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54 Comments
- schestowitz, on 10/12/2007, -3/+56Boy, aren't software patents wonderful? Everybody wins. *sigh*
- geminitojanus, on 11/08/2007, -3/+50It's not enabled by default because the autohinting algorithm is patented by Apple. While Apple hasn't expressed an interest in suing the people who cloned it, it's still a well-known violation of the patent, and without a license to use it there's no legal way to distribute it enabled. Last I heard there was work being done to subvert the patent with a different autohinter that isn't patented, but I haven't heard any news about it a while.
- jasper976, on 10/12/2007, -0/+26wha? you mean someone copied something from its source to their ad ridden blog without any credit? i don't believe it.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18this article is copied from ubuntu forums check here orginal one http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=16896
- drlha, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Hang about though, if all it takes is an alteration of an XML config file, doesn't that mean that the patent encumbered auto-hinting software is being distributed with Ubuntu, just not used? Surely that would be a patent infringement?
- jhaitas, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11or you can go to System->Preferences->Font and tweak to your liking...
- veediot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Actually, the autohinter is meant for crappy truetype fonts, not native linux fonts. Hence, the autohinter sucks at rendering Bitstream Vera. What you really want to do is enable David Turner's freetype patches which make fonts look pretty much perfect using the native subpixel hinting!
Much better fonts: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=235526 - dicerandom, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6You don't have to manually edit the configuration file to enable autohinting. In the Font Preferences dialog, which can be reached via the Desktop Preferences dialog, you can select the style of font rendering (monochrome, best shapes, best contrast, subpixel smoothing (LCDs)). Once you've selected whichever you think looks best click on the "Details" button and you can select hinting levels of none, slight, medium, and full.
- RyeBrye, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I hope you have the patent to whatever it is you are smoking, and you will share that with the rest of us we can be a gleefully ignorant as you.
Patents cost money. They protect real innovation in certain areas, but in areas like software they are a joke. - drizek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5when you do that, you valideate the entire concept of software patents. They should just flat out be banned, right along with biotech patents and nanotech patents.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7yes this guy copied from ubuntu forums and he didn't give any credits to the author.
- gbm85, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Hinting isn't patented by Apple. If it was, they would be able to sue countless software makers, including Microsoft for ClearType. The bytecode interpreter is what Apple holds a patent on, and it is a whole different beast entirely.
- drlha, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@BearOwnerd: Sorry, why is what I asked funny? I don't understand how including patent encumbered code but not using it is any less of an infringement.
- muep, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I think the "Before" screenshot looked much nicer than the "After" one. I use an LCD, though I don't know if it matters with screenshots.
- shakin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3KDE also has a GUI dialog for this in System Settings -> Appearance -> Fonts
It's on by default in Edgy, but sub-pixel hinting is not, so click the Configure button and change that. You can also change how strongly the fonts are hinted so if you think they're blurry, change it to Slight or None. - subxero37, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The patented algorithms, IIRC, are used in the TrueType bytecode virtual machine (which, I think, is a simple stack-based virtual machine.) It allows TrueType fonts to render much nicer by including very specific instructions on what to do, when, and why.
This is speculation. I know such a thing exists, but I don't know if that's what this guide turns on. - veediot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@sanguinemoon
Yeah, you're really elite, man. You apparently can't even get Flash 9 to work on your BSD box without begging for help: http://forums.pcbsd.org/viewtopic.php?p=41160&highlight=#41160
Could it be because *BSD doesn't have ALSA support, genius? If you had half a brain, you might have known that. Or perhaps if there were something as good as ubuntuforums.org for PC-BSD, you'd have found out about a shared object called libflashsupport.so. Go google it instead of trolling digg, *****. - DigitalDud, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Take a closer look, the screenshots don't have any sub-pixel rendering going on.
Ubuntu really could just use better fonts. Unfortunately getting a full-blown unicode font made with hinting is quite expensive. - pauldonnelly, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3No, the whole point of auto-hinting is that is *isn't* patented by Apple. Apple patent is what prevents us from using the fonts' built-in hints.
- motang, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Yeah that is what I was thinking. That is how I enabled mine.
- hackwrench, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2>Surely that would be a patent infringement?
Yeah, it is, but if it isn't activated the less it makes Apple feel they need to do something about it, and that's the effect sought for here. - goatman93, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2It's turned off by default so that the unfortunate people who still own a radioactive CRT, can still read text. I love smooth fonts on LCDs but they make the text look blurry on a CRT.
