Fresh install of Xubuntu 12.04. The font rendering is horrible. I was able to copy over the contents of /etc/fonts/ from an 11.10 Xubuntu install (separate partition), but that only mildly helped. Anti-aliasing, Hinting, Sub-pixel order, etc... None of these tweaks seem to help. At this point, the fonts appear to be in desperate need of *smoothing*. As it is, I consider the DE unacceptable (and therefore unusable) when compared to the font rendering in a functional Linux DE. It appears to be an old problem, have pursued various solutions, but none have worked. I've also noted the same problem on a separate partition when installing the Xubuntu Desktop in a Unity 12.04 install. C'mon guys. Why hasn't this been solved by now?
Because this is not an Xfce issue, but a distro issue. Xfce only "advertises" to the system: "he the user wants to use these font settings", after that it is up to the various rendering apis (pango/freetype) and gtk to make something nice of it. Just makes sure xfce4-settings-helper (4.8) or xfsettinfsd (4.10) are running. After that, it's out of out reach, which you can check with $(xrdb -q)
//Because this is not an Xfce issue, but a distro issue.// Hi Nick, humor me here. The more I think about this, the less sense it makes. If this isn't an XFCE issue, then what is the Settings Manager? If the Settings Manager is distro specific, then OK. If it's not, then XFCE is providing the user with a means to tweak the Font via anti-aliasing, hinting, etc... The Settings Manger is clearly insufficient. Right? If you've got users on Linux Mint forums (LMDE) and Ubuntu Forums (Xubuntu) and X! forums (and I can google those and others if you want evidence) all complaining about XFCE's poor font rendition, then something's up. If I'm wrong, correct me. I'll move on.
Did you run xrdb -q?
The results: *customization: -color Xft.hinting: -1 Xft.hintstyle: hintslight xscreensaver.Dialog.Button.background: #444 xscreensaver.Dialog.Button.foreground: #EDEDFF xscreensaver.Dialog.background: #202020 xscreensaver.Dialog.bodyFont: -*-dina-medium-r-*-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-*-* xscreensaver.Dialog.borderWidth: 20 xscreensaver.Dialog.bottomShadowColor: #202024 xscreensaver.Dialog.buttonFont: -*-dina-bold-r-*-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-*-* xscreensaver.Dialog.dateFont: -*-dina-medium-r-*-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-*-* xscreensaver.Dialog.foreground: #EDEDED xscreensaver.Dialog.headingFont: -*-dina-bold-r-*-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-*-* xscreensaver.Dialog.internalBorderWidth: 24 xscreensaver.Dialog.labelFont: -*-dina-medium-r-*-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-*-* xscreensaver.Dialog.shadowThickness: 2 xscreensaver.Dialog.text.background: #444 xscreensaver.Dialog.text.foreground: #EDEDFF xscreensaver.Dialog.topShadowColor: #202024 xscreensaver.Dialog.unameFont: -*-dina-medium-r-*-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-*-* xscreensaver.dateFormat: %I:%M%P %a %b %d, %Y xscreensaver.passwd.passwdFont: -*-dina-bold-r-*-*-10-*-*-*-*-*-*-* xscreensaver.passwd.thermometer.background: #202020 xscreensaver.passwd.thermometer.foreground: #A9B7C4 xscreensaver.passwd.thermometer.width: 8 Xft.antialias: 1 Xft.rgba: none Xft.lcdfilter: lcdnone Xft.dpi: 96 Xcursor.theme: Xcursor.theme_core: true Xcursor.size: 0
Maybe the dpi value you've manually set it not correct. You can try full hinting and possibly the lcdfilter works on your distro (if you have an lcd screen). How to set the lcdfilter is described here: http://docs.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-settings/appearance
I *will* admit, bumping up the DPI to 112 radically improved the appearance of the menus. Adjusting LCD filter didn't make a noticeable difference. However, the font in all other apps: Libre, Scribus, Gimp, Firefox, Chrome, Abiword, etc.. continue to need smoothing. What makes me think that this is an XFCE problem and not a problem related to the distro is that I installed Ubuntu-Desktop in a Xubuntu install. When I opt for the Ubuntu-Desktop, all the self-same applications display the self-same fonts on the self-same laptop *beautifully*. If you think there's an XFCE distro that does it right, then point me to it. I don't think there is one. I think the limitation is XFCE.
Hey! After some tweaking in Ubuntu and a return to Xubuntu: DPI set to 112, Hinting set to Slight, RGB Vertical, LCD set to default, reboot, shake voodoo doll, wash, rinse, repeat.... Xubuntu looks just as good as Ubuntu. Case closed. You were right. I was wrong. It really *was* a matter of having all the settings *just so*. I adjusted the DPI one point at a time, each time rebooting and trying the other settings. You get the picture. Not sure why Ubuntu gets it right from the get go, but I'd rather use XFCE.
Glad this is fixed, I'll integrate some tips in the docs. I agree as a users if seems strange the desktop has nothing to do with this, but in Xfce you can only choose the settings. Then the Xfce settings daemon is only a proxy to pass it to the different rendering backends.
I was able to reproduce the fix on a separate partition (same computer) where I installed vanilla Xubuntu-Desktop and 4.10 (from the PPA). The key was setting LCD Hinting to Default and logging out/in. I probably could have just restarted XFWM4 (?), but didn't try that. Jayzus-uh, but am I glad to have solved this. There are a lot of users who have concluded, like I did, that the problem is intrinsic to XFCE and insoluble, and that includes experienced users. Features Request: Include LCD Hinting in Settings Manager including a helpful hint that XFWM4 should be restarted. Changed to "Enhancement", and I leave the rest to you.