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Bug 707777 - Text renders fuzzy in GNOME 3.10
Text renders fuzzy in GNOME 3.10
Status: RESOLVED NOTGNOME
Product: gsettings-desktop-schemas
Classification: Core
Component: general
3.9.x
Other Linux
: Normal normal
: ---
Assigned To: gsettings-desktop-schemas-maint
gsettings-desktop-schemas-maint
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2013-09-09 15:16 UTC by Alex Hultman
Modified: 2014-11-21 15:32 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: ---



Description Alex Hultman 2013-09-09 15:16:09 UTC
Text is now fuzzy. Text was not fuzzy before.

<insert genius explanation>

Well, I still think GNOME 3.0 up to GNOME 3.8 did a better job rendering text.
Comment 1 Matthias Clasen 2013-09-10 21:22:15 UTC
Most likely changes in the freetype 2.5, compared to 2.4. Try changing hinting from medium to slight.
Comment 2 Matthias Clasen 2013-09-10 21:23:21 UTC
Actually, lets keep this bug open to consider changing the default.
Comment 3 Jakub Steiner 2013-09-10 22:34:51 UTC
For reference I've rendered some samples:


http://jimmac.musichall.cz/stuff/freetype-2.4-strong.png
http://jimmac.musichall.cz/stuff/freetype-2.5-strong.png (not only fuzzy, but weight feels a lot stronger)
http://jimmac.musichall.cz/stuff/freetype-2.5-slight.png (worse, but passable for Cantarell, makes all hinted truetype fonts fuzzy though)

The last option is going through quite some hoops to generate ttf instead of otf and generate the hints with ttfautohinter* and keeps the freetype 2.5 strong hinting:

http://jimmac.musichall.cz/stuff/freetype-2.5-strong-autohinted-cantarell.png
Comment 4 Jakub Steiner 2013-09-10 22:39:52 UTC
http://jimmac.musichall.cz/stuff/freetype-2.4-unhinted.png for good measure
Comment 5 Jakub Steiner 2013-09-10 22:40:31 UTC
http://jimmac.musichall.cz/stuff/freetype-2.5-unhinted.png that is
Comment 6 Matthias Clasen 2013-10-05 22:42:55 UTC
Have we come to any conclusion here ?
Comment 7 Alex Hultman 2013-10-06 09:22:50 UTC
(In reply to comment #3)
> For reference I've rendered some samples:
> 
> 
> http://jimmac.musichall.cz/stuff/freetype-2.4-strong.png

Best, smooth and the H is sharp

> http://jimmac.musichall.cz/stuff/freetype-2.5-strong.png (not only fuzzy, but
> weight feels a lot stronger)

Worst. Fuzzy and thicker, I agree.

> http://jimmac.musichall.cz/stuff/freetype-2.5-slight.png (worse, but passable
> for Cantarell, makes all hinted truetype fonts fuzzy though)

Passable, the H is fuzzier than 2.4

> 
> The last option is going through quite some hoops to generate ttf instead of
> otf and generate the hints with ttfautohinter* and keeps the freetype 2.5
> strong hinting:
> 
> http://jimmac.musichall.cz/stuff/freetype-2.5-strong-autohinted-cantarell.png

Best?

---------------------------

It's small differences but the current rendering is extremely fuzzy and thick.
Comment 8 William Jon McCann 2013-10-07 16:06:53 UTC
(In reply to comment #6)
> Have we come to any conclusion here ?

<jimmac> short term workaround would be using slight hinting for cantarell only (fontconfig)
Comment 9 Bastien Nocera 2013-10-07 16:41:03 UTC
Feel free to close this once you've opened up the relevant bug to change the default fontconfig.
Comment 10 Alex Hultman 2013-10-30 16:56:35 UTC
I'm not sure what should be reported and what should be fixed? Will you do that?
Comment 11 Alex Hultman 2013-11-26 16:49:52 UTC
Where should I open a bug? Don't really understand..
Comment 12 Alex Hultman 2013-11-27 20:18:39 UTC
I reported this bug 3 months ago and now Fedora 20 Final TC2 *Still* has the same old fuzzy text. Since you don't respond me on how I should forward this bug - it's not going to happen. You have to tell me what and where I should go because I have no idea how text is handled in a Linux system - all I know is that is it fuzzy and hard to read in Fedora 20.

(In reply to comment #9)
> Feel free to close this once you've opened up the relevant bug to change the
> default fontconfig.

I dont know what fontconfig is and I don't know who or where I should turn to. Please stop bouncing me around and just tell me.

Reading text in Fedora 20 is as pleasant as pouring sand in your eyes and rub them...
Comment 13 Bastien Nocera 2013-11-27 21:37:49 UTC
(In reply to comment #12)
> Since you don't respond me on how I should forward this
> bug - it's not going to happen. You have to tell me what and where I should go
> because I have no idea how text is handled in a Linux system - all I know is
> that is it fuzzy and hard to read in Fedora 20.

File a bug against the fontconfig component in the Fedora/Red Hat bugzilla.
Comment 14 Alex Hultman 2013-11-27 21:46:02 UTC
Okay so it's a Fedora-specific bug, see that's one thing I had no clue about. Thanks.
Comment 15 Alex Hultman 2013-11-28 05:09:50 UTC
Red Hat doesn't seem to think this is a bug as they have already closed two bugs that both say text is fuzzy, as NOT A BUG. I have found of what this "genius explanation" is: Adobe. They, the *geniuses*, have merged their "new and better" OpenType rasterizer in freetype 2.5. Since this new rasterizer seems to only handle OpenType fonts, maybe the best quick fix would be to convert Cantarell to TrueType.

The other bug reports say that slight hinting fixes the fuzzyness for OpenType but makes other fonts fuzzy (as Jakub said). So if you could have slight hinting for OpenType and unchanged hinting for other fonts that would also solve this problem. Don't know if that's possible though. The reports so far is all about Cantarell, so maybe just converting that font to TrueType could fix this somewhat, as a quick fix.
Comment 16 Bastien Nocera 2013-11-28 08:13:45 UTC
(In reply to comment #15)
> Red Hat doesn't seem to think this is a bug as they have already closed two
> bugs that both say text is fuzzy, as NOT A BUG.

Links?
Comment 18 Behdad Esfahbod 2013-12-16 09:15:21 UTC
Note that similar issues have been extensively discussed on the FreeType list.  To me, looks like the weight boosting in the new (Adobe) CFF rasterizer combined with lack of linear (gamma-corrected) blending is causing the observed effect.
Comment 19 Werner Lemberg 2013-12-16 11:24:20 UTC
Yep.  The weight boosting can be controlled in FreeType, however, using the `darkening-parameters' property of the auto-hinter.