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Bug 145460

Summary: Patches for cairo to enable better subpixel rendering on lcd screens
Product: Gentoo Linux Reporter: Łukasz Mierzwa <l.mierzwa>
Component: Current packagesAssignee: Doug Goldstein (RETIRED) <cardoe>
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX    
Severity: enhancement CC: ahbritto, brebs, compnerd, maxima.bugs, pacho
Priority: High    
Version: unspecified   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Package list:
Runtime testing required: ---
Attachments: patch for cairo 1.2.*
patch for libXft-2.1.10
modified cairo 1.2.4 ebuild with bindist use flag
modified libXft 2.1.10 ebuild with bindist use flag
I uploaded wrong ebuild, this one is the right one for 1.2.4 cairo
I uploaded wrong ebuild, this one is the right one for 2.1.10 libXft

Description Łukasz Mierzwa 2006-08-29 03:40:55 UTC
Here are patches that provides much better subpixel rendering of fonts on lcd displays, found on ubuntu forums, tested on x86 box
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=180647&page=10
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=235526

They can possilby break some patents so we should enable them only if bindist USE flag is not set.
Comment 1 Łukasz Mierzwa 2006-08-29 03:41:57 UTC
Created attachment 95354 [details, diff]
patch for cairo 1.2.*
Comment 2 Łukasz Mierzwa 2006-08-29 03:42:34 UTC
Created attachment 95355 [details, diff]
patch for libXft-2.1.10
Comment 3 Łukasz Mierzwa 2006-08-29 03:49:46 UTC
Created attachment 95356 [details]
modified cairo 1.2.4 ebuild with bindist use flag
Comment 4 Łukasz Mierzwa 2006-08-29 03:50:24 UTC
Created attachment 95357 [details]
modified libXft 2.1.10 ebuild with bindist use flag
Comment 5 Łukasz Mierzwa 2006-08-29 04:02:29 UTC
Created attachment 95359 [details]
I uploaded wrong ebuild, this one is the right one for 1.2.4 cairo
Comment 6 Łukasz Mierzwa 2006-08-29 04:03:07 UTC
Created attachment 95360 [details]
I uploaded wrong ebuild, this one is the right one for 2.1.10 libXft
Comment 7 Paul Bredbury 2006-08-29 06:45:14 UTC
I confirm that fonts are improved.

The cairo patch needs its email headers removed - it works if its first line is "index..."
Comment 8 Jakub Moc (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2006-08-29 07:30:45 UTC
Ugh, these are huge patches. Please, submit such stuff upstream.
Comment 9 Pacho Ramos gentoo-dev 2006-11-04 05:06:17 UTC
Seems that is not needed use this patches in cairo-1.2.6:
http://blog.cardoe.com/archives/2006/11/02/cairo-126/
Comment 10 Doug Goldstein (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2007-04-13 23:30:58 UTC
This stuff has been moved into FreeType 2.3.0. It is better known as Microsoft ClearType and it clearly infringes on Microsoft patents, which people claim to have prior art for but unless you're willing to fight Microsoft in the courts... it's better to keep them disabled if you distribute binary packages.

The original author of these patches agreed that it was better to implement them in freetype, where they belong so that's where they are.

As a default, Gentoo's freetype does ship with this disabled. You simply need to create the following symlinks..

$ ls -l /etc/fonts/conf.d/10-autohint.conf 
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 30 Feb  7 01:34 /etc/fonts/conf.d/10-autohint.conf -> ../conf.avail/10-autohint.conf
$ ls -l /etc/fonts/conf.d/10-sub-pixel-rgb.conf 
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 35 Feb  7 01:34 /etc/fonts/conf.d/10-sub-pixel-rgb.conf -> ../conf.avail/10-sub-pixel-rgb.conf

And you're set.