[Fontconfig] fonts.conf problem

[Ciprian Popovici]

On Sun, 07 Nov 2004 16:54:02 -0500 Salman Khilji <skhilji at tampabay.rr.com>
wrote:
>     <test name="pixelsize" compare="less">
>       <double>14.5</double>
>     </test>

FWIW, "pixelsize" means "pixel size". :) For points you need to use "size".
Perhaps this is why different fonts will have different tresholds.

> BTW, Linux systems try to anti-alias at all sizes---this is not right.
> If we compare this to Windows XP, we will see that fonts below a size of
> about 13 pts are not anti-aliased.  This is because smaller fonts when
> anti-aliased tend to appear fuzzy without really adding any benefit.  I
> think Linux vendors should follow this by default as well so that I
> don't have to go through this pain.
> 
> It just that the way the monospace font is made, it has to be
> anti-aliased even at smaller sizes---otherwise it appears rough on the
> screen.

You got a glimpse of the problem right there. First of all, fontconfig only
makes things possible, it doesn't enforce font configurations. It's the
distro's job if they decide to apply measures such as the above.

Secondly, applying AA to all sizes and all fonts is the safe choice. Most
fonts I've personally seen on Linux look horrible without AA, including the
Bitstream Vera family. Guess which ones are designed so they look ok
without AA: the Microsoft core pack.

-- 
Ciprian Popovici