Technology Tales

Adventures in consumer and enterprise technology

TOPIC: FONT RASTERIZATION

Improving Font Display in Fedora 15

30th May 2011

When I first started to poke around Fedora 15 after upgrading my Fedora machine, the definition of the font display was far from being acceptable to me. Thankfully, it was something that I could resolve, and I am writing these words with the letters forming them being shown in a way that was acceptable to me. The main thing that I did to achieve this was to add a file named 99-autohinter-only.conf in the folder /etc/fonts/conf.d. The file contains the following:

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

Enabling autohinting improves font appearance in Fedora 15. The TrueType bytecode interpreter (BCI) was recently added to FreeType after its patent expired, but this actually decreased font quality on my system. I applied Kevin Kofler's autohinting fix and installed GNOME Tweak Tool, which lets you adjust autohinting settings. This combination solved my problems, particularly with letters like "k". Now, I am considering trying the same solution in openSUSE, which also has unsatisfactory font rendering, though I'll have to wait for GNOME Tweak Tool until they release a GNOME 3 version.

  • The content, images, and materials on this website are protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, or published in any form without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. All trademarks, logos, and brand names mentioned on this website are the property of their respective owners. Unauthorised use or duplication of these materials may violate copyright, trademark and other applicable laws, and could result in criminal or civil penalties.

  • All comments on this website are moderated and should contribute meaningfully to the discussion. We welcome diverse viewpoints expressed respectfully, but reserve the right to remove any comments containing hate speech, profanity, personal attacks, spam, promotional content or other inappropriate material without notice. Please note that comment moderation may take up to 24 hours, and that repeatedly violating these guidelines may result in being banned from future participation.

  • By submitting a comment, you grant us the right to publish and edit it as needed, whilst retaining your ownership of the content. Your email address will never be published or shared, though it is required for moderation purposes.

Copyright © 2007-2025, TechnologyTales.com