[Poppler-bugs] [Bug 9862] New: Bad rendering (hinting) in Evince and Xpdf

[bugzilla-daemon at annarchy.freedesktop.org]

http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9862

           Summary: Bad rendering (hinting) in Evince and Xpdf
           Product: poppler
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: Other
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: medium
         Component: splash backend
        AssignedTo: poppler-bugs at lists.freedesktop.org
        ReportedBy: seb128 at debian.org


That bug has been described on
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/poppler/+bug/26118

"...
http://librarian.launchpad.net/4941174/SplashFTFont.cc
Modified splash/SplashFTFont.cc from poppler-0.5.4

I think I nailed it!

First of all, the exact same issue arises in Edgy, which is what I am using
now. However, it's easy to fix.

Second, it's a poppler problem, not an Evince problem per se.

See file splash/SplashFTFont.cc in poppler-0.5.4 (the Edgy version), lines 180
and following. This is where poppler loads glyphs for the splash output device;
this code comes from xpdf, btw.

Basically, there is a compile-time check to see whether freetype has the
bytecode interpreter enabled; if so, IT IS USED regardless of whether
anti-aliasing is on or off. Otherwise, no hinting is used if anti-aliasing is
on. Again, this is a compile-time check.
The problem is that, for most fonts used with LaTeX (but I'd say for most other
fonts, too) it's best to omit hinting altogether.

I fixed the problem by simply deleting the portion of the code that is
triggered if TT_CONFIG_OPTION_BYTECODE is defined, and instead leaving only the
section that is compiled if it is not. Rebuilding with pdebuild and installing
with dpkg -i did the trick.

Ideally, this should be a gconf setting, I guess.

Hope this helps,
M
..."


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