FreeType 2.7 Released With A Big Font Rendering Change

[phoronix]

Phoronix: FreeType 2.7 Released With A Big Font Rendering Change

FreeType 2.7 has been officially released and it's actually a big deal as it aims to bring font rendering that's better in line with what's offered by DirectWrite and ClearType on other operating systems...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=FreeType-2.7-Released

[uid313]

Does this affect Ubuntu?

Because I use Ubuntu and my fonts are really nice and smooth.

[PLum]

Nice, but when will it ship into most distributions - howto install it on ubuntu for example ? (i moved from arch/manjaro some time ago .... )

[bug77]

Nice, but when will it ship into most distributions - howto install it on ubuntu for example ? (i moved from arch/manjaro some time ago .... )

For Ubuntu, you'll probably need a PPA for a while. Because Ubuntu doesn't upgrade packages and by now it's certainly too late for FreeType 2.7 to get onto the 16.10 train.
There's this, but it already seems to be a couple of bug fix versions behind: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/freetype

[bug77]

Does this affect Ubuntu?

Because I use Ubuntu and my fonts are really nice and smooth.

It will when included, but the current method of rendering will still be available. Make a note of the current subpixel hinting being used (sorry, I don't know where this is buried) and set it back after FreeType 2.7 is installed.

[Aleksei]

Will that make Infinality patches obsolete?

[sdack]

Nice, but when will it ship into most distributions - howto install it on ubuntu for example ? (i moved from arch/manjaro some time ago .... )

It's rather easy. You only need to compile the source and put the library into your LD_LIBRARY_PATH so applications can pick it up before the system libraries. I've just did that, logged out from the desktop, logged back in, and various applications now start showing the different font rendering. The same also works when you don't want it and you then install a previous version of it.

I can't say that I like it much. My RSS feed reader Liferea uses a bold typeface for new messages and these are now extremely fat looking with some letters sticking to one another.

[FuturePilot]

Nice, but when will it ship into most distributions - howto install it on ubuntu for example ? (i moved from arch/manjaro some time ago .... )

Probably too late for 16.10 but it should make it in to 17.04

[WebMac]

Does anyone have a picture comparing the new to the old fonts?

[pq1930562]

Does anyone have a picture comparing the new to the old fonts?

Sort of, see:

https://www.freetype.org/freetype2/docs/subpixel-hinting.html

Still would be nice to see a proper comparision.

Maybe Michael can do it?