Better fonts in Ubuntu with freetype auto-hinter

Alrighty ! If you felt fonts in Ubuntu looked fuzzy and not-cool, you are probably right. Because it can be changed and in all probabilities you'll like the change. I am talking of auto-hinting which is compiled into freetype ( font rendering libraries ) but not enabled by default in Ubuntu 8.04 So without any delay , here's how to enable auto-hinting in Ubuntu 8.04 - add the following lines to your .fonts.conf file in your home directory i.e /home/chet/.fonts.conf

<match target="pattern">

  <edit name="autohint" mode="assign">

   
<bool>true</bool>

  </edit>

</match>

Please note that this text should go before the </fontconfig> tag. So your sample .fonts.conf might look like below :

<fontconfig>



 <match target="font"></match>

  <edit mode="assign"
name="rgba"></edit>

   <const>none</const>



 <match target="font"></match>

  <edit mode="assign"
name="hinting"></edit>

   <bool>true</bool>



 <match target="font"></match>

  <edit mode="assign"
name="hintstyle"></edit>

 
<const>hintmedium</const>



 <match target="font"></match>

  <edit mode="assign"
name="antialias"></edit>

   <bool>true</bool>



 <match target="pattern"></match>

    <edit name="autohint"
mode="assign"></edit>

      
<bool>true</bool>



</fontconfig>

Thats it ! Log-out and log-in to experience the goodness of auto-hinter !

Installing fonts in Ubuntu, made simple, really

So tried installing fonts in linux and found nothing or obscure documents involving sudo access ? Well if you are using Ubuntu 8.04 then the situation is easily solved. you need to copy the fonts you find on web ( .ttf files ) in the /home/.fonts/ directory. Thats it. As simple ! Now when you re-login you should find the font in the the font list of your favorite application.

Waree - True type font for linux

If you haven't checked out the Waree Book font in Ubuntu 8.04 yet , then you should. Check out the image below - This shot was taken at 86 dpi on a Thinkpad T61 lcd display. Agreed they look very very similar to deja vu but believe me there's a world of difference between the two. Especially in the numbers. Waree has lean numbers. Check the shot below comparing the Waree with Deja Vu Sans :

With Waree font at 86 dpi

With Deja Vu Sans at 86 dpi

Check out how Deja vu looks fatter as compared to Waree. Some how I like the fonts esp. the numbers to be lean. :)