Geoff <capsthorne@yahoo.co.uk> writes: > Thanks for that edscott. As you will see from my reply to > Sven, setting GDK_USE_XFT=0 fixes the problem for the time > being. If the antialiasing is responsible for what I see, > then I hate it. I will have a look at the pango options. The variant that I use is <match target="font"> <test qual="any" name="size" compare="less"> <double>14</double> </test> <test qual="any" name="size" compare="more"> <double>8</double> </test> <edit name="antialias" mode="assign"> <bool>false</bool> </edit> </match> Ie. antialias, but only when the size is below 8 or above 14. This is an approximation on what windows does. Windows uses extra information in the fonts about when to antialias that is unfortunately not available though FreeType. There are various other possibilities that look good, including "antialias, but turn off hinting". As you found out, having *both* bytecode interpreter and antialiasing for normal screen-sized fonts is just about the worst thing you can do to your fonts.