New FreeType font rendering for BunsenLabs & Debian jessie

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-09-18 10:40:09

Thanks to the hard work of @BubuXP and @stevepusser (registered here as @stevep) over at forums.debian.net, the latest FreeType version (which includes some of the Infinality patch set) is now available for Debian jessie-based systems:

https://software.opensuse.org/download. … bfreetype6

This package should improve font rendering on most systems.

Original post:

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?p=624802#p624802

stevep · 2016-09-18 21:21:23

Thanks for the publicity!

I was just pointed to a new firmware source for Debian which somehow is not in Sid yet, or show up at packages.debian.org:

firmware-nonfree (20160824-1) unstable; urgency=medium

  * New upstream version
    - Upstream version is commit 7534e191256629a20c02e04d5f6d0439c48de80a
      dated 2016-08-24
    - iwlwifi: Update Bluetooth firmware for Intel Wireless 3160, 7260, 7265
      and 8260
    - amd-graphics: Update firmware for "Bonaire", "Carrizo", "Fiji", "Hawaii",
      "Kabini", "Kaveri", "Mullins", "Stoney", "Tonga" and "Topaz" chips
    - amd-graphics: Revert change to "Kaveri" MEC firmware included in
      version 20151207-1
    - atheros: Update Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 rev 2.1 and QCA988X firmware
    - misc-nonfree: Update Ralink RT2760/RT2790/RT2860/RT2890/RT3090 and
      RT2870/RT3070/RT3071/RT3072 firmware
    - misc-nonfree: Update Chelsio T4 and T5 firmware
    - intel-sound: Update Intel "Cherry Trail"/"Braswell" SST DSP firmware
    - misc-nonfree: Update Intel "Broxton" and "Skylake" DMC firmware
  * Update to linux-support 4.7.0-1
  * iwlwifi: Include new firmware for Intel Wireless 3160, 7260 and 7265
    (ABI 17); 7265D (ABI 17, 21 and 22); 3168, 8000C and 8265 (ABI 21 and 22)
    (Closes: #808792, #823402, #833355, #833876)
  * amdgpu: Include new firmware for "Polaris" chips (Closes: #838038)
  * qlogic: Include new QLogic QL45000 series firmware
  * brcm80211: Include Broadcom BCM4366 firmware
  * misc-nonfree: Include Sensoray 2255 firmware for use with the s2255drv
    driver
  * ti-connectivity: Update licence text
  * ti-connectivity: Include new TI WL18xx firmware (ABI 4) (Closes: #816350)
  * ti-connectivity: Include "ti-connectivity/TIInit_7.2.31.bts" for use with
    the st_drv driver
  * atheros: Include firmware for Atheros AR3012 rev 31010100 and Qualcomm
    Atheros QCA4019, QCA9377, QCA9887, QCA9888, and QCA9984 adapters, and
    new board configurations for Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 adapters
    (Closes: #800820, #832925)
  * misc-nonfree: Include Terratec H5 DRX-K firmware for use with the
    em28xx-dvb driver
  * iwlwifi: Include Intel Wireless 8264 Bluetooth firmware
  * misc-nonfree: Include Comtrol RocketPort 2 firmware for use with the
    rp2 driver
  * misc-nonfree: Include MOXA UPort firmware for use with the mxuport and
    ti_usb_3410_5052 drivers
  * intel-sound: Include Intel "Broxton", "Kabylake", and "Skylake" SST DSP
    firmware
  * atheros: Suppress lintian warning for reference to GPL where the runtime
    exception has been used

I know we get a lot of missing firmware issues over on the Debian forums, even with the jessie-backports packages, so I'll set up a OBS repo for this after I finish the MX and MEPIS 12 packages, at least until these make their way into jessie-backports.

Edit: The firmware OBS: https://software.opensuse.org/download. … ware-linux

Don't try a direct download--that'll just get the firmware-linux metapackage. Use the repository.

Last edited by stevep (2016-09-18 22:03:55)

ohnonot · 2016-09-19 06:16:23

is there an article / software release page somewhere to get a human-readable summary of affected packages, changes etc.?

brontosaurusrex · 2016-09-19 10:04:49

Any style controlers/bins included?

Last edited by brontosaurusrex (2016-09-19 10:37:47)

brontosaurusrex · 2016-09-19 10:53:11

I set the hinting to full (in ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf), and this is before the install with slight and after with full image;
https://cdn.scrot.moe/images/2016/09/19/beforeAfter.png (Imho the new version looks better, or should I say less techy and more artsy). p.s. Just noticing that especially italics in browser look better.

Last edited by brontosaurusrex (2016-09-19 10:58:11)

brontosaurusrex · 2016-09-19 11:23:23

nobody: Thats upscaled to 400% with gimp. How do I compare stuff now (after install?)
p.s. "interword" certainly looks wrong (r touching w) in both browser pdf reader and Atril or Zathura (Slightly better on win7 with Adobe acrobat), but that could only be my subjective opinion, so actually comparing this stuff is not that easy. p.s. Just noticing that Acrobat seems to distort the end of "r" for some reason.

Last edited by brontosaurusrex (2016-09-19 11:39:51)

brontosaurusrex · 2016-09-19 11:40:49

I was refering to that pdf.

brontosaurusrex · 2016-09-19 11:59:06

This is probably font-kerning/ligatures issue and nothing to with this freetype patch (look how good much better are RWO & rwo looking here). I have some Latex doubts now (I know its a sin, but ...).

p.s. try

convert -density 300 microtype.pdf[0] microtype.png

and you should see that results are similar in the kerning sense.

Last edited by brontosaurusrex (2016-09-19 12:22:47)

stevep · 2016-09-19 19:58:28

There's now a new fontconfig package that'll take advantage of libfreetype6-2.7, so I'll add that to the OBS repo.

It should be easy to switch between the Jessie and OBS versions of the package if you just tell apt or aptitude to install a specific version, as in

# apt install libfreetype6=2.5.2-3+deb8u1

You can get the versions with

$ apt-cache policy libfreetype6

I'm not sure if just X or the whole system has to be restarted in order to see any effects from the changes.

brontosaurusrex · 2016-09-20 08:46:13

gdebi fontconfig* gives me

Fontconfig is not a rasterization library, nor does it impose a
particular rasterization library on the application. The X-specific
library 'Xft' uses fontconfig along with freetype to specify and
rasterize fonts.

So I guess there are no styling related stuff there?

#1 2016-09-18 10:40:09

New FreeType font rendering for BunsenLabs & Debian jessie

#2 2016-09-18 21:21:23

Re: New FreeType font rendering for BunsenLabs & Debian jessie

#3 2016-09-19 06:16:23

Re: New FreeType font rendering for BunsenLabs & Debian jessie

#4 2016-09-19 10:04:49

Re: New FreeType font rendering for BunsenLabs & Debian jessie

#5 2016-09-19 10:53:11

Re: New FreeType font rendering for BunsenLabs & Debian jessie

#6 2016-09-19 11:23:23

Re: New FreeType font rendering for BunsenLabs & Debian jessie

#7 2016-09-19 11:40:49

Re: New FreeType font rendering for BunsenLabs & Debian jessie

#8 2016-09-19 11:59:06

Re: New FreeType font rendering for BunsenLabs & Debian jessie

#9 2016-09-19 19:58:28

Re: New FreeType font rendering for BunsenLabs & Debian jessie

#10 2016-09-20 08:46:13

Re: New FreeType font rendering for BunsenLabs & Debian jessie

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