[DejaVu-bugs] [Bug 26505] New: 1 and 4 numerals in Serif 12pt are

[bugzilla-daemon at freedesktop.org]

http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26505

           Summary: 1 and 4 numerals in Serif 12pt are
           Product: DejaVu
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: All
        OS/Version: Linux (All)
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: medium
         Component: Serif
        AssignedTo: dejavu-bugs at lists.freedesktop.org
        ReportedBy: andrew at operationaldynamics.com


Created an attachment (id=33207)
 --> (http://bugs.freedesktop.org/attachment.cgi?id=33207)
Screenshot of 1 and 4 misrendering

At 12 pt, the 1 and 4 digits (yes, U+0031 and U+0034) are not rendering with
the same height as the other digits.

It's a shame, because I've been using the DejaVu family at 11pt across the
board; but with a new system I had a slightly better resolution, so was looking
to bump my fonts up a notch, but this is really disorienting. In numbers like
dates (notably 2010 and 1984) it's really jarring. Screenshot of this being
demonstrated by `gnome-specimen` attached.

It does not manifest at 11pt nor at 14pt. It does at 12pt and 13pt.

This is on a GNOME system (so yes, `gnome-appearance-properties` Font ->
Details is at 96 dpi like it's supposed to be) as provided by Canonical's
Ubuntu. The hinting is again the default, "slight".

If I disable hinting (for that font alone via fontconfig, or for the entire
desktop) then the problem indeed goes away. But of course down at these sizes
not using hinting at all is a bit suboptimal. Using "medium" hinting also makes
the problem go away, but then the font looks stick figures. I don't think
that's what we're supposed to be going for.

I did some debugging using `pango-view` and FC_DEBUG and saw the same results.
It's claims to be 16 pixels high, if that matters.

Presumably the tip of the top of the '1' and the '4' are getting hinted or
anti-aliased (sorry to not know the right term here) up a pixel.

I'd love to help; I got as far as firing up fontforge, and turning the grid on
for 12 pt / 96 dpi. I think I can see it drawing an extra pixel in height for 1
vs 2, but I'm not even remotely close to knowing enough about fonts to know
what to do from there.

Anyway, I'm back at 11pt, and squinting. Any help would be appreciated.

AfC


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