- gooddoggytreat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's better to use the one found on the ubuntu forums than the article that this digg links to, due to some malformed XML errors you may get in the terminal every once in a while.
The problem with his is really small, though. The quotes around the '1.0' aren't real double quotes. I'm sure it might work for other people, though.
Oh well. - justinjstark, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2The after fonts in that article look blurry on my lcd. The before fonts are crisper and easier for me to read.
I really don't understand why everybody wants "better looking" fonts in ubuntu. I think the default fonts look great. Most of the time people's tweaks just make them look worse. - Stonekeeper, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4I think that patents have a place: in freeing ideas. Create something, patent it, allow all to use it free of charge. At least then, some company can't screw everyone over with it.
- rondeth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Just noticed Veediot posted basically the same thing I did, but shorter :)
- stormgren, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Two things.
One. Ubuntu _is_ a distro meant for Linux newbies. It's supposed to be easy to use for someone unfamiliar with Linux. And it is. But it's also powerful enough for someone to use well. You don't HAVE to use the tutorials, but it's nice to have support, isn't it?
Two. Learn to use the reply button. I had no idea WTF you were talking about because the comment you're replying to is in a completely different thread. - veediot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yep, I used to patch them and do the force version thing myself until I found those repos. :) Try the experimental repo which has the patch incorporated directly in to freetype instead of libxft and libcairo. IMO, they look even cleaner now! It's a beautiful thing.
Good information, though, for those looking for the history of these patches and how it works. - rondeth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm pretty particular about the appearance of my fonts...while some may not see the point, I just can't stand jaggy fonts. Some would call them 'blurry' :)
That being said, in Linux on my laptop's LCD screen, I've always had to recompile Freetype with the bytecode interpreter enabled. From Freetype's "Patent" page @ http://freetype.sourceforge.net/patents.html:
However, the source code for the bytecode interpreter is still available and can be toggled on at compile time, for those that want to use it anyway (because they purchased a license from Apple, or because they are in a country where the patents do not apply, etc.). For details please check the documentation that comes with your FreeType source package (it normally involves changing one configuration macro).
Note that some beta versions of FreeType 2 did use the bytecode interpreter (since the auto-hinter wasn't available yet).
Finally, many Linux distributions seem to distribute a patched version of FreeType 2 with the bytecode interpreter activated, unlike to the sources we distribute. Of course, we can only deny any kind of responsibility in this case. It further means that in the event where you need to update the version of FreeType installed on your system from our sources, you should better manually activate the bytecode interpreter at compile time in order to prevent any loss of quality.
If you're interested in truly good-looking fonts (IMO) in Dapper and/or Edgy, you could do worse than to start here: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=180647&highlight=improve+font
Basically, that posting basically offers the patches to do this. Modifying the freetype sources to enable this isn't hard either, entails switching the right define to a 1 from a 0.
Cheers! - kiensoy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't know but I see them smooth by default, or at least smooth enough.
- floam, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You can't turn off the bytecode interpreter (which is what turning on autohinting will do) in that panel.
- rondeth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Wasn't aware of an 'experimental' repo...thanks!!
- NeilM, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I hate to break it to everyone, but that is a smoothness gain hardly worthy of a digg, more or less a raised eyebrow. This is coming from someone who has compared the (supposedly) smoother Ubuntu fonts on an LCD and a CRT.
Now how did this get 800+ diggs? -_- - tranix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I wonder if Automatix turns this on for you?
http://www.getautomatix.com/ - hypodermia, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Let me clarify that the case is actually the opposite of what geminitojanus states.
Other comments have already stated this, but it should be clarified that Apple in fact holds the license to certain hinting bytecodes in some Truetype fonts, and Ubuntu ships with the ability to interpret and use these bytecodes enabled by default. Turning them off means 'guessing' at the best way to hint the fonts (or not doing so at all): that's called the 'autohint' algorithm, the so-called smoother fonts.
Bitstream Vera Sans (the font in the screenshot) is designed to look very nice when autohinted. That is deliberately designed. However, other fonts such as Arial or Tahoma (which are rather masterpieces of hinting) look very different than the intended appearance when autohinted, and there are obvious flaws in their kerning and hinting. - veediot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1sanguinemoon: You're big enough to apologize. That's refreshing on digg.
