HOWTO: Improve Font Rendering in LMDE
Forum rules
LMDE 2 has reached end of support as of 1-1-2019
LMDE 2 has reached end of support as of 1-1-2019
Re: HOWTO: Improve Font Rendering in LMDE
Hmm, I don't know, they do look really good under, well, Ubuntu.
Any idea regarding the speed issue with Firefox ?
Thanks for the reply !!!
Any idea regarding the speed issue with Firefox ?
Thanks for the reply !!!
- rivenathos
- Level 6
- Posts: 1070
- Joined: Wed May 06, 2009 7:32 am
- Location: USA
Re: HOWTO: Improve Font Rendering in LMDE
When you use LMDE, you are now in the Land of Debian, not the Land of Ubuntu.
Really, switching the Ubuntu font to Sans or changing the size from 11 to 10 will make a difference.
Really, switching the Ubuntu font to Sans or changing the size from 11 to 10 will make a difference.
Current hardware: a Dell OptiPlex 3010 desktop, a Dell Inspiron 531 desktop, and a Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop.
Current OS: LMDE 3
Current OS: LMDE 3
Re: HOWTO: Improve Font Rendering in LMDE
On the updated isos...Clem had added the proper patching that ubuntu uses (and gives it that excellent font rendering)...that is the iso i installed from (64 bit version) and the font rendering is as good as it is on ubuntu or the ubuntu based mint main edition....no tinkering needed!rivenathos wrote:When you use LMDE, you are now in the Land of Debian, not the Land of Ubuntu.
Really, switching the Ubuntu font to Sans or changing the size from 11 to 10 will make a difference.
I do kick up the fonts by 1 size though in my Chrome Browser (which makes many pages slightly larger for my old tired eyes...)....
So while it's debian...it now renders like Ubuntu! (best of both worlds)
I did use the ubuntu fonts on my Chrome web browser for awhile (requires the ubuntu fonts extension on Chrome) but after awhile i went back to the normal Chrome fonts...I do always install the ms-corefonts before i even add in my Chrome Browser, however, and it looks fine with the default Chrome fonts...
Re: HOWTO: Improve Font Rendering in LMDE
Indeed, gtk apps look perfect The issue only relates to Firefox and Thunderbird.
thanks for the replies
I'll think I'll create a new thread for the specific Firefox speed rendering issue.
thanks for the replies
I'll think I'll create a new thread for the specific Firefox speed rendering issue.
Re: HOWTO: Improve Font Rendering in LMDE
I think someone may have already told this, but installing Iceweasel instead of Firefox fixed the fonts issue for me
Re: HOWTO: Improve Font Rendering in LMDE
@rivenathos thanks for the tip. fonts in FF and Thunderbird now look similar to the rest of the system.
Greets
Darklink
Greets
Darklink
Re: HOWTO: Improve Font Rendering in LMDE
Hate to say it, but after running the scripts and restarting, fonts are still awful in OpenOffice 3.2.1 Debian as supplied with LMDE. What to do? What to do?
Re: HOWTO: Improve Font Rendering in LMDE
Yup, they do indeed although I haven't run the script since recent updates to LMDE should have accomplished the same thing as the script or so I'm told. To be honest about it OpenOffice looks rather awful all around, buttons and all. I think the best theme integration I've seen so far is in LM 10 KDE.runbei wrote:Hate to say it, but after running the scripts and restarting, fonts are still awful in OpenOffice 3.2.1 Debian as supplied with LMDE. What to do? What to do?
"Humph. Choice, it is the quintessential Linux delusion, simultaneously the source of it's greatest strength, and it's greatest weakness." (All apologies to The Architect)
Re: HOWTO: Improve Font Rendering in LMDE
Good news, I think. I got a huge improvement in font quality in OpenOffice by simply changing the settings in MintMenu > Preferences > Appearance.runbei wrote:Hate to say it, but after running the scripts and restarting, fonts are still awful in OpenOffice 3.2.1 Debian as supplied with LMDE. What to do? What to do?
In the Fonts tab I chose "Best shapes" > Details > Smoothing (Grayscale) > Hinting (None) > Subpixel Order (RGB) > Close > Close.
With Subpixel Smoothing turned on, the fonts only looked decent in a very small range of zooming; at other zoom levels they looked very heavy, almost like boldface, very hard on the eyes. With the new settings, fonts look readable at all zoom magnifications.
Re: HOWTO: Improve Font Rendering in LMDE
Another option is to remove OpenOffice and install LibreOffice. It's now the default office suite, I think, and it's certainly in the repositories.
Re: HOWTO: Improve Font Rendering in LMDE
I gave LibreOffice an - admittedly brief - try but went back to OpenOffice because a feature that's critical for me was crippled in LO - the ability to assign keyboard shortcuts. It was turned off by default. A bit of searching revealed that I could turn it on by choosing to activate "experimental features" (or similar wording) under Tools > Options. But then it still didn't work correctly. My question: why is this feature "experimental"? - It's been working perfectly in OpenOffice for at least eight years!sgosnell wrote:Another option is to remove OpenOffice and install LibreOffice. It's now the default office suite, I think, and it's certainly in the repositories.
Don't get me started about OpenOffice/LibreOffice development. Linux desperately needs a GREAT word processor that everyone can easily use, especially when they're coming from MS Word. To take one example of where OO breaks that bridge - the Track Changes feature, which is absolutely required in many working environments - is completely useless in OO, because after 5-7 pages of editing with changes hidden, editing slows to an unbearable crawl. And who in God's earth would want to edit with complex changes displayed? Also, and this is a killer: Track Changes in OO tends to inter-mix changed text with the original! Completely useless.
Okay, since I have gotten started - why on earth doesn't OO provide a simple way to find and replace line endings, similar to replacing ^p in Word. This is an extremely useful feature, yet in OO you have to use regular expressions - and if and when you do succeed in understanding how to replace line endings (very complex, and instructions are confusing and semi-hidden), you can't put them back in again if you change your mind.
In general, using regex for replace is just fine - for techies. But the lack of basic functions that operate in a simple way for end-users is just plain nuts.
Finally, OpenOffice desperately needs a big AutoCorrect library, similar to Word's, which is wonderful.
I wrote a 340-page book in OpenOffice. I loved its stability, which was far better than Word's, especially for editing big docs. But the formatting features are a bit tough - I lost a lot of hair figuring out how to create chapter headers, first chapter pages, etc. So - a great engine under the hood, but much that needs fixin' above.
Re: HOWTO: Improve Font Rendering in LMDE
Just trying to light a fire - as my old man used to say, the squeaking wheel gets the grease.sgosnell wrote:Well, you could demand your money back.
Re: HOWTO: Improve Font Rendering in LMDE
Does it actually look better (fonts and in general) than OpenOffice?sgosnell wrote:Another option is to remove OpenOffice and install LibreOffice. It's now the default office suite, I think, and it's certainly in the repositories.
"Humph. Choice, it is the quintessential Linux delusion, simultaneously the source of it's greatest strength, and it's greatest weakness." (All apologies to The Architect)
Re: HOWTO: Improve Font Rendering in LMDE
LibreOffice is currently not in the LMDE repositories unfortunately although by what I've read a Debian bug report has requested that LibreOffice be added to the "Squeeze" backports repo sometime in the future.sgosnell wrote:Another option is to remove OpenOffice and install LibreOffice. It's now the default office suite, I think, and it's certainly in the repositories.
"Humph. Choice, it is the quintessential Linux delusion, simultaneously the source of it's greatest strength, and it's greatest weakness." (All apologies to The Architect)
Re: HOWTO: Improve Font Rendering in LMDE
Sorry, LibreOffice is in the Sid repository, not Testing. I went to Sid some time ago. It looks better to me, and I prefer it. It's possible to install both and compare them side by side, if you want. You can get a .deb file from here if you're using Gnome, or from there navigate to the KDE version if that's what you're using.
Re: HOWTO: Improve Font Rendering in LMDE
Wouldn't LaTeX have been better for that?runbei wrote:I wrote a 340-page book in OpenOffice. I loved its stability, which was far better than Word's, especially for editing big docs. But the formatting features are a bit tough - I lost a lot of hair figuring out how to create chapter headers, first chapter pages, etc. So - a great engine under the hood, but much that needs fixin' above.
Re: HOWTO: Improve Font Rendering in LMDE
Absolutely! LaTeX would be ideal. Book design is an art that's far beyond me, and it would be wonderful to find a beautiful LaTeX book-formatting template. But, so far, I've had no luck - there seem to be hardly any LaTeX book packages, even ugly ones. And it's doubly frustrating because a Web search turns up some gorgeous designs created by in-house designers for publishing firms - and they aren't giving away the code.Wouldn't LaTeX have been better for that?
Re: HOWTO: Improve Font Rendering in LMDE
@Ikey - thanks for the script - it worked for me along with the fix.
howdy to everybody else - played with few other distro's but Mint LMDE 64bit is what got loaded on the rebuild for the Mrs's.; did a dist-upgrade, looks like LibreOffice replaced OpenOffice - "OK" with me.
howdy to everybody else - played with few other distro's but Mint LMDE 64bit is what got loaded on the rebuild for the Mrs's.; did a dist-upgrade, looks like LibreOffice replaced OpenOffice - "OK" with me.
Re: HOWTO: Improve Font Rendering in LMDE
It did for me as well but after digging through synaptic I found that it left most of the OpenOffice directories and files. I had to run the following to get rid of them:jcoleman wrote: howdy to everybody else - played with few other distro's but Mint LMDE 64bit is what got loaded on the rebuild for the Mrs's.; did a dist-upgrade, looks like LibreOffice replaced OpenOffice - "OK" with me.
Code: Select all
sudo apt-get --purge remove openoffice
"Humph. Choice, it is the quintessential Linux delusion, simultaneously the source of it's greatest strength, and it's greatest weakness." (All apologies to The Architect)