It's damn annoying Linux still has these basic problems rendering the Microsoft fonts which are used so extensively on the web. As a work around I've added this rule to my .fonts.conf file in my home directory which (I think) disables anti-aliasing for bold Verdana at some font sizes:
After looking on the Freetype mailing list it looks like this is a known problem with rendering Verdana bold in anti-aliased mode:
http:// lists.gnu. org/archive/ html/freetype/ 2006-11/ msg00011. html
In particular in this post one of the Freetype authors says certain sizes of Verdana bold cannot be rendered properly in anti-aliased mode:
http:// lists.gnu. org/archive/ html/freetype/ 2006-11/ msg00042. html
It's damn annoying Linux still has these basic problems rendering the Microsoft fonts which are used so extensively on the web. As a work around I've added this rule to my .fonts.conf file in my home directory which (I think) disables anti-aliasing for bold Verdana at some font sizes:
<!-- Disable antialiasing for Verdana Bold at some font sizes--> medium< /const> Verdana< /string> 11</double> 18</double> false</ bool>
<match target="font" >
<test compare="more" name="weight" >
<const>
</test>
<test name="family" qual="any" >
<string>
</test>
<!-- check font size -->
<test compare="more_eq" name="pixelsize" qual="any" >
<double>
</test>
<test compare="less_eq" name="pixelsize" qual="any" >
<double>
</test>
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
<bool>
</edit>
</match>