FreeType 2.7 Released With A Big Font Rendering Change

[sdack]

Does anyone have a picture comparing the new to the old fonts?

[sdack]

The JPEG conversion ruins it a bit... Here is the original link: http://i.imgur.com/rH52AZY.png

[pq1930562]

The JPEG conversion ruins it a bit... Here is the original link: http://i.imgur.com/rH52AZY.png

Hm, what distro did you use for that screenshot?

Running Ubuntu 16.04 here and it looks better than what is shown for freetype 2.6.5 in your screenshot.

Maybe someone could post a Ubuntu vs. freetype 2.6.5 vs. freetype 2.7.0 screenshot?

What does Ubuntu do different than vanilla freetype 2.6.5?

[sdack]

Hm, what distro did you use for that screenshot?

Running Ubuntu 16.04 here and it looks better than what is shown for freetype 2.6.5 in your screenshot.

Maybe someone could post a Ubuntu vs. freetype 2.6.5 vs. freetype 2.7.0 screenshot?

What does Ubuntu do different than vanilla freetype 2.6.5?

freetype can be configured at compile, which is probably what Ubuntu has been doing. It's not simply set in stone by the version number. One can configure it at runtime, too, with an environment variable. See the website and release info for more.

I still like the thinner and sharper lines of the old. The new look makes me blink my eyes, because my brain keeps thinking that it's looking at something blurry. It will take some time adjusting to it...

[Sonadow]

freetype can be configured at compile, which is probably what Ubuntu has been doing. It's not simply set in stone by the version number. One can configure it at runtime, too, with an environment variable. See the website and release info for more.

I still like the thinner and sharper lines of the old. The new look makes me blink my eyes, because my brain keeps thinking that it's looking at something blurry. It will take some time adjusting to it...

Same here. Not a fan of the newer rendering since it just looks blurry. If this were a clean installation of a distribution with Freetype 2.7 i'd probably be trying to mess with the settings on my monitor to 'sharpen' the text.

[stqn]

Yeah 2.7 is annoyingly blurry (based on sdack’s screenshots).

[sdack]

Same here. Not a fan of the newer rendering since it just looks blurry. If this were a clean installation of a distribution with Freetype 2.7 i'd probably be trying to mess with the settings on my monitor to 'sharpen' the text.

One can turn it of at runtime with this:

$ export FREETYPE_PROPERTIES="truetype:interpreter-version=35"

The value can be 35, 38 and 40. One can set more options than this, but it's a little bit too tedious for me right now to explore them all. Anyhow, should be as simple as setting the variable in either .profile or .xsessionrc to stop the tears

[Almindor]

The JPEG conversion ruins it a bit... Here is the original link: http://i.imgur.com/rH52AZY.png

I have to say 2.6 looks way better than 2.7 here. I hope it's configurable so you can get the old crispy look back.

[Cerberus]

I hope Ubuntu will keep their own font rendering patches as Ubuntu font rendering is the best among Linux distributions, better than Windows font rendering as well, when I test other Linux distributions I always install Infinality font rendering patches and set to OSX preset to get acceptable looking fonts.

[Theriverlethe]

So, what the heck is the RGBA setting in GNOME doing? Is this new default compatible with it?