[SOLVED] Firefox fonts look crappy

[sundaraz]

Hi,

I have Fedora 10 running and the firefox fonts look really crappy for web content, especially for certain web sites. I have Samsung SyncMaster 941BW 19" widescreen LCD monitor. I have NVidia GE Force 5500FX graphics card.

Following are the things I tried after going through some articles on web.

1. Installed msttcorefonts and webcorefonts packages. Set Firefox to use 'Times New Roman', 'Arial' and 'Georgia'.
2. Got freetype with BCI enabled.
3. Changed DisplaySize to enable 96DPI and changed the same on Gnome font settings.
4. Enabled LCD subpixel smoothing and full hinting.

I've tried both "nv" and "kmod-nvidia-173xx" drivers for the NVidia card. I tried 1440x900 (native resolution) and 1152x864 (seems to be next best but everything looks stretched). I have seen some improvements with above, but still the fonts strain my eyes. I use 'Bitstream Vera' fonts for application. The fonts and display look splendid within Fedora, but the problem is with the web content in Firefox.

I use my system primarily for web browsing and its been quite frustrating. I'd really appreciate some help.

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

Which Desktop Environment are you using? Have you tried to change theme?

[sundaraz]

Thanks. I use Gnome. I've looked at KDE screenshots and I didn't like it. I haven't tried using it though. Does it make a difference for how things appear in Firefox?

[devils casper]

There are a lot of themes available for Gnome by default. Check themes in Preferences menu.

You can use font config from this thread too.

[sundaraz]

I use the default Fedora theme. Think I've tried clearlooks before. Ok, I looked at your font config file. I've tried some of it from an article in archlinux website (ArchWiki). I'll try yours when I get back home. Thanks.

[sundaraz]

It looks great now!! Many thanks. Also, I realized that I was having problem with the freetype with BCI enabled. I went back to the one without it and the autohinting that your conf enables makes it perfect. So much for patents!! I also added two more settings that I lifted from ArchWiki. They are as below

    <!-- Disables autohinting for bolder fonts -->   
    <match target="font">
        <test name="weight" compare="more">
            <const>medium</const>
        </test>
        <edit name="autohint" mode="assign">
            <bool>false</bool>
        </edit>
    </match>
    <!-- Disables antialiasing for smaller sizes -->
    <match target="pattern">
        <test qual="any" name="size" compare="less_eq">
            <int>12</int>
        </test>
        <edit name="antialias" mode="assign">
            <bool>false</bool>
        </edit>
        </match>

[devils casper]

Glad to help you !

I also added two more settings that I lifted from ArchWiki. They are as below

I will also try your those and let you know !