Fonts Render Incorrectly in Mozilla Software

[Patrick Gillespie]

Firefox 3.6.10, Ubuntu 10.10 RC
Firefox 16.0.2, Thunderbird 16.0.2, Ubuntu 12.10

The new Ubuntu Font (as well as other Fonts) render incorrectly in the Firefox menu (as if there were no smoothing or as if they needed to be bolded), Elsewhere, the Font renders correctly. Have tried various solutions and workarounds but none work. Also, since upgrading to 10.10, fonts within webpages have also been rendering poorly, as if they too needed smoothing or bolding.

Sorry I can't be more specific and less descriptive.

[Fabio Marconi (fabiomarconi)]

Can you please add a screenshot
Thanks

[Patrick Gillespie (vermontpoet)]

Screenshot. As requested.

[Patrick Gillespie (vermontpoet)]

And for purposes of comparison... Here is another screenshot with the font Britannica Unicode Sans Roman (12). Notice that the appearance of the Font in the Firefox menu properly matches that of the Gnome Panel.

[Patrick Gillespie (vermontpoet)]

Upgrading from 10.10 RC has only mildly improved the bug. Screenshot attached.

[Fabio Marconi (fabiomarconi)]

Sorry for my poor eyes but i cannot see difference, can you show me ?
Thanks
FAbio

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

It doesn't look like that by default. Do you have a ~/.fonts.conf?

[Patrick Gillespie (vermontpoet)]

Hi Fabio, I don't know what to do (for bad eye-sight) except to post another screen shot. This screen shot comes from my smaller 32bit laptop with 10.10. Notice how Ubuntu's Font appears in both the panel and the menu of FF. No difference.

Now look down at the third menu. This is from the .jpg I already uploaded. Notice how the font appears as though it needs to be bolded.

It's a small matter. At this point, I could use 10.10 with little complaint, but it's not working the way it's supposed to. It's a bug, albeit a minor one.

[Patrick Gillespie (vermontpoet)]

//Do you have a ~/.fonts.conf?//

Not in my home folder, if that's what you mean.

[Charly (csigueros)]

Not only problems with FF, also with Thunderbird. Mainly (but not only) with bold characters.

Problem seems to minimize after installing ms fonts package: ttf-mscorefonts-installer.

[Charly (csigueros)]

bold capital 'L' character still shows the problem.

[Patrick Gillespie (vermontpoet)]

Hi Folks,

I just reproduced the bug on my second laptop and did it thusly: I installed the Kubuntu Desktop.

(I had already installed Kubuntu on the first computer.)

So, Font rendition in the menus *and* webpages is now just as bad on both computers. ;-) Interestingly, OO on the Kubuntu side also suffers from the same malady - so the bug doesn't seem to be limited to Mozilla software.

[Patrick Gillespie (vermontpoet)]

Update: I uninstalled Kubuntu (not a complete uninstall) and regretfully, the font Bug continues.

Seems that once the Kubuntu Desktop has been installed, uninstalling it doesn't remove the conflict, setting or whatever Kubuntu has altered.

Help?

[Patrick Gillespie (vermontpoet)]

More googling & more research:

I'm wondering if this Bug isn't related to Bug 69091

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/fontconfig/+bug/69091

I've also found references to this issues (installation of Kubuntu Desktop) here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1393837

I tried the solutions offered, resetting the following to 0 in FF's about:config --> browser.display.auto_quality_min_font_size = 0

The solution didn't work for me.

Also, I was asked earlier if ~/.font.conf is present. It is. Did I miss it before?

[Patrick Gillespie (vermontpoet)]

OK... not to keep piling on; but the more information I can provide the better?

I tried the following:

http://www.ubuntu-inside.me/2009/07/howto-fix-firefox-35s-font-hinting.html

No go.

On the Kubuntu side, Font rendering has altogether fallen through the floor in *every* application. It's not unusable, but... it looks awful.

[Patrick Gillespie (vermontpoet)]

OK, last post until I hear from someone.

A solution (which only works on the Gnome side), is to simply delete the ~/.fonts.conf file.

If I reboot into KDE, KDE recreates the file and we're back to square one in both desktops. Here's are the steps:

I renamed the file (in Gnome) then logged out and back into into KDE, KDE's fonts rendered correctly (though too small). I logged out, then logged back into KDE. For some reason (with that second login) KDE reconstituted the ~.font/conf file and everything looked miserable.

What all this means is that Gnome & Kubuntu don't play nice with each other and, for now, the only workaround is to rename (or delete) ~.fonts.conf and stay out of Kubuntu.

[Olaf (olaf-trieschmann)]

Hi,

I had the same problem and found the solution there: http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/gnome-linux-firefox-smooth-fonts/#comment-50494

Don't forget to create the ~/.fonts.conf file as root. Then you can continue to switch between GNOME and KDE.

Best

[Patrick Gillespie (vermontpoet)]

Hi Olaf. Thanks. I've edited the ~/.fonts.conf file. So far so good. If I have problems I'll write back.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Adolfo Jayme Barrientos (fitojb)]

Fonts look "bad" in Mozilla and KDE because of the "Full" hinting setting. The default font hinting setting in Ubuntu is "Smooth".

Note that some people prefer the Full hinting to the Smooth hinting, because it's sharper, despite it might distort the fonts. (That's why I put "bad" between quotation marks)

[gf (gf-interlinks-deactivatedaccount)]

Hello Patrick,
Thank you for submitting this bug and reporting a problem with fonts in Thunderbird.

You made this bug report in 2012 and there have been several versions of Ubuntu and Thunderbird since then.

Could you confirm that this is no longer a problem and that we can close the ticket?
Or, if it is still a problem, could you run the following (only once):
apport-collect BUGNUMBER

and upload the updated logs and and any other logs that are relevant for this particular issue.

Thank you again for helping make Ubuntu and Thunderbird better.

G

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

Also marking Firefox component of bug report as "Incomplete" to allow expiry after 59 days. In the event that Firefox is still affected (unlikely I know) anyone still seeing a problem should respond within that time.

[gf (gf-interlinks-deactivatedaccount)]

Thanks for updating the ticket, Paul.
:)
G

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for thunderbird (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for firefox (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]