Firefox loses font hinting after reboot

[litemotiv]

Binary package hint: firefox

With font hinting set to slight, Firefox produces smooth screen fonts. However, after a reboot this setting is lost, and hinting has to be set again to regain smooth fonts.

System used:

- Xubuntu Hardy
- Compiz 1:0.7.2-0ubuntu2
- Firefox 3.0~b4+nobinonly-0ubuntu1

Steps to reproduce:

1. Xfce Settings Manager -> User Interface -> Use Hinting -> Slight
2. Start Firefox, check that screen fonts are smooth
3. Reboot
4. Start Firefox, see that screen fonts are not smooth
5. Reset Slight Hinting, Restart Firefox, fonts are smooth again

Other programs apparently are unaffected by this bug (at least on my system).

Contents of fonts.conf:

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'>
<fontconfig>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="rgba" >
   <const>rgb</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="hinting" >
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle" >
   <const>hintmedium</const>
  </edit>
 </match>
 <match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
   <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
 </match>
</fontconfig>

[Toshio Ito (debug-ito)]

I had the same problem, but now it's solved.
I created ~/.fonts.conf and wrote to it the following.

 <?xml version='1.0'?>
 <!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'>
 <fontconfig>
  <match target="font" >
   <edit mode="assign" name="hinting" >
    <bool>false</bool>
   </edit>
  </match>
 </fontconfig>

After I rebooted X, Firefox comes to show smooth fonts, without hinting.

My environment:
- Xubuntu Hardy
- Firefox: 3.0~b5+nobinonly-0ubuntu3

[litemotiv (nospam-capstone)]

Toshio, that's not really a solution but a workaround for people who don't mind not using any font hinting. I personally prefer slight hinting for best screen readability vs. smoothing.

With hinting set to true and hintstyle to hintslight in .fonts.conf, Firefox still applies medium/full hinting (can't tell which), other programs including Thunderbird do apply the correct hinting.

My only workaround here is to manually select slight hinting in the UI prefs after each reboot or X start.

[Toshio Ito (debug-ito)]

I'm sorry for my misunderstanding.
I thought there is no difference between hintslight and no hinting.

And, yes, the problem of Firefox applying medium/full hinting is also reproduced in my environment.
It's very weird.

[Barak (barak-naveh)]

i confirm the problem with Xubuntu Hardy, Firefox 3 beta 5.
Not using compiz (although at some point i turned it on, and then off).

[Barak (barak-naveh)]

is there any solution when full hinting is enabled?

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Mon, May 05, 2008 at 07:00:22PM -0000, Barak Naveh wrote:
> is there any solution when full hinting is enabled?
>

this is (most likely) not a firefox bug. most likely the xubuntu
utility forgets about the hinting, or there is a race at X session
startup that resets the hinting.

 status incomplete
 tag need-reassignment

 - Alexander

[Air Ogi (air-ogi)]

Adding:
Xft.hintstyle: hintslight
to ~/.Xresources fixed the problem for me.

Details are in:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=400265

[Air Ogi (air-ogi)]

I should add that Xubuntu does not seem to be populating xrdb on startup:

WIth ~/.Xresources customization after login:

$ xrdb -query
*customization: -color
Xft.hintstyle: hintslight

WIth ~/.Xresources customization after changing font rendering in Settings Manager/UI Preferences:

$ xrdb -query
*customization: -color
Xft.antialias: 1
Xft.hinting: 1
Xft.hintstyle: hintslight
Xft.rgba: rgb

[litemotiv (nospam-capstone)]

As this does not seem to be a Firefox bug but rather a Xubuntu / Xfce4 one (xfce-mcs-plugins?), could someone with some insight please attach it to the appropriate package and/or maintainer? I fear it might get lost in the stream otherwise when it stays in limbo.

Thanks,
Olivier.

[litemotiv (nospam-capstone)]

Still confirmed on Intreped testing, handing over to Xubuntu dev team.

[litemotiv (nospam-capstone)]

FYI: this also effects Open Office; fonts don't have any hinting after reboot or re-logon. It looks pretty awkward, so i'm quite surprised that nobody from the Xubuntu Dev team has noticed this over the last 4 months.

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

Thanks for reporting this bug and any supporting documentation. Since this bug has enough information provided for a developer to begin work, I'm going to mark it as confirmed and let them handle it from here. Thanks for taking the time to make Ubuntu better!

[Lionel Le Folgoc (mrpouit)]

This package has been removed from the archive in jaunty (mcs is deprecated).

[Lionel Le Folgoc (mrpouit)]

Is this issue still reproducible on jaunty with Xfce 4.6?

[litemotiv (nospam-capstone)]

I am not using (x)ubuntu anymore myself, so i cannot comment on this.

[Lionel Le Folgoc (mrpouit)]

Ok, thankq for the feedback. I'm not able to reproduce this issue with Xfce 4.6, so this is apparently fixed. If someone is able to reproduce it with xfconf & Xfce 4.6, please reopen it.

[harishcm (harishcms)]

here's a workaround that worked for me with Xfce 4.4 on Xubuntu 8.0.4.1:

http://<email address hidden>/msg897757.html

[harishcm (harishcms)]

This seems to be a duplicate of bug 231311 and bug 220899. How should I do the marking?

[harishcm (harishcms)]

If you can't see the address to the above workaround, here's what to do:

1. Log out of Xfce

2. Explicitly set session type to Xfce in gdm

3. Login. Now xrdb is populated, and firefox and openoffice will respect Xfce's font settings.