Better Defaults for Freetype

fonts.draft

FONTS                                                                 Earnestly


                          Better Defaults for Freetype


Contents

    Introduction ....................................................... 16
    Better Defaults .................................................... 43
    Configuration ...................................................... 68
    The Infinality Ultimate Bundle ..................................... 85
    Additional Resources ............................................... 96


Introduction

    Historically on Linux in order to get nicely rendered fonts one would 
    need to resort to patches like Infinality, however this only applied to
    TrueType[1] fonts.

    In 2013 Adobe donated their CFF (Compact Font Format)[2] rasterizer to
    the freetype project[3] which greatly boosted quality of OpenType 
    rendering.  It was donated primarily for Adobe and Google's epic Noto 
    typeface[4].

    Freetype has since made the CFF hinting engine default in version
    2.4.12[5].

    In contrast, while Infinality's ClearType implementation has been part 
    of freetype since mid 2012[6], it is not enabled by default due to 
    patent concerns[7].
    
    1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrueType
    2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PostScript_fonts#Compact_Font_Format
    3. http://blog.typekit.com/2013/05/01/adobe-contributes-cff-rasterizer-to-freetype/
    4. http://lwn.net/Articles/613284/
    5. http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/freetype/freetype2.git/commit/?id=06474c3e5bef
    6. http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/freetype/freetype2.git/commit/?id=79e36baebba4
    7. http://david.freetype.org/cleartype-patents.html


Better Defaults

    The simplest method to seeing an improvement would be to use 
    freetype2-git from either the AUR[8] or heftig's repository[9].
    
    Alternatively, due to pressure from other maintainers, an Arch Linux
    specific addition[10] has exposed the subpixel hinter via the
    environment variable FT2_SUBPIXEL_HINTING.  Setting this to anything
    so that it present in your environ will enable the hinter.  Removing
    it will disable it.

    The next, and perhaps obvious, requirement is to use good fonts.  I
    speak not of aesthetic quality or visual style, but the the 
    construction.  Typefaces designed with good hinting instructions[11]
    or blues values[12].  A nice collection of commerically free to use
    fonts is currated at <http://www.fontsquirrel.com/>.  Simply download
    and copy the outlines to XDG_DATA_HOME/fonts (~/.local/share/fonts).

    8. https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/freetype2-git/
    9. https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=117157
    10. https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/35274
    11. http://www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec160/ttinst.htm
    12. https://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/font/T1_SPEC.PDF


Configuration

    I have provided what I consider a good base-line configuration for
    freetype via fontconfig[13].  There is minimal opinion of which can be
    easily removed.  The configuration is fairly well documented in the
    fonts-conf(5) manual.

    Simply place the configuration in XDG_CONFIG_HOME/fontconfig/fonts.conf
    (~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf) and restart any software which loaded 
    the freetype library.  

    (Some systems do not require restarts as they update freetype settings
    automatically such as GNOME via the gnome-settings-daemon or xsettingsd.)

    13. https://github.com/Earnestly/dotfiles/blob/master/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf


The Infinality Ultimate Bundle

    The Infinality Ultimate Bundle[14] is a nice project which aims to 
    create a curated and tuned collection of fonts for use on free OS' such 
    as Linux.  This is similar to what both Windows and OSX do for their 
    users.  Use this if you are not particularly interested in typefaces
    and simply want nice font rendering.

    14. http://bohoomil.com/


Additional Resources

    * The de-facto Bible of outline hinting: <http://www.rastertragedy.com/>

    * Behdad's excellent introduction to challenges facing high-DPI 
      displays and their relationship to current systems: <http://goo.gl/yf3M7>