Re: [gentoo-user] Fonts and bad eyes
On Mon, May 19, 2014 at 12:23:53PM +0200, David Haller wrote emerge terminus-font might help. E.g.: setfont ter-132n. But that seems to need a framebuffer, but you seem to have that ;) I like default8x16 better though. At least at vga=normal which gives me a nice 80x25 terminal ;) I now have 80x25 consolemode on the notebook. Thanks for that info. My next goal is 80x40 etc. * Plan B) is there free software around that can modify/tweak the regular fonts to double their width? emerge psftools man -k psf Not really what I was looking for. It simply converts between different machine formats. I went to the project homepage at http://www.seasip.info/Unix/PSF/ looking for more info. I noticed a pointer to the PSF file format at... http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/kbd/font-formats-1.html I'll take a crack at writing a consolefont magnify utility. What I want to do is magnify lat1-08, lat1-10, lat1-12, lat1-14, and lat1-16 vertically and horizontally. The simplest approach will be to magnify by a factor of 2 or 3. Since the fonts were originally for a 640 pixel-wide screen, that would would work on my notebook (640 * 2 = 1280) and on my 24 desktop monitor (640 * 3 = 1920). -- Walter Dnes waltd...@waltdnes.org I don't run desktop environments; I run useful applications
Re: [gentoo-user] Fonts and bad eyes
On Wednesday 21 May 2014 02:22:21 Walter Dnes wrote: On Mon, May 19, 2014 at 12:23:53PM +0200, David Haller wrote emerge terminus-font might help. E.g.: setfont ter-132n. But that seems to need a framebuffer, but you seem to have that ;) I like default8x16 better though. At least at vga=normal which gives me a nice 80x25 terminal ;) I now have 80x25 consolemode on the notebook. Thanks for that info. My next goal is 80x40 etc. My screen is 27 and 1920 x 1080, so I can't imagine what vga=normal would look like :-) Too big, anyway. I've set consolefont=ter-124n to give me a lovely VT screen. It does have a diagonal bar through the zero, though, as without it the zero and capital-O would be identical. At least at 12 x 24 I don't confuse 0 and 8. Still hoping to find a font editor though, to replace that zero. -- Regards Peter
Re: [gentoo-user] Fonts and bad eyes
On Sat, 17 May 2014 02:17:17 -0500, Dale rdalek1...@gmail.com wrote: I'm just curious. Just reply and let me know what you use. I think I need to change mine to something better. For monospace, Source Code Pro [1] (media-fonts/source-pro). For proportional, I prefer Helvetica (non-free) but among free options Liberation Sans (media-fonts/liberation-fonts). [1] http://blog.typekit.com/2012/09/24/source-code-pro/ -- Benjamin Lee http://www.b1c1l1.com/ signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-user] Fonts and bad eyes
On Wednesday 21 May 2014 10:28:58 I wrote: Still hoping to find a font editor though, to replace that zero. Found one: http://sourceforge.net/projects/nafe/postdownload?source=dlp I've used it to remove the oblique stroke from the zero character and slope its shoulders. The result's not very polished, but it'll do pro tem. -- Regards Peter
Re: [gentoo-user] Fonts and bad eyes
