bugFree UCS Outline Fonts - Bugs: bug #36411, Bad kerning since 2012-05-03

 
 

bug #36411: Bad kerning since 2012-05-03

Submitted by:  David Plotzki <tyo>
Submitted on:  Sun 06 May 2012 09:36:05 AM UTC  
 
Category: font metricsSeverity: 3 - Normal
Item Group: letter positioning poorStatus: Non-bug
Privacy: PublicAssigned to: Steve White <Stevan_White>
Open/Closed: ClosedRelease: 2012-05-03

Add a New Comment(Rich Markup)
   

You are not logged in

Please log in, so followups can be emailed to you.

 

(Jump to the original submission Jump to the original submission)

Wed 09 May 2012 09:07:14 AM UTC, comment #8:

Great!

This goes into the "knowledge base".

Thanks a lot, David!

Steve White <Stevan_White>
Project AdministratorIn charge of this item.
Tue 08 May 2012 09:35:42 PM UTC, comment #7:

Hi Steve,

FreeSans is looking nice now :)

I read the Arch Linux Wiki about font configuration:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xorg_Font_Configuration

It turned out that in my ~/.fonts.conf I had to disable the hinting that the Byte-Code Interpreter does and enable "auto hinting" instead. I don't really understand what all this means, but everything looks nice, so I'll keep it this way.

Thanks again,
David

For the record: my complete ~/.fonts.conf:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>

<match target="font">
<edit name="antialias" mode="assign">
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
</match>

<!-- <match target="font">
<edit name="hinting" mode="assign">
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
</match> -->

<match target="font">
<edit name="autohint" mode="assign">
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
</match>

<match target="font">
<edit name="hintstyle" mode="assign">
<const>hintfull</const>
</edit>
</match>

<match target="font">
<edit name="rgba" mode="assign">
<const>rgb</const>
</edit>
</match>

<match target="font">
<edit mode="assign" name="lcdfilter">
<const>lcddefault</const>
</edit>
</match>
</fontconfig>

David Plotzki <tyo>
Mon 07 May 2012 06:03:25 PM UTC, comment #6:

David,

Well, something's wrong. I would really prefer to understand it, than to forget about it until the next person complains.

Another thought: the letters 'a' and 'l' have no kerning applied; some of the others do. It looks to me in your sample as if the kerning is somehow over-done for the kerned letters.

The glyphs appear to be those of FreeSans in all the samples, although they are rendered differently.

I do prefer the OpenType version for Linux (it uses cubic Type 1 style outlines, and is smaller), but I don't see the effect you showed. This shouldn't have much effect on kerning anyway.

Please let me know if you have any insights as to what the difference is.

Steve White <Stevan_White>
Project AdministratorIn charge of this item.
Mon 07 May 2012 04:32:16 PM UTC, comment #5:

Hi Steve,

it's not a problem with the package: I get the very same appearance when I completely remove the package and take the TTF fonts right from the GNU FTP server http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/freefont/

I use Arch Linux and this package (ttf-freefont):
https://www.archlinux.org/packages/extra/any/ttf-freefont/

By the way, when I install the OTF version, I get a slightly different (in my opinion: better) appearance.

The problem seems to come from my local configuration/setup. I use XFCE and when I set FreeSans to be the standard system font, it renders very nice in the XFCE file manager (Thunar), but is screwed up in other XFCE application. I added a screenshot of this.

Okay, I don't want to waste any more of your time with this: I'll read more about how fonts are rendered by the applications. It's obviously not a bug on your side :)

Thanks for your efforts,
David

(file #25814)

David Plotzki <tyo>
Mon 07 May 2012 03:00:45 PM UTC, comment #4:

Hi David,

Which distro, which file precisely? (Maybe something is wrong with the package).

Steve White <Stevan_White>
Project AdministratorIn charge of this item.
Sun 06 May 2012 11:22:29 AM UTC, comment #3:

Thanks for the quick reply! Sorry, I don't know much about typography, so I might confuse the terms :)

There are never two versions of FreeSans installed. I just switch between the old 2010-09-19 and the new 2012-05-03 package (ttf-freefont) from my distribution's repository. I set Firefox to display all web sites in FreeSans, so I just took screenshots of the GNU FreeFont web site with each version installed and assembled them later in GIMP.

Since LibreOffice has the same issues, I produced two PDFs with the font embedded, one for each FreeSans version. When opened in Evince 3.4.0, the difference is not as bad as in Firefox and LibreOffice, but a difference is visible. I attached the PDF files and a screenshot of how Evince displays both versions.

Unfortunately, fc-cache -f doesn't help (tried sudo as well).
Do you assume that the "crippled" version isn't even the FreeSans, but a fallback font? I couldn't find one that looks like this on my machine.

