Fonts gone to hell after latest dist-upgrade from Dag

[Void Main]

I noticed after I upgraded my machine today the fonts looked very crappy in all of my apps. I noticed freetype was upgraded so I checked out the latest entry in the Changelog (rpm -q freetype --changelog | head).

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* Tue May 31 2005 Avi Alkalay <avibrazil@gmail.com> - 2.1.9-1
- Enabled bytecode interpreter for better screen font rendering.


Well I beg to differ. If you want your fonts back the way they were just install the latest SRPM:

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rpm -i http://dag.wieers.com/packages/freetype/freetype-2.1.9-1.rf.src.rpm


Replace your RPMROOT/SPECS/freetype.spec with mine:
http://voidmain.is-a-geek.net/files/specs/freetype.spec

Then build it with "rpmbuild -ba freetype.spec". Upgrade your freetype:

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# rpm -Fvh RPMROOT/RPMS/i386/freetype*rpm


Now you have a new changelog:

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* Wed Jun 01 2005 Void Main <voidmain AT linuxmail.com> - 2.1.9-2
- Disabled bytecode interpreter for better screen font rendering.

* Tue May 31 2005 Avi Alkalay <avibrazil@gmail.com> - 2.1.9-1
- Enabled bytecode interpreter for better screen font rendering.


:)

After you restart X you should have your fonts back to the way they were. Of course you could just install the old one but this is more fun.

[Tux]

Thanks void, saved me some tme there.

[Void Main]

Dag's note on the subject:

http://lists.freshrpms.net/pipermail/fr ... 13135.html

The freetype library now includes the bytecode interpreter, which is a big
win for truetype fonts that include proper hinting, but worse for those
fonts that rely on anti-aliasing. (sadly few fonts provide proper hinting)

We're looking into getting the best of both worlds (ie. enable
anti-aliasing for those fonts that do not have proper hinting)

In the worst case I will revert the change (ie. release the original
freetype without the bytecode interpreter). But the results look better on
my desktop and I didn't make a change, but I'm using the right fonts with
hinting support apparently.

See this message as an admission that I shouldn't have added it like that.
But with the support of the author of the Font HOWTO and my own
(improved) experience I made that call. And I now regret that.

I'd like to provide the fonts that have proper hinting (currently you have
to download them from the link in the Font HOWTO).

Sorry for those that have been affected, you know how to revert the
change manually or wait until I've figured out to get the best of both
worlds.

[worker201]

What a great guy! Lots of people wouldn't have even bothered with an explanation.

[Tux]

Wasn't the bytecode interpreter originally omitted from binaries for some legal reason.
What has changed?