[Fontconfig] Re: How Do I anti-alias text only larger than a certain pixel?

[Dan Egnor]

Put the following in ~/.fonts.conf (for yourself) or /etc/fonts/local.conf
(for the whole system):

--- cut here ---
<fontconfig>
    <match target="pattern">
        <test qual="any" name="size" compare="less_eq"><int>12</int></test>
        <edit name="antialias" mode="assign"><bool>false</bool></edit>
    </match>
</fontconfig>
--- cut here ---

If you already have such a file, cut out just the <match>...</match>
part and put it between the existing <fontconfig> tags (obviously).

Change the number 12 to suit your taste.  In general fontconfig has 
a (perhaps too) sophisticated system for tweaking the fonts applications
use based on all sorts of rules and calculations.  See "man fontconfig" 
for the full guts; search for the "CONFIGURATION FILE FORMAT" section.

Note there isn't a lot of "user level" documentation; it's all pretty
developer oriented at the moment.  I tried to add this answer to the FAQ 
on the Wiki but I can't get it to accept my login.  

Maybe something like this should be the default, since freetype's 
antialiased rendering really sucks at small pixel sizes?

Dan