Mike FABIAN wrote: > Simos Xenitellis <simos74@xxxxxxx> ????????: > > >> Hi All, >> There is a nasty situation in the current configuration on fontconfig >> that makes it really bad when displaying Greek. >> For example, you get this issue when installing the latest Ubuntu >> Breezy (Dev version) and it looks like >> http://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/attachment.cgi?id=3690 >> >> Why does Greek show like that? The characters are always slanted, big >> space between them, and in general they are terrible. >> New distributions have FreeFonts and MgOpen that support Greek. >> >> /etc/fonts/fonts.conf says: >> >> <alias> >> <family>Bitstream Vera Sans</family> >> <family>Helvetica</family> >> <family>Arial</family> >> <family>Verdana</family> >> <family>Albany AMT</family> >> <family>Nimbus Sans L</family> >> <family>Luxi Sans</family> >> <family>Kochi Gothic</family> >> <family>AR PL KaitiM GB</family> >> <family>AR PL KaitiM Big5</family> >> <family>?? ????</family> >> <family>Baekmuk Dotum</family> >> <family>SimSun</family> >> <family>FreeSans</family> >> <default><family>sans-serif</family></default> >> </alias> >> >> which means that fonts are searched in this order to find Greek >> glyphs. It would be nice and perfect, unfortunately >> >> 1. Kochi Gothic >> 2. AR PL KaitiM GB >> 3. Baekmuk Dotum >> >> have Greek glyphs and they get matched, before FreeSans gets the >> chance. These Asian fonts appear to be double-spaced(?) and display >> Greek in a way that native Greek speakers are not used to; it looks >> terrible. >> >> Therefore, >> a. How can we instruct fontconfig (fonts.conf) to ignore any Greek >> glyphs found in those Asian fonts? >> > > Why don't you just move the fonts good for Greek up to higher > priority in the prefer list. I.e. change > > <alias> > <family>serif</family> > <prefer> > <family>Bitstream Vera Serif</family> > <family>Times New Roman</family> > <family>Thorndale AMT</family> > <family>Luxi Serif</family> > <family>Nimbus Roman No9 L</family> > <family>Times</family> > <family>Frank Ruehl</family> > <family>Kochi Mincho</family> > <family>AR PL SungtiL GB</family> > <family>SimSun</family> > <family>AR PL Mingti2L Big5</family> > <family>?? ??</family> > <family>Baekmuk Batang</family> > <family>FreeSerif</family> > </prefer> > </alias> > > to > > <alias> > <family>serif</family> > <prefer> > <family>Bitstream Vera Serif</family> > <family>Times New Roman</family> > <family>Thorndale AMT</family> > <family>Luxi Serif</family> > <family>Nimbus Roman No9 L</family> > <family>Times</family> > <family>Frank Ruehl</family> > <family>FreeSerif</family> > <family>Kochi Mincho</family> > <family>AR PL SungtiL GB</family> > <family>SimSun</family> > <family>AR PL Mingti2L Big5</family> > <family>?? ??</family> > <family>Baekmuk Batang</family> > </prefer> > </alias> > > and if the MgOpen fonts are nicer than the fonts from the > "freefont"-project, add them above "FreeSerif" for example. > > >> b. Is ignoring the Greek glyphs in those Asian fonts the correct path >> in solving the problem? >> > > I don't think this is a good solution. > > Imagine that the only fonts installed which have Greek glyphs are > those Asian fonts. In that case it is surely better to display Greek > which is ugly but readable than to display only boxes. > > To display Greek as beautiful as possible, the fonts in the prefer > lists just need to be sorted so that the most beautiful fonts are on > top. > Thanks all for the input. I'll produce a patch that places the FreeFonts and MgOpen fonts higher up in the list for Sans/Serif/Mono fonts in fonts.conf. FreeFonts were added by Vasilis Vasaitis two years ago http://cvs.freedesktop.org/fontconfig/fontconfig/fonts.conf.in?r1=1.24&r2=1.25 at the bottom of the list. This has not changed since then, although some distributions would edit the list for their purposes. Cheers, Simos Xenitellis