Hello, On Sat, 17 May 2014, Walter Dnes wrote: On Sat, May 17, 2014 at 01:21:08PM +0200, David Haller wrote The Linux text-console font is also very good. I used to do email and various other stuff on a VGA2 screen (640x480). There are 5 lat1 consolefonts... /usr/share/consolefonts/lat1-08.psfu.gz [..] /usr/share/consolefonts/lat1-16.psfu.gz [..] Then video drivers came along that insisted on taking over text mode, and running at native framebuffer resolution. I have a 1280x800 notebook that would be perfectly legible with the screen kicked into 640x480 mode, and lat1-12 font selected. Unfortunately, the Intel driver takes over and 1280x800 pixels text mode is barely legible 160 columns x 50 rows. On some machines, it was possible to override things and force 640x480 mode in consolemode at bootup. Unfortunately, that forcing would also stick in X, where you do not want 640x480 pixels!!! Hm. I've no idea about the intel-drivers, but nvidia plays nice with nomodeset or rather, I just use vga=normal on the kernel commandline. I do not have any graphics driver in the initrd, the nvidia module is loaded only as X gets started. Maybe that is the problem I have with newer driver versions (I use 295.49, any newer I tested just gives me a blank screen). I should try using nvidiafb again. The consolefont program can select any available font. Question... * Plan A) can I get 16-pixel wide lat1 consolefonts from somewhere? emerge terminus-font might help. E.g.: setfont ter-132n. But that seems to need a framebuffer, but you seem to have that ;) I like default8x16 better though. At least at vga=normal which gives me a nice 80x25 terminal ;) * Plan B) is there free software around that can modify/tweak the regular fonts to double their width? emerge psftools man -k psf HTH, -dnh -- An Emacs reference mug is what I want. It would hold ten gallons of coffee. -- Steve VanDevender
Re: [gentoo-user] Fonts and bad eyes
Hello, On Sun, 18 May 2014, Peter Humphrey wrote: On Saturday 17 May 2014 13:21:08 David Haller wrote: The Linux text-console font is also very good. Yes, except for one thing: the oblique stroke through the zero. That makes it almost indistinguishable from an 8, to my poor eyes (one acute myopia, the other even more acute astigmatism together with moderate myopia, and now both being destroyed slowly by glaucoma). Some time ago I tried to find out where the VC font is defined, with a view to removing that oblique bar, but I ran out of steam before finding it. If anyone can shed any light on this I'd be grateful. /usr/src/linux/drivers/video/console/font_*.c e.g.: font_10x18.c /* 48 0x30 '0' */ 0x00, 0x00, /* 00 */ 0x0e, 0x00, /* 111000 */ 0x1f, 0x00, /* 000100 */ 0x23, 0x00, /* 0010001100 */ 0x61, 0x80, /* 011110 */ 0x63, 0x80, /* 011000@110 */ 0x65, 0x80, /* 01100@0110 */ 0x65, 0x80, /* 01100@0110 */ 0x69, 0x80, /* 0110@00110 */ 0x69, 0x80, /* 0110@00110 */ 0x71, 0x80, /* 011@000110 */ 0x61, 0x00, /* 011100 */ 0x31, 0x00, /* 0011000100 */ 0x3e, 0x00, /* 001000 */ 0x1c, 0x00, /* 000111 */ 0x00, 0x00, /* 00 */ 0x00, 0x00, /* 00 */ 0x00, 0x00, /* 00 */ There you have your diagonal (I marked i with @ instead of 1). Or it's the default8x16.psf[u][.gz] in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts. So, depending on which console-font you've chosen, edit the char of the respective font and make a patch out of it (diff), so that you can easily apply it to new kernels. Maybe make an overlay out of it ;) I think, the kernel-builtin fonts are used until framebuffer and kbd are loaded. HTH, -dnh -- Math problems? Call 1-800-[(10x)(13i)^2]-[sin(xy)/2.362x].
