DejaVu Sans kerning regression with Freetype 2.4

[Keenan Pepper]

With libfreetype 2.3.11-1ubuntu2.2, DejaVu Sans looks great. With libfreetype 2.4.2-1 installed (and everything else kept exactly the same), the kerning looks really ugly. To me, it's most noticeable before lowercase "u". I will attach before and after screenshots.

I know the focus is on the Ubuntu Font Family for this release (which I'm dying to try), but we should make sure DejaVu continues to look good as well.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: libfreetype6 2.4.2-1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-19.28-generic 2.6.35.3
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-19-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
Architecture: i386
Date: Sat Sep 4 10:49:26 2010
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: freetype

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Please test whether this issue is reproducible with freetype 2.4.4-1, which has just been uploaded to natty.

[Keenan Pepper (keenanpepper)]

I just reproduced it with freetype 2.4.4-1. Looks the same as with 2.4.2.

[Goran Zec (zecg)]

It still persists in Natty with libfreetype 2.4.4-1ubuntu2. At certain sizes in full hinting, for instance, the glyphs in sequence "Cu" are touching, which wasn't the case with Lucid and libfreetype 2.3.11.

[Goran Zec (zecg)]

Could this perhaps be a problem with the font itself? Lucid has 2.30 version of ttf-dejavu-core and the kerning is OK, Natty has 2.31 and it is broken as described.

[Goran Zec (zecg)]

Tried 2.30, 2.31 and 2.33 versions of ttf-dejavu-core/extra and all exhibit the same kerning problems, so I'd say it's a libfreetype6 problem.

[Raoul Zwart (raoul-subgenius)]

Confirmed on oneiric.
Still broken.
Also on debian squeeze.

[Hugh McMaster (hmcmaster)]

Closing. Fixed.