Poor font quality in XFCE-Debian

[Nick_Djinn]

What can I do to get some better quality fonts in there? I dont care if the fonts are proprietary or even if they violate copyright laws. I just want the best fonts for my system.

[merlwiz79]

Have you tried to enable anti-aliasing?
It's under Settings --> appearance --> Fonts.
Make sure anti-aliasing is enabled, hinting is set to slight and sub-pixel order is set to RGB.

[Nick_Djinn]

Thanks. I was in a live session, but Ill try it next time. Much appreciated.

Since we are on the subject though, how can we get some high quality proprietary fonts enabled? Im fine with breaking the law. I dont think they really care about individual users (Mint itself is slightly illegal in the USA and that adds to the appeal of using it as well as its polish). Were all rebels here.

[AlbertP]

My experience with fonts you've got from your C:\Windows\Fonts, is that they often look ugly on Linux. Calibri looks fine, but MS Sans Serif with smaller font size does not.

[Nick_Djinn]

I am perfectly happy with the fonts I get in Linux Mint Main edition Gnome. How can I get them to be more or less the same?

Fonts really make or break a persons first impression of a distro. I would add some wallpappers and better fonts to XFCE main. It seems like minimal effort for significant gains.....Im guessing the Mint community isnt as purist about keeping it totally open source. Most of us like having a distro that has Medibuntu by default and we will probably want similar restricted extras in our Debian editions as well.

[VtPoet]

I've also noticed the poor font quality in Debian XFCE. I notice that Xubuntu (XFCE 4.8 ) is quite good, like Ubuntu, and OpenSuse's XFCE, also 4.8, seems very good. I don't know whether the problem is the older version of XFCE or the problem is Debian, but no amount of tweaking (yet) has improved the font quality in XFCE-Debian. This and the fact that Debian will probably drag their feet implementing 4.8 could be a deal breaker. Opensuse is adopting a rolling release model with Tumbleweed. Mint really ought to consider offering 4.8 through its repos IMHO.

[Nick_Djinn]

Why does Mint have to wait for debian to fix it? Why not take responsibility and control over things that are currently upstream? Just a few things that we want to change and leave the rest as is?

Xubuntu defeats the point of using XFCE because they built it on a Gnome base. If you want a slow bloated distro why not just use Gnome?


Im about to check out CrunchBang and see if they have the same problem or if they took responsibility for what was upstream and fixed it themselves.

[VtPoet]

Xubuntu defeats the point of using XFCE because they built it on a Gnome base. If you want a slow bloated distro why not just use Gnome?

You incorrectly assume that I'm interested in XFCE because it's less "bloated" (loaded term) than Gnome; but one user's bloat is another user's improvement. I'm interested in XFCE because it's not a Gnome 3 "shell" or Unity "shell". If building XFCE on Gnome results in better font resolution, then I'll take the version of XFCE built on Gnome.

[Nick_Djinn]

I dont think thats the only or best way to get better fonts. I just tried CrunchBang and it was probably the fastest distro I have ever tried on my modern hardware. Everything was instant and I didnt feel like I sacrificed too much functionality for it. I did have to use a different wifi card, but luckily I already had it.

To me CrunchBang XFCE felt arguably even peppier than LMDE and the fonts were perfect and they even had support for MP3/DVD and you can install the Nvidia drivers right from Synaptic. Absolutely nothing wrong with the fonts and no Gnome base to slow it down.


I was kind of hoping that LMDE would start making changes under the hood, adding tools that affect overall system performance and functionality instead of just the Mint user shell. I have confidence that the Mint team is capable of such changes, currently handled upstream, if they chose to focus on them.

[Nick_Djinn]

Also, its not improvement if you cant use it. Its taking up space, adding to the time it takes to read libraries and find files, yet a lot of it cant be used and offers no functionality at all.

I do think we should add some things from Ubuntu, but just piling it ontop of a gnome base is a lazy approach resulting in lowered performance for no desirable gains in return.

[VtPoet]

I dont think thats the only or best way to get better fonts. I just tried CrunchBang and it was probably the fastest distro I have ever tried on my modern hardware. Everything was instant and I didnt feel like I sacrificed too much functionality for it.

Interesting. You were using the latest version of Crunchbang? [s]And installed XFCE 4.6 on top?[/s] Just noticed the XFCE version. (Also noticing that either strike through doesn't work or I don't know the proper code. Guess I'll just leave it.)

Also, its not improvement if you cant use it. Its taking up space, adding to the time it takes to read libraries and find files, yet a lot of it cant be used and offers no functionality at all.

I think that depends on what Apps you're looking to use. I like Gnome (2.x). I just don't like Gnome 3.

[Nick_Djinn]

I like Gnome as well. Ubuntu 8.04 was a great distro. Not too bloated, and everything essential.

I almost want to go back to that distro, or one of many based on it, and simply add newer software manually from third parties repos.