Re: [gentoo-user] Fonts and bad eyes
On Sat, May 17, 2014 at 02:58:26PM +0100, Peter Humphrey wrote: On Saturday 17 May 2014 02:17:17 Dale wrote: Howdy, I'm curious. I'm sure there are some older folks on here that have eyes that are not in the best of shape. Mine are not real good even with glasses. My question is, what font is the easiest to read for folks with bad eyes? In other words, for you folks who can't see good, what font do you use? […] So far I've found these to be acceptable: Liberation Sans Bitstream Vera Sans Clockopia DejaVu Sans […] Verdana For the record: DejaVu is practically the same as Bitstream Vera, but with a much wider range of supported characters. I suppose one of the reasons for their wide-spread use is (apart from them being free) their high readability. Sans and serif are very similar to another and do look nice. That last one, I believe, was designed by M$ for use in web pages. I'll spend some time with each of them and find which I like best. You'll notice that they're all sans-serif. That's because I believe serif fonts need a higher pixel density than most screens have, and that's why they work well when printed on paper but not here. Serifs help the eye at staying on the line while perusing. We as Linux users have the big advantage of the great font rendering engine (that actually brought me to Linux in the first place many moons ago) which can render such details beautifully, so we would notice them, but without them distracting, even *if* they are a bit pixelated. (I switch off the RGB subpixels rendering though because I don’t like the apparent colour bleed.) Serif fonts are designed to be used in longer texts. Thus they are a suboptimal choice for UI elements, because those are usually rather short. Using hinting at full level might actually be a not-so-good idea, because while it makes smaller fonts really crisp (filled pixel or no filled pixel), it may lessen readability because 1) lines thickness can only vary by full pixels, making lines thinner than they actually are, especially on low-DPI screens. 2) the inter-letter spacing must be quantified in full pixels also. So using half strength hinting might make the font look fuzzier on first sight, but will improve reading flow because spacings are more even and details can be perceived without poking out. And if you look from farther away, it will look more natural. The MS fonts have very detailed hinting information because they were designed for screen use. That’s why they still look quite good with full hinting on. Another big advantage that we as Linuxlers have is that most GUIs will scale nicely if we crank up the font size, as opposed to some commercial OS I could mention. So Dale, since you are on KDE, use the freedom it gives you (unlike some other DEs *cough*) and just crank up the sizes. ;) Twiddling with DPI settings OTOH may be counterproductive. If you visit a website that says: font-size: 10pt, then the font will look the same on *all* screens if their DPI is set to the actual value. If the DPI is set to the same value for all, but they have *physically* different pixel pitches, then the font will look different on each screen. I’m not an old fart[TM] yet, so I can afford running a tiny terminus on this 136 DPI laptop. ^^ However, when working in vim, I do use a colour scheme similar to what wabenau describes in his mail: dark (but not black) background with light (but not bright) text colours. For the interested: that scheme is called Wombat: http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2465 -- Gruß | Greetings | Qapla’ Please do not share anything from, with or about me on any social network. It is in human’s nature to think reasonably and act illogically. signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: [gentoo-user] Fonts and bad eyes
On Monday 19 May 2014 12:29:09 David Haller wrote: On Sun, 18 May 2014, Peter Humphrey wrote: Some time ago I tried to find out where the VC font is defined, with a view to removing that oblique bar, but I ran out of steam before finding it. If anyone can shed any light on this I'd be grateful. /usr/src/linux/drivers/video/console/font_*.c e.g.: font_10x18.c /* 48 0x30 '0' */ 0x00, 0x00, /* 00 */ 0x0e, 0x00, /* 111000 */ 0x1f, 0x00, /* 000100 */ 0x23, 0x00, /* 0010001100 */ 0x61, 0x80, /* 011110 */ 0x63, 0x80, /* 011000@110 */ 0x65, 0x80, /* 01100@0110 */ 0x65, 0x80, /* 01100@0110 */ 0x69, 0x80, /* 0110@00110 */ 0x69, 0x80, /* 0110@00110 */ 0x71, 0x80, /* 011@000110 */ 0x61, 0x00, /* 011100 */ 0x31, 0x00, /* 0011000100 */ 0x3e, 0x00, /* 001000 */ 0x1c, 0x00, /* 000111 */ 0x00, 0x00, /* 00 */ 0x00, 0x00, /* 00 */ 0x00, 0x00, /* 00 */ There you have your diagonal (I marked i with @ instead of 1). Magic! Let me know when you're next in the Peak District and the drinks will be on me! Or it's the default8x16.psf[u][.gz] in /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts. So, depending on which console-font you've chosen, edit the char of the respective font and make a patch out of it (diff), so that you can easily apply it to new kernels. Maybe make an overlay out of it ;) I think, the kernel-builtin fonts are used until framebuffer and kbd are loaded. HTH, -dnh -- Regards Peter
[gentoo-user] Fonts and bad eyes
Howdy, I'm curious. I'm sure there are some older folks on here that have eyes that are not in the best of shape. Mine are not real good even with glasses. My question is, what font is the easiest to read for folks with bad eyes? In other words, for you folks who can't see good, what font do you use? I'm just curious. Just reply and let me know what you use. I think I need to change mine to something better. Thanks Dale :-) :-) -- I am only responsible for what I said ... Not for what you understood or how you interpreted my words!
