hinting. I took a screenshot from a second machine that I had installed a fresh copy of gutsy tribe 5 on, which is up to date as of yesterday, and it displays fonts in exactly the same way, so this shouldn't be hard to reproduce. I will attach a comparison image to illustrate what I'm referring to as a bug here.

[Simon Ruggier (simon80)]

This image shows fonts as displayed in the System Monitor Preferences applet window. In all three cases, subpixel antialiasing is enabled with full hinting.

The topmost slice is from my main machine before upgrading to 7.10.
The middle slice is the same machine, after updating to 7.10 - I've tried rebooting, switching my font settings around, deleting ~/.fonts.cf, etc.
The bottom slice is from a second machine with a fresh install of 7.10 Tribe 5, updated to the latest packages in the archive as of yesterday, October 15th.

[Roel Huybrechts (rulus)]

I think I have the same issue, Gutsy's fonts look more blurry than Feisty's. Changing Smoothing from 'Subpixel (LCDs)' to 'Grayscale' in the Font Rendering Details makes it better though.

[Gert Kulyk (gkulyk)]

I can't agree with that. For me Gutsy-style hinting is better than the one in previous versions. It seems to be a matter of taste.

[Simon Ruggier (simon80)]

On 10/16/07, Gert Kulyk <email address hidden> wrote:
> I can't agree with that. For me Gutsy-style hinting is better than the
> one in previous versions. It seems to be a matter of taste.

Indeed, but in Feisty you could turn down hinting to accommodate your
tastes, whereas there is no alternative for people who want full
hinting in gutsy.

[malex (malexorg)]

I have the same issue. The subpixel smoothing is blurred on Gutsy, it was perfect on Feisty.

[Simon Ruggier (simon80)]

I'm marking this as confirmed, since there is agreement from another user that the bug exists.

[Tobias Wolf (towolf)]

It’s a feature, not a bug.
See http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=3483916&postcount=63

[Simon Ruggier (simon80)]

Heh, yeah, a feature.. :| Thanks for the tip though.

[malex (malexorg)]

I created the file /etc/fonts/conf.d/lcdfilder-legacy.conf with the content suggested by towolf, but nothing happened. Yes, I restarted fontconfig, the X server, then the whole system, but without success.
Is there a sure way to get the "legacy" behavior?

[Simon Ruggier (simon80)]

I also have created ~/.fonts.cf, and nothing seems to have changed.

[nowshining (nowshining)]

I turned off hinting but i still get blurry ness in the console window only when i'm installing an application or updates and watching it, everything else seems fine, by the way i'm using a CRT with subpixel on with hinting off tho makes fonts look better on my 17f3 monitor from eview. :) abeit with that SOOOO minor drawback at times..

[David Stansby (dstansby-deactivatedaccount)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu. Gutsy reached EOL on 18 April 2009.
Please see this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

I've tried recreating this bug with Karmic and was unable to given the information you've provided. Please either a) upgrade and test or b) increase the verbosity of the steps to recreate it so we can try again.

Please feel free to report any other bugs you may find.

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as requested in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the "Status" column, and change the status back to "New". Thanks again!