I can confirm that even with Steve Langasek's fonts.conf mod, version
2.2.1-2 of libfreetype6 renders significantly worse than 2.1.10-3.
The regression appears to be most obvious for small to medium font
sizes. For instance, I use Bitstream Vera Sans 9 as my application font
under Gnome, and under 2.2.1 my menubars look "junkier" than under
2.1.10. Similarly, the main Thunderbird window that shows before you
select a mailbox to examine has font rendering that, while not perfect,
is significantly better under 2.1.10 than under 2.2.1.
The closest I can come to the 2.1.10 rendering of fonts under 2.2.1 is
to dispense with subpixel smoothing altogether, and set "Best Contrast"
under the Gnome font preferences dialog. Under 2.1.10, going to that
setting causes a subtle change in font rendering: it simply switches to
using grayscale smoothing, but otherwise doesn't appear to change the
rendering of fonts in any way.
But under 2.2.1, the rendering of fonts with subpixel smoothing is
significantly different from grayscale rendering. The difference is
much more than merely substituting subpixel rendering for grayscale
rendering.
So in my opinion, this is most definitely a bug in version 2.2.1-2,
something that significantly impacts the visual quality of font
rendering and thus the pleasantness of the GUI. It's as if the font
rendering path which is taken for subpixel smoothing is very different
from the path taken with other smoothing methods. If a new rendering
method is being used for subpixel smoothing, then it clearly needs work.
- Kevin Brown
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
