The best of all possible fonts: Subpixel hinting on openSUSE

Posted by Daniel Stout on Thu 10 May 2007 at 7:47 PM

As an openSUSE Linux user and a budding typographer, I’m always interested in ways to make screen-rendered text more legible. You may have a similar obsession with the clarity of text. Or maybe I’m the only person this side of the Mississippi who cares about this stuff. At any rate, Vichar linked to this great mini-tutorial on how to upgrade your openSUSE system with a subpixel hinted version of the freetype2 packages.

There are a few things you’ll want to have installed on your openSUSE system, such as the basic development groups. With five commands logged in as yourself, and then two more commands entered as root, you’ll be set. The freetype2 packages contain the basic system fonts that you’ll see around the system.

The tutorial also then goes on to illustrate how to enable your window manager — either KDE or Gnome — to display subpixel hinting, if you haven’t already set that up.

The difference is notable and at the same time subtle. It’ll bring a distinct solidity to your screen fonts. It’s a very nice change, and well worth the modest effort. Being a Linux user doesn’t mean you don’t have to care about fonts. I’ll admit I meet a lot of Linux users who are that way, but to have a beautifully optimal system, you’ll want to make this change.

Tags: fonts · freetype2 · gnome · kde · linux · opensuse · suse

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