Step 4. Get yer subpixel hinted fonts: openSUSE 11.4 & 12.1

!! THIS POST  ALSO APPLIES FOR OPENSUSE 12.1 !!

Now to have better looking fonts on LCD/LED screens, just take the following steps:

1. Open "Repositiry Management" in YaST

2. After the repos load, press "Add" FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTION FROM BLOG-POST "STEP 1." - THE FIRST PART OF THE POST EXPLAINS HOW TO ADD A REPO.

3. Add a repo, you can name it "MUZLOCKER subpixels 11.4", "MUZLOCKER subpixels 12,1" or choose a name of your own preference. The URL is:

http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/muzlocker/openSUSE_11.4/

and for openSUSE 12.1:

http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/muzlocker/openSUSE_12.1/

4. Accept and finish the Repo Management.

5. Go to Software Management in YaST.

6. Now check out this screen shot and go step by step:

How to make a vendor change

1. Click "View", sellect "Repositiries"
2. Click the newly opened "Repositories" tab
3. Sellect "MUZLOCKER 11.4" or "MUZLOCKER 12.1"(or how you called it)
4. Press the "Switch packages to this repo" option...

This should sellect all packages from the list to upgrade to the version from this repository. We call it a vendor change.  

7. