Ugly fonts in java app

[Marek Slama]

Binary package hint: openjdk-6-jre

According to info from David Herron fontconfig.properties refers to nonexistent lucida fonts. It needs to be updated. Good example to show ugly fonts is to run NetBeans IDE with Metal L&F (which is default)

[Matthias Klose (doko)]

updated the fontconfig in intrepid; a fixed package for hardy can be found in the openjdk PPA.

[jeroenl (jeroenl)]

I installed Intrepid much later than the mentioned fix, but it is still a problem.

[Onkar Shinde (onkarshinde)]

@jeroenvrp,

Can you post some screenshot? Which package are you running? And what is outout of 'dpkg -l openjdk-6-jdk'?

[Martin Capitanio (capnm)]

Same here, try a simple Test
java -jar rubykara.jar

( http://www.swisseduc.ch/informatik/karatojava/rubykara/classes/rubykara.jar )

1) crappy
java -version
java version "1.6.0_0"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_0-b12)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 1.6.0_0-b12, mixed mode)

ii openjdk-6-jdk 6b12~pre1-0ubuntu3

2) o.k.
java -version
java version "1.6.0_07"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_07-b06)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 10.0-b23, mixed mode)

ii sun-java6-jdk 6-07-4ubuntu2

[Martin Endres (endresma)]

I can confirm this bug using Ubuntu 8.10 and 'openjdk-6-jdk' (6b12-0ubuntu6), too.
It seems to affect all Java applications using Swing and the Metal Look&Feel.

Find another screenshot (showing FreeMind, NetBeans and jDownloader) attached.

As captn pointed out, only OpenJDK seems to be affected. Rendering using SunJDK seems to work okay.

Related forum threads of other people experiencing this:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=957843&highlight=openjdk
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=958343&highlight=openjdk
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=928849&highlight=openjdk

[xylo (stefan-endrullis)]

Beside "ugly" fonts you can also see on the last screenshot that all fonts are using much more space in y-direction as they should normally use. All buttons, menu bars and other components are much bigger because of that.

[Marek Slama (mslama-email)]

For big y spacing around text there is separate issue https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openjdk-6/+bug/289784 already fixed in openjdk.

[NoBugs! (luke32j)]

I noticed the font problems when installing the latest Netbeans 6.5.
In the EULA, scrolling down with middle-mouse scrolling makes the text overwrite itself and makes an unreadable mess. Once installed, Netbeans shows code double spaced! Uninstalling openjdk and installing Java6jdk fixed it, though:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=928849&highlight=netbeans+vertical&page=2

[Marek Slama (mslama-email)]

Re license text scrolling problem is it in installer or in License Agreement dialog displayed when you first start IDE?

[panticz.de (panticz.de)]

To fix this bug type following commands in console:

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk
sudo update-java-alternatives -s java-6-sun

[NoBugs! (luke32j)]

I tried that, and I also uninstalled openjdk, and I'm using sun java 6.
I don't have double spaced fonts, but I still have a font problem - see attached.

[Marek Slama (mslama-email)]

Regarding NetBeans IDE installer: Please check log file in $HOME/.nbi/log. It contains list of system properties including JDK location and version used to run installer. To display license text JTextPane is used. If you force repaint by scrolling or resizing does it help? It looks like AWT or graphics driver issue. Is it reproducible?

[NoBugs! (luke32j)]

Yes, the font bug happened several times. ~/.nbi/log/ log is attached.

[NoBugs! (luke32j)]

After upgrade to 9.04, the garbled text bug I described seems to be fixed!

[panticz.de (panticz.de)]

You can enable font antialiasing in Java with this parameter:

java -Dawt.useSystemAAFontSettings=on -Dswing.aatext=true YOUR_JAR_FILE

[Daniel Holbach (dholbach)]

Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy) is EOL.