I dont know what we are going to do for the main editions now that there is a switch to Unity. I am not satisfied with Debian (gnome base or not) if Mint plans on doing nothing more than planting their (admittedly good) user interface ontop of it. I would like to see Mint become the next Debian based Ubuntu, actually offering its own (fully compatible) fork of Debian....maybe that means adding some select tools from Ubuntu or similar successful distros. I would even say that we should borrow some package manager agnostic tools from Mandrake/Mageia and RPM-Fusion (red hat based), but dont call me on it and ask me which ones. Nothing wrong with borrowing what works, at least in Linux.

That way we can get back to the functionality most users had come to expect from Ubuntu, without becoming trapped by the whimsical and sometimes bloated direction of Ubuntu/Cononical.

Without the hardware support, installer (I prefer the previous Ubuntu installer to the current one), and a few other nicities, I dont think people are ready to move backwards towards Debian in the long term. Things just need to work out of the box for the average user.



I hope Mint does not become a unity distro or even a gnome shell distro. If they had to build Gnome back up from a minimalist Ubuntu base, I would not only trust them to do it, but expect even better results from it than we are currently getting because I like their style and how they do things.

[VtPoet]

I dont know what we are going to do for the main editions now that there is a switch to Unity.

Neither do I. The hope is that Unity will mature over the next year and become more configurable. Ultimately, I just don't like being stuck with a panel at the top of my screen, global menu or not. I like having a dock on the right and the rest of my real-estate completely free. This isn't possible in Unity and I doubt it ever will be. XFCE still allows me to configure this layout and the last version (4.8 ) has matured considerably.

I've been noodling around with Crunchbang XFCE in virtual box. I like it very much. The one thing I can't do is to (essentially) get rid of the titlebar. I can do this with Emerald but not, apparently, Openbox. (Openbox doesn't allow one to change the height of the titlebar). I haven't tried switching out Openbox for Compiz, but am going to see if it's worthwhile.

[Nick_Djinn]

Ive been using the XFCE version of Crunchbang. I have not even tried the Openbox version yet.

You could always try adding gnome over XFCE in Crunchbang. They have some of the niceties under the hood that I hope Mint comes to add as their debian release matures.

[linuxviolin]

I just read this whole topic and yet I don't understand what you really blame to your fonts in Mint Debian XFCE... But maybe it's me. Can you explain more and better please?

[Nick_Djinn]

Im not a developer. Im just an opinionated user who has been around long enough to not be a complete noob, but Im not a geek either. I couldnt really tell you whose fault it is, though I applied common sense and noticed that other debian BASED distros have done things to solve the poor default font setting.

[linuxviolin]

Im not a developer. Im just an opinionated user who has been around long enough to not be a complete noob, but Im not a geek either. I couldnt really tell you whose fault it is, though I applied common sense and noticed that other debian BASED distros have done things to solve the poor default font setting.

But what do you find "poor"? Just some explanation if possible please, maybe we can help you to have the things better... Maybe also a screenshot if need, why not...

[Nick_Djinn]

As I mentioned earlier, I was trying a live DVD on my laptop and am not currently logged in to XFCE-debian. I just got my desktop with my phenom quad, and after upgrading to AM3 and DDR3-1600 and using Firefox 4.2 nightly instead of 3.6, everything is as fast as stable as I could hope for. Hardly any delays for anything. Its awesome.

I might put XFCE on my laptop, but at the moment its not a pressing issue. I will review what was shared here next time I try it, but poor DEFAULT font quality in my live session was a factor in pulling the plug before installation.

Im liking Crunchbang-XFCE-64.


Im guessing what I would like to see is access to some of the better fonts like you see in Ubuntu, or even proprietary fonts from commercial sources.....also, sub-pixil and anti-aliasing and all that.....I have not tried those suggestions yet, but Im also not using the debian edition currently.

[wayne128]

As I mentioned earlier, I was trying a live DVD on my laptop and am not currently logged in to XFCE-debian. I just got my desktop with my phenom quad, and after upgrading to AM3 and DDR3-1600 and using Firefox 4.2 nightly instead of 3.6, everything is as fast as stable as I could hope for. Hardly any delays for anything. Its awesome.

I might put XFCE on my laptop, but at the moment its not a pressing issue. I will review what was shared here next time I try it, but poor DEFAULT font quality in my live session was a factor in pulling the plug before installation.

Im liking Crunchbang-XFCE-64.


Im guessing what I would like to see is access to some of the better fonts like you see in Ubuntu, or even proprietary fonts from commercial sources.....also, sub-pixil and anti-aliasing and all that.....I have not tried those suggestions yet, but Im also not using the debian edition currently.

check ikey's tutorial on font,
viewtopic.php?f=141&t=55896
hope it helps.

all my xfce run very fast, aptosid, crunchbang, Debian, plus others.
fast on newer comp,
quite fast ( when compare with other DE) on 8-year old Compaq with p4.

[Nick_Djinn]

Thanks.....I wonder if Mint team could release a fix in future updates. Just a suggestion. Im sure somebody has done a bug report by now, properly.

Ill check it out next time I try it.