There are a lot of articles on digg about Ubuntu. Maybe it's fanboyism, or maybe it's just because it's popular and it's easy to use. Probably both. But the articles about Ubuntu aren't harming you in anyway. Remember, an operating system is just a tool. Doesn't matter if it's Windows, OS X, a distribution of Linux, or a BSD. If people like Ubuntu and it works for them, good for them. I like Ubuntu. There are also a lot of things that bug me about it. I also like certain parts of Windows and certain parts of OS X. I like the principles of BSD. If someone likes something about Ubuntu and wants to share it with others, who cares what their motives are? It's like Milo says in Anti-Trust, "Human knowledge belongs to the world". Sharing is never a bad thing. If you like PC-BSD, you can share too. No one should want to stop you.
I was an ass in making my point. I apologize. Now we can move on and enjoy our favorite operating systems. http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-ports/2006-October/036317.html - floam, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1RyeBrye: While I mostly agree with you, the end goal of a patent isn't to protect anyone. A patent is a contract between you and the government that, in exchange for 17 years of protection, you agree to give your work to the public domain and improve society eventually. This would probably work just fine if it were brought down to 2-3 years for software. Something that is patented is far better than something that is proprietary/trade secret, as you can keep something secret as long as you feel like it.
- Stonekeeper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yes, I believe software patents should be banned. I wrote to my MP and MEP about it during the EU elections asking them to vote no. They did. However, in america it seems that if you don't patent something, someone else will and sue you....
- stiankarlsen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is cool and all, I use it myself, but for ***** sake, it's been on digg a thousand times before.
- democracysucks, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4Not only is it copied from ubuntuforums, but then the guy has the nads to place everything on his site under his own copyright. Oh, and his "About the Geek" section is not only short, but entirely stupid and not witty/clever whatsoever.
- Drizzit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1This is how you do it in the GUI in Gnome Ubuntu.
http://www.ubuntutips.org/?p=15 - afex, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"Create something, patent it, allow all to use it free of charge"
i'm thinking you'll be whistling a different tune when you discover the key to wireless electricity and can't capitalize because you have to share it with everyone... - prammy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I use this on my FC6 install. Actually every linux or freebsd install which needed X, I use this.
- sanguinemoon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Veedlot LOL, at what point did I say I was elite? BTW, though if you knew that was the problem why didn't you just answer my question? Flash 7 worked great, so I was just wondering why Flash 9 didn't. I just found a blog post from an Adobe programmer saying they're working on fixing this. But I didn't beg, I merely asked a question. That's what support forums are for.
Now if you look at my post here, you'll also notice the only reason I took that tone is critizing a Ubuntu tutorial will automatically get you dugg down. Even if it's pointing out something wrong in the tutorial that seems as obvious the reason Flash 9 doesn't completely work. Let's say Flash 10 comes out and there's as much dely in that coming out for *nix as Flash 9 and somebody posts a tutorial on how to get that working in Ubuntu. If somebody correctly points out something incorrect in the tutorial, they'll be dugg down. Although, I must say, if you're on the PCBSD forums and saw that, why didn't you just tell me then :p
My trolling tone was born out of frustration, so I appologize.
stormgren, Yes, tutorials are nice. But a big part of that forementioned frustration is that there really and truly does seem to be an excess of Ubuntu tutorials here. It seems the easy and quickest way to get on the front page is just post a Ubuntu tutorial on how do thing even more trivial than the knowing why Flash 9 doesn't have sound in BSD yet. Also, many of these tutorials are incorrect in saying that this is for Ubuntu. Veedlot told me stop trolling Digg. The fact is that I don't come here to troll. I come to the Linux/Unix section to find out interesting things and to learn. But I find front page spammed up with Ubuntu tutorials every single day. Four things about about Ubuntu today... - subxero37, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Subpixel fonts look great on most new CRTs, since they use Trinitron (aperture grill, whathaveyou) technology, which lines up the R, G, and B phosphors vertically, versus in a triangular shape.
- DigitalDud, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Heh, I thought it looked better with it turned off. Making the font blurry isn't doing anything to improve readability. A good smoothing algorithm would do a better job keeping the strokes intact.
- pauldonnelly, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Erm, would it be wrong to mention that font smoothing was already on in the before picture? Smoothing is not hinting (you morons).
- howtogeek, on 10/12/2007, -5/+4@mynamefat: I didn't copy this from ubuntuforums. I actually found it on a couple of other sites, so I figured it was common knowledge. I'll update the page with that link, if that's really the original source.
And yes, my about page is pointless. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Default Linux fonts still look ugly. I'll stick with mscorefonts.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1I don't see any difference on the 2 screenshots :(
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