Here is the locate output; the location seems to stay the same, and no duplicates present.

2010-09-19 installed:

$ locate FreeSans
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/FreeSans.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/FreeSansBold.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/FreeSansBoldOblique.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/FreeSansOblique.ttf

$ sudo locate FreeSans
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/FreeSans.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/FreeSansBold.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/FreeSansBoldOblique.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/FreeSansOblique.ttf

2012-05-03 installed:

$ updatedb
$ locate FreeSans
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/FreeSans.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/FreeSansBold.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/FreeSansBoldOblique.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/FreeSansOblique.ttf

$ sudo locate FreeSans
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/FreeSans.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/FreeSansBold.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/FreeSansBoldOblique.ttf
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/FreeSansOblique.ttf

(file #25800, file #25801, file #25802)

David Plotzki <tyo>
Sun 06 May 2012 10:29:01 AM UTC, comment #2:

On second thought, how did you even install two versions of FreeSans on one computer?

You would at least have to change the internal name of one of them in order to access them separately using the system.

Please try

  • make sure no other copies are installed

$ locate freesans

  • run as root, then as your normal user

fc-cache -f

  • re start your applications.

Cheers!

Steve White <Stevan_White>
Project AdministratorIn charge of this item.
Sun 06 May 2012 10:25:17 AM UTC, comment #1:

Hi David!

There is more going on here than just kerning.
The shape of the letter 'e' for example in the two samples is different.

The 2012 sample also has spacing issues, perhaps what you're calling "clutter". For example 'al' and 'ab' appear widely spaced compared to other letters. This is not the kerning of current FreeSans.

We need to know how you produced this sample. Could you provide the HTML please?

Thanks!

Steve White <Stevan_White>
Project AdministratorIn charge of this item.
Sun 06 May 2012 09:36:05 AM UTC, original submission:

Hi,

I'm using the Arch Linux package and since the update to 2012-05-03 I get bad kerning for the FreeSans in Firefox 12 as well as in LibreOffice 3.5.2.2. Even though the overall bulk appearance is much better, the individual letters are cluttered. Please see the picture attached: is this a local problem or is it supposed to be this way?

FreeSerif and FreeMono are looking good.

Thanks for your great work,
David

David Plotzki <tyo>

 

(Note: upload size limit is set to 16384 kB, after insertion of the required escape characters.)

Attach File(s):
   
   
Comment:
   

Attached Files
file #25814:  XFCE_different_rendering.png added by tyo (50KiB - image/png - Rendering of FreeSans in two different XFCE applications)
file #25800:  FreeSans_2010-09-19.pdf added by tyo (7KiB - application/pdf - PDFs produced with LibreOffice 3.5, different versions of FreeSans installed.)
file #25801:  FreeSans_2012-05-03.pdf added by tyo (9KiB - application/pdf - PDFs produced with LibreOffice 3.5, different versions of FreeSans installed.)
file #25802:  FreeSans_PDF_comparison.png added by tyo (50KiB - image/png - PDFs produced with LibreOffice 3.5, different versions of FreeSans installed.)
file #25799:  FreeSans.png added by tyo (27KiB - image/png - Comparison FreeSans 2010-09-19 and 2012-05-03)

 

Depends on the following items: None found

Items that depend on this one: None found

 

Carbon-Copy List
  • -unavailable- added by Stevan_White (Posted a comment)
  • -unavailable- added by tyo
  • -unavailable- added by tyo (Submitted the item)
  •  

    Do you think this task is very important?
    If so, you can click here to add your encouragement to it.
    This task has 0 encouragements so far.

    Only logged-in users can vote.

     

    Please enter the title of George Orwell's famous dystopian book (it's a date):

     

     

    Follow 10 latest changes.

    Date Changed By Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced By
    Wed 09 May 2012 09:07:14 AM UTCStevan_WhiteStatusNeed info=>Non-bug
      Open/ClosedOpen=>Closed
    Mon 07 May 2012 04:32:16 PM UTCtyoAttached File-=>Added XFCE_different_rendering.png, #25814
    Sun 06 May 2012 11:22:29 AM UTCtyoAttached File-=>Added FreeSans_2010-09-19.pdf, #25800
      Attached File-=>Added FreeSans_2012-05-03.pdf, #25801
      Attached File-=>Added FreeSans_PDF_comparison.png, #25802
    Sun 06 May 2012 10:25:17 AM UTCStevan_WhiteStatusNone=>Need info
      Assigned toNone=>Stevan_White
    Sun 06 May 2012 09:36:06 AM UTCtyoAttached File-=>Added FreeSans.png, #25799
      Carbon-Copy-=>Added tyo

    Back to the top


    Powered by Savane 3.1-cleanup1