DejaVu Serif 12 pt not rendering number characters correctly

[Andrew Cowie]

Binary package hint: ttf-dejavu

The DejaVu family is a wonderful set of screen fonts. I have recently switched to a new machine and am running into a problem with certain characters. Since it's the numerals, it's quite noticeable.

It does not manifest at 11pt nor at 14pt. But at 12pt (what I'm trying to use) and 13pt, certain digits render at a different height than other digits. This is exceedingly jarring, to say the least.

If I use the `gnome-appearance-properties` Fonts -> Details dialog to change the hinting from the default Slight to Medium, the problem goes away, but that's because all the letters turn into wire outlines which are a ghost of their former selves :(. But while that's interesting in and of itself, it doesn't give me much of a handle on what to poke. Do I need to hack on the dejavu font itself? The fontconfig entries? Cairo? Hard to say, and any pointers appreciated.

The screen is a laptop LCD at
  dimensions: 1366x768 pixels (270x150 millimeters)
  resolution: 129x130 dots per inch
according to `xdpyinfo`.

Screenshot (using gnome-specimen to examine the problem) attached.

AfC

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Feb 8 17:56:08 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027)
Package: ttf-dejavu 2.29-2
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LC_TIME=en_DK.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LC_PAPER=en_AU.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-19.56-generic
SourcePackage: ttf-dejavu
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-19-generic x86_64

[Andrew Cowie (afcowie)]

Screenshot made with `gnome-specimen` showing the numeral characters being misrendered in Deja Vu Serif (but not Sans or Sans Mono).

AfC

[Paul Drain (pd)]

Also seems to occur on an HP dv5 where xdpyinfo reports a standard resolution of:

screen #0:
  dimensions: 1280x800 pixels (332x212 millimeters)
  resolution: 112x110 dots per inch

[Andrew Cowie (afcowie)]

I tried the dejavu 2.30 packages from Debian unstable, and that didn't fix the problem unfortunately. So it's probably not the font itself.

Working with RAOF and Ankh in #gnome-hackers, they likewise noted that with medium or full hinting the problem goes away, but with slight hinting (which is the default we set for users of course) we're still messed up.

Not sure what to try now.

AfC

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.