What is Digg?36 Comments
- ketsugi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16You could also just install Arial under Linux.
Here's a comparison of the two to show the difference. Screenshot taken from OpenOffice Writer.
http://ketsugi.com/pictures/arial-bitstream-compare.png - tactless, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Actually, you can just use Gnome's or KDE's 'Font folder' in exactly the same way you use Windows' - just stick fonts in there. This article is mostly about getting fonts to look like they do in Linux - the defaults in most new distributions don't look that bad.
- zerblat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9I'm not sure exactly what patents you are referring to? Freetype seems to be doing anti-aliasing just fine. A bigger problem is hinting, where Apple has several patents (http://freetype.sourceforge.net/patents.html) which might make it impossible to use the hinting information in truetype fonts without infringing. Then again, the autohinter (which doesn't use the patented truetype hints) seems to be working fine.
I honestly don't see what people are complaining about when it comes to fonts in X. Sure, only a few years ago, the situation was awful, but today I'd choose freetype over Microsoft's or Apple's font rendering if I had the choice. A lot of it comes down to the quality of fonts you use and personal preference. Some people want heavily antialiased fonts with no glyph-shape distorting hinting, while other people can't stand the blurring that antialiasing causes, but accept any amount of hinting. The nice thing about freetype is that it lets you choose. - gabrielwalker, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Um, no. Install Bitstream Vera under Windows. Really, you can.
While Vera is similar to Arial, I promise the only difference between them is NOT just because of anti-aliasing. - mojoel, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Dugg!
For a Linux nooblet like me this is very informative.
Just installed Suse two days ago. - Cablito, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8"As for anti-alias, there it excels, fonts on Windows, if they had life of their own, they'd wish to be as smooth as on Linux."
- mohrr, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9Why do people think they're summarizing an article when all they do is copy a couple of lines from it?
- pairanoyd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6The author of the article should get with the program and install a decent distro.
I've been using Suse since 7.x and I've never had a complaint with the fonts. In the 7.x and 8.x days of Suse, the fonts had room for improvement. In Suse 9.x and 10.x they are magnificent.
I have 3 Linux machines, 2 XP machines, a Vista machine and an OS X machine. The Linux and Mac fonts blow away the windows fonts.
Besides my dislike of windows for general purposes, I dislike their fonts even more. - jeremywc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5It's actually a lot closer to Verdana.
- KenKat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4This was posted a while back but never got really dugg.
To make Ubuntu enable BCI and make Ubuntu fonts look just like Mac OS X fonts, see the following HOWTO:
http://jaganath.wordpress.com/2006/07/16/ubuntu-install-log-6-finally-os-x-like-font-rendering-in-linux/ - Phantom76, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Why ubuntu? This will work on any gnome desktop
- burke, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It's just a metapackage, it's really not a big deal. Just let it uninstall.
- RWTechgage, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Cool article. I not once actually touched the AA settings before, or even realized you could.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2How about my patch?
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=208396
:) - brettalton, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake):
1. From any Nautilus window, press Ctrl-L.
2. Type fonts:/// in the Location box and click Open.
3. A window will pop open. Drag your new fonts onto this window. - rubengs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Ubuntu Edgy an openSuse (any version) have great looking fonts, Edgy has a bytecode enabled freetype library that render nearly perfect fonts.
- balaurul, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1well, because it's the most "in fashion" os right now - linux speaking of corse
the elder linux users know that much of the howto's flying around the net are linux oriented and not just ubuntu ... some ppl like not to tell the exact truth but who's to blame them, we all know, linux will someday rock "for real rock" so we hope, and forget such "irrational" behaviour - Ademan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Did shuttleworth pay the money for the license to have a bytecode interpreter or what? I thought the entire problem was liscense related ,rather than development related.
- reda, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I like fonts on Ubuntu a lot better than anything a saw on windows, I just find a lot more beautiful.
Maybe it's just the choice of fonts, I'll look for that package to see what difference it will make. - toddbu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Not that I'm trying to take sides here, but in the days of XFree86 a stock install of Mandriva used to look relatively decent when surfing the web. As soon as they switched to Xorg, fonts seemed to break. Switching to Ubuntu didn't help any. Look at CNN.com or many other sites where the fonts render far too large for the page. I'd be hard pressed to believe that these pages have to render this way because of patent issues. I'd rather have a jaggy font that fits than a nice anti-aliased font that doesn't. Am I the only one that feels this way?
- nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2And when an update adds a new package to that metapackage, he doesn't get the new package and things may break. Leave it installed.
- Tetravus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2People think that an excerpt is a summary 'cause that's what /. does.
I assume your question was actually meant to imply that such 'summaries' aren't useful, with which I agree wholeheartedly. - reda, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2put a .ttf in the folder ".fonts" in your home directory, it will work.
much clearer and simpler than the stange fonts folder in windows, where you drop a file and you get a "font install dialg" and you dont know what's happening or how this is handeled.
and this article is not about about installing a font. - KenKat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0That helps, but a lot of the comments here stem from people using anti-aliasing on LCD monitors in particular. The BCI support is essential to get attractive fonts. BCI's font hinting looks much better than the standard fontconfig hinting.
In fact, I've now switched over to Ubuntu full time, until I found that HOWTO, I wouldn't do it because the fonts looked horrible on my LCD. - Urusai, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Now if I could only uninstall all those south Asian fonts that Ubuntu forces on me without removing the "ubuntu-desktop" metapackage.
- diggapleaze, on 10/12/2007, -8/+6don't mod him down, he's giving useful information unlike you
- i440, on 10/12/2007, -8/+6I was looking at my LCD monitor at an angle the other day, when it hit me.
Bitstream Vera is almost exactly the same as Ariel and just looks different because it is aliased differently in Linux!
Intelligence, you have failed me again - webcrumb, on 10/12/2007, -7/+4First off, it's crotch. Grabbing a crouch doesn't make sense, perhaps not even physically possible. I read it first as 'grabs couch'; even that made more sense.
Secondly. WTF? - Peer, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2When i first started using Linux many years ago, the thing that annoyed me most where the horrible fonts. Recently i switched from Slackware to Ubuntu, but fonts are still not as good as on other platforms like Windows and MacOSX. I agree that Bitstream Vera/DejaVu looks pretty nice. But at lower point sizes, they still start to suck because of the lack of decent hinting. If there would be one gift i could give to the Linux community, it would be a set of decent fonts. Hell, I'm even considering getting active in font design myself. Unfortunately, font design is an art that's hard to master.
- regedit2D, on 10/12/2007, -9/+4I'm gonna say it and this isn't a fanboy remark, although my avatar is kind of against me on that I assure you I put it up in light of all the mac and linux icons.
I like the fact that I can just add a font and it look right without work on my part. I'm not saying linux is a bad OS, it's just not as user friendly as I like. Mod me down if you wish but I'm not trying to trash or build up one or the other, just my opinion. - diggeredoo, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1osx and windows blow away linux as far as fonts go. combined with 0 color accuracy its obvious why no one in the design field would even consider using linux unless its directly linked to a project promoting open source.
dont cry it will be ok! - Cablito, on 10/12/2007, -15/+7Don't mention the word Windows or anything that reminds it, such as Arial. People will burry you.
/lol - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -16/+5Install Dis Ya Meathead!
/grabs crouch - pairanoyd, on 10/12/2007, -14/+2You, are an idiot. Go back to using winders.
- rende, on 10/12/2007, -15/+1yep windows is easier, thats why it costs money.. move along.
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