Re: [gentoo-user] Fonts and bad eyes
140517 Dale wrote: I'm sure there are some older folks on here that have eyes that are not in the best of shape. Mine are not real good even with glasses. What font is the easiest to read for folks with bad eyes? New Century Schoolbook was designed for small children c 1910 : my eyes are good enough with glasses, but its shapes are my favorite. Perhaps it's what I learned to read with (I don't remember learning to read). -- ,, SUPPORT ___//___, Philip Webb ELECTRIC /] [] [] [] [] []| Cities Centre, University of Toronto TRANSIT`-O--O---' purslowatchassdotutorontodotca
Re: [gentoo-user] Fonts and bad eyes
On Saturday 17 May 2014 02:17:17 Dale wrote: Howdy, I'm curious. I'm sure there are some older folks on here that have eyes that are not in the best of shape. Mine are not real good even with glasses. My question is, what font is the easiest to read for folks with bad eyes? In other words, for you folks who can't see good, what font do you use? I'm just curious. Just reply and let me know what you use. I think I need to change mine to something better. I'm glad you asked, Dale. I've been meaning to go a-searching fonts for some time and now you've prompted me into it. So far I've found these to be acceptable: Liberation Sans Bitstream Vera Sans Clockopia DejaVu Sans Droid Sans Free Sans Trebuchet MS URW Gothic L Verdana That last one, I believe, was designed by M$ for use in web pages. I'll spend some time with each of them and find which I like best. You'll notice that they're all sans-serif. That's because I believe serif fonts need a higher pixel density than most screens have, and that's why they work well when printed on paper but not here. Hope that hasn't muddied the waters even more! -- Regards Peter
Re: [gentoo-user] Fonts and bad eyes
Hello, On Sat, 17 May 2014, Dale wrote: I'm curious. I'm sure there are some older folks on here that have eyes that are not in the best of shape. Mine are not real good even with glasses. My question is, what font is the easiest to read for folks with bad eyes? In other words, for you folks who can't see good, what font do you use? Even though I can see well with glasses on (I'm quite nearsighted, R:-5.0dpt, L:-6.5dpt) and I'm not even 40 yet ... (Font-) Readbility on- and off-screen is some sort of a hobby and of concern of mine. On screen or on paper? On screen, I use misc-fixed (gnu-unifont?) and Verdana almost exclusively except for Window-Titles and the WMaker App-menu (where I use Helvetica i.e. apparently LiberationSans (I thought it was the URW variant Nimbus Sans(?))) as it runs less wide. Misc-fixed has wonderfully unambiguous letter shapes, Verdana is pretty good in that respect too. The Linux text-console font is also very good. Adjust font-sizes to your ability (might get tedious), though experimenting with the screen's DPI might be a shortcut. Be wary of anti-aliasing and sub-pixel-hinting. Test both _after_ you've chosen a good font without them, if they help, esp. when tweaking non-screen-optimized layouts, activate them, if the do not, leave them off. Do NOT use normal serif-fonts for on-screen reading (like Times, Garamond etc.). Nor normal sans-serif ones (like Arial). Use those fonts optimized for the screen. If you need to set something in a specific font for printing, use misc-fixed/verdana for the typing (and use styles/formats in e.g. oowriter), and change the font as late as possible for final layout tweaks only. Oh, and _very_ importantly: get a _GOOD_ matt monitor if you haven't yet. You don't need a glaring shaving mirror on your desk ;) Any reflection, even a matt one, distracts and hurts the eye, and clear reflections like from glaring panels like the Apple ones are esp. exhausting. I've had the chance to use three 17 TFT side-by-side in twos a) an el-cheapo LG TN (yikes! I got headachey after ~30min) b) an not-quite-cheapo Samsung Syncmaster TN (wlll, endurable for a few hours, lots better than the LG) c) an about twice as expensive EIZO S1721 PVA. I use that without ever getting headachey for as much as 