Bug 83865 – gnome-terminal overlaps some characters when using variable spaced fonts

• Status: RESOLVED UPSTREAM
• Product: Gentoo Linux

[Description Dice Random 2005-03-02 11:59:01 UTC]

There are certain character combinations that will result in overlapping characters with variable spaced fonts in gnome-terminal.  Such character combinations are "me" "we", and some others... I particuarly notice this after w's.  I know using variable spaced fonts in terminals is generally a bad thing, but Trebuchet MS is just so darn pretty ;)

I think this problem is specific to gnome-terminal and not fontconfig in general as I haven't seen it in any other applications.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.Open gnome-terminal
2.Switch to a variable spaced font
3.Type something involving "we", "me", "wh", etc.

Actual Results:  
The characters overlap, making the text difficult to read.

Expected Results:  
No overlap :)

dice@entropy ~ $ qpkg -I -v gnome-terminal
x11-terms/gnome-terminal-2.8.2 *
dice@entropy ~ $ qpkg -I -v fontconfig
media-libs/fontconfig-2.2.3 *
dice@entropy ~ $ qpkg -I -v xorg-x11
x11-base/xorg-x11-6.8.2 *
dice@entropy ~ $ emerge info
Portage 2.0.51.18 (default-linux/x86/2004.3, gcc-3.4.3, glibc-2.3.4.20050125-r0,
2.6.11-rc4-love1-dice1 i686)
=================================================================
System uname: 2.6.11-rc4-love1-dice1 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) MP Processor 1800+
Gentoo Base System version 1.6.9
Python:              dev-lang/python-2.3.5 [2.3.5 (#1, Feb 18 2005, 12:11:58)]
dev-lang/python:     2.3.5
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.59-r6
sys-devel/automake:  1.4_p6, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.6.3, 1.9.4, 1.5
sys-devel/binutils:  2.15.92.0.2-r4
sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.10-r5
virtual/os-headers:  2.6.8.1-r2
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86 ~x86"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CFLAGS="-Os -march=athlon-xp -pipe"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config
/usr/lib/X11/xkb /usr/lib/mozilla/defaults/pref /usr/share/config
/usr/share/texmf/dvipdfm/config/ /usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/
/usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/platex/config/
/usr/share/texmf/xdvi/ /var/qmail/control"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d"
CXXFLAGS="-Os -march=athlon-xp -pipe"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="autoaddcvs autoconfig candy ccache distlocks sandbox sfperms"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gentoo.binarycompass.org
http://ftp-mirror.internap.com/pub/gentoo/ http://gentoo.ccccom.com
ftp://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/gentoo/"
LC_ALL="en_US"
MAKEOPTS="-j3"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/overlays/mine"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="x86 3dnow X aalib acpi alsa apache2 apm avi berkdb bitmap-fonts cdr
composite crypt curl dba dvd dvdr emboss encode ethereal evo f77 fam fbcon flac
font-server foomaticdb fortran freetype gd gdbm gif gnome gphoto2 gpm gstreamer
gtk gtk2 imagemagick imlib ipv6 java jpeg junit ldap libg++ libwww mad mikmod
mmx motif mozilla moznocompose moznoirc moznomail mozsvg mpeg mysql ncurses nls
nptl nvidia obscene oggvorbis opengl oss pam pdflib perl pic png python
quicktime readline samba sdl spell ssl svg svga tcpd tetex threads tiff truetype
truetype-fonts type1-fonts videos xft xml2 xmms xv xvmc zlib"
Unset:  ASFLAGS, CBUILD, CTARGET, LANG, LDFLAGS

[Comment 1 Dice Random 2005-03-02 12:00:10 UTC]

Created attachment 52483 [details]
Screenshot of variable spaced font and character overlap

Here's the broken behavior

[Comment 2 Dice Random 2005-03-02 12:00:47 UTC]

Created attachment 52484 [details]
Screenshot of mono spaced font with no character overlap

Here's the proper behavior

[Comment 3 Hinrik Örn Sigurðsson 2005-09-08 22:01:58 UTC]

It does the same here with all variable spaced fonts in all sizes, and also with
monospaced if I use size 8. However, size 8 monospace works just fine in xchat2,
so this is probably a problem with vte (terminal widget used by gnome-terminal).

[Comment 4 Hinrik Örn Sigurðsson 2005-09-08 22:03:13 UTC]

Created attachment 67987 [details]
mono-vte.png

Bitstream Vera Sans Mono 8 in gnome-terminal, characters overlap.

[Comment 5 Hinrik Örn Sigurðsson 2005-09-08 22:04:31 UTC]

Created attachment 67988 [details]
mono-xchat2.png

Bitstream Vera Sans Mono 8 in xchat-2, characters don't overlap.

[Comment 6 Mike Gardiner (RETIRED) 2005-11-05 18:25:42 UTC]

Hinrik, I think that was a problem with a version of pango, try upgrading to the
latest version, because it's working fine for me now (and I used to see your
problem).

Dice, this looks upstreamed here
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=132009 suggesting 

"In the screenshot you post you are using a proportional font, whose
spacing/kerning parameters get butchered by vte, resulting in the
ugliness you've gotten. You need to use monospaced fonts in your
terminals."

It seems the problem is the font you're using, marking upstream in case they
decide to change.