Fontconfig issue

[nam1962]

Hi, from [Stable Update] 2020-10-19 on, number of users experience aliasing, fuzzy fonts, as reported from here on : [Stable Update] 2020-10-19 - Kernels, Nvidia 455, Browsers, as well as there : Firefox 82 has fuzzy fonts

Several proposals have been suggested like amending ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf with lcddefault, or preset 11-lcdfilter-default.conf linking to ~/.config/fontconfig/conf.d or even creating ~/.Xresources
with a set of rules :

Xft.dpi: 90
Xft.antialias: true
Xft.hinting: true
Xft.rgba: rgb
Xft.autohint: false
Xft.hintstyle: hintslight
Xft.lcdfilter: lcddefault

all of these seem to derive from Font configuration - ArchWiki
and outcome is NOT ok :

Could this be handled so that users (as I ! ) stop fiddling with system conf that will be forgotten in one month or will conflict with something else we don’t know when ?

[rizuhaso]

That update breaks font smoothing and/or hinting on my system.

System: Kernel: 5.4.67-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.0 Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2
Distro: Manjaro Linux
Machine: Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 81DM v: Lenovo ideapad 330-17IKB serial:

[chfanzil]

@rizuhaso

That update breaks font smoothing and/or hinting on my system.

I’m also having a problem with font rendering. I don’t know if it’s related to yesterday’s extra security update of FreeType (which wasn’t originally in this stable update), because I only noticed it today after the FreeType update and didn’t notice it after this latest stable update.

Are you also experiencing fonts breaking only on gtk applications?
Did you find a way to fix this?

[freggel.doe]

[Unstable Update] 2020-09-13 - Kernels, Qt 5.15.1, Browser, Pamac

Enabling the LCD-Filter solved this for me.

[nam1962]

@rizuhaso @chfanzil @freggel.doe Same aliasing problem.
Enabling LCDFilter in ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf with

<edit name="lcdfilter" mode="assign">
            <const>lcddefault</const>
        </edit>

Makes it a little better but far from perfect

With none

With lcddefault

(btw : belgian postal delivery app uses ubuntu font ! ^^)

[chomsky]

I’m curious, what did you order?

[nam1962]

You’re welcome !
It was a computer chair.

[rizuhaso]

Well, still looks bad.)
Are you on XFCE?

In the unstable update theme also suggested to remove the folder $HOME/.config/fontconfig

did not tried it on my machine yet.

[Fofry]

Font smoothing is broken for me too, on both PC and laptop (GNOME), in some applications only (Firefox, Nautilus), and there is no $HOME/.config/fontconfig folder.

[nam1962]

@rizuhaso

In the unstable update theme also suggested to remove the folder $HOME/.config/fontconfig

Well, it does what it says and become ugly again.

I also applied :
https://wiki.manjaro.org/index.php?title=Improve_Font_Rendering
but with a brand new *~/.Xresources, nothing changed.

@Fofry : did you try

fc-cache -f -v

and check for the fontconfig folder ?

@all : I really feel bad with this problem. This shouldn’t happen on a stable release and ought to be corrected without user trying to fiddle all over the place…

[D.Dave]

@nam1962

on a rolling stable release

FTFY

Anyway I didn’t faced the font issue; I am on Xfce

[nam1962]

It’s not the rolling question, it’s a stable release of a desktop OS.
I can agree to care for exotic stuff when updating, I’m less comfortable to have to care for font rendering…

I’m on Xfce too.

This is ugly :

[flibby.jibbit]

@nam1962

It’s not the rolling question, it’s a stable release of a desktop OS

Technically, it’s the stable channel of a rolling release desktop OS.

[nam1962]

@flibby.jibbit

Technically, it’s the stable channel of a rolling release desktop OS.

Operationaly, the stable channel of a rolling release desktop OS has an ugly rendering.

[D.Dave]

Obviously I didn’t want to be disrespectful in your regards; but consider to open a discussion about this issue in the support section of the forum; you will get the attention of the Manjaro’s mainteiners

[screwtape]

Had this font problem too. This fonts.conf solved it for me:

Link: Font configuration - ArchWiki

[moson]

There should be a file 11-lcdfilter-default.conf in /etc/fonts/conf.avail/

Linking it to conf.d should enable the lcd filter setting system-wide.

sudo ln -s /etc/fonts/conf.avail/11-lcdfilter-default.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d/

[The_Quantum_Alpha]

On gnome, the font aliasing just works for me…

[rizuhaso]

Well.
On my system the font-manager program added conflicting configs into $HOME/.config/fontconfig/conf.d/19-DisplayProperties.conf.
This file was generated by font-manager and it had a disabled lcdfilter option.

So I made
sudo ln -s /etc/fonts/conf.avail/11-lcdfilter-default.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d/
and also I manually enabled lcdfilter in the font-manager settings.

That fixed the problem for me.

[nam1962]

Don’t you think the preset link should be toward ~/.config/fontconfig/conf.d ?
Anyhow, I opend this thread Fontconfig issue and think it could regroup all posts here on this matter.

@The_Quantum_Alpha : happy if you feel so (your illustration is not really convincing…)