36h. current uptime is ~22h :) Also: always adjust the brightness to ambient light! And adjust the ambient light at night[1]! And with non-matt panels, you may have to turn up the brightness way too far to be comfortable, to still be able to see anything on screen. I'm using that EIZO now since early Apr. 2010, and still 35%-40% brightness suffices (as my window a bit right of the monitor is facing north, but there's a light-yellow colored house with a bright white picket fence, so depending, a _lot_ of light is reflected, so much so that it is blinding even when I'm not at the PC. It's esp. bugging, when there are quick changes on a, say, typical april day (mid-lats of the northern Hemisphere), one minute, the (reflected) sun glares at you, the next a dark cloud makes it seem like dusk. And no, the light sensor sadly does not seem to work. On paper, I very much prefer classic serif-fonts, esp. Garamond and I like the TeX fonts (Computer Modern/Latin Modern) quite much. -dnh [1] usually, I have a lamp at the side, barely lighting the table, but when I'm watching videos, I move the lamp lower, so it's only lighting the floor/low wall and gives a low ambient light. Very nice when watching darkish videos. Nicer than turning up the monitor brightness (even if I turn that up to 45% or even a bit more ;) -- Idiot, n.: A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. -- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
Re: [gentoo-user] Fonts and bad eyes
On Saturday 17 May 2014 13:21:08 David Haller wrote: The Linux text-console font is also very good. Yes, except for one thing: the oblique stroke through the zero. That makes it almost indistinguishable from an 8, to my poor eyes (one acute myopia, the other even more acute astigmatism together with moderate myopia, and now both being destroyed slowly by glaucoma). Some time ago I tried to find out where the VC font is defined, with a view to removing that oblique bar, but I ran out of steam before finding it. If anyone can shed any light on this I'd be grateful. Oh, and Dale, so far I've come to like the Bitstream Vera Sans at size 14 for KMail text. -- Regards Peter
Re: [gentoo-user] Fonts and bad eyes
On Sat, May 17, 2014 at 01:21:08PM +0200, David Haller wrote The Linux text-console font is also very good. I used to do email and various other stuff on a VGA2 screen (640x480). There are 5 lat1 consolefonts... /usr/share/consolefonts/lat1-08.psfu.gz /usr/share/consolefonts/lat1-10.psfu.gz /usr/share/consolefonts/lat1-12.psfu.gz /usr/share/consolefonts/lat1-14.psfu.gz /usr/share/consolefonts/lat1-16.psfu.gz They are all 8 pixels wide, giving 80 columns on a VGA screen. At 640x400 consolemode, you got... * lat1-08 (CGA-like) gave 80x50 (unreadable except on a large monitor) * lat1-10 gave 80x40, which was nice * lat1-12 gave 80x33 * lat1-14 (EGA-like) gave 80x28 * lat1-16 (VGA-like) gave 80x25 At 640x480 consolemode... * lat1-08 (CGA-like) gave 80x60 (unreadable except on a large monitor) * lat1-10 gave 80x48, which is surprisingly much nicer than 80x50 above. Those 2 extra pixels made a world of difference * lat1-12 gave 80x40 * lat1-14 (EGA-like) gave 80x34 * lat1-16 (VGA-like) gave 80x30 Then video drivers came along that insisted on taking over text mode, and running at native framebuffer resolution. I have a 1280x800 notebook that would be perfectly legible with the screen kicked into 640x480 mode, and lat1-12 font selected. Unfortunately, the Intel driver takes over and 1280x800 pixels text mode is barely legible 160 columns x 50 rows. On some machines, it was possible to override things and force 640x480 mode in consolemode at bootup. Unfortunately, that forcing would also stick in X, where you do not want 640x480 pixels!!! The consolefont program can select any available font. Question... * Plan A) can I get 16-pixel wide lat1 consolefonts from somewhere? * Plan B) is there free software around that can modify/tweak the regular fonts to double their width? -- Walter Dnes waltd...@waltdnes.org I don't run desktop environments; I run useful applications
