[Bug 415134] Re: Bad font rendering (Freetype, bytecode interpreter)

[Andrew Shadura]

Fixed in Artful and Bionic.

** Changed in: freetype (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Fix Released

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to freetype in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/415134

Title:
  Bad font rendering (Freetype, bytecode interpreter)

Status in freetype package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  A screenshot demonstrating the issues: http://zi.fi/fonttest/fonttest-
  bytecode-enabled.png

  The shot was taken with Ubuntu 9.04 fontconfig-config default
  settings, AA enabled, full hinting enabled, subpixel rendering
  disabled (in Gnome settings). The text is written in OpenOffice (
  http://zi.fi/fonttest/fonttest.odt ).

  Times New Roman italic z is missing the diagonal line (or in fact it
  is just extremely thin). All Microsoft fonts display bad kerning
  (possibly due to OpenOffice) and sudden line thickness changes in
  italic text of different sizes (hinting switching to 2 pixel lines
  instead of 1 pixel would explain the change, but without hinting as is
  the case in italic text this makes no sense). The free fonts (which
  presumably contain no bytecode) have no hinting at all, not even in
  regular rendering (soft edges on FreeSans and FreeSerif titles).

  Freetype autohinter should be used at least for the fonts with no
  bytecode in them and possibly for all fonts, as it often seems to
  produce better results than the bytecode does. This is because the
  bytecode is designed for non-AA rendering. Microsoft's workaround is
  to disable AA entirely in smaller sizes, but that doesn't produce very
  good results either.

  I am reporting this against Ubuntu because apparently it is the
  patches that Ubuntu use that break this instead of Freetype itself
  being broken. Times New Roman bytecode in deed seems broken (for anti-
  aliased rendering at least), but an easier and possibly better fix
  would be to enable the autohinter, which seems to have very good
  rendering quality.

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/freetype/+bug/415134/+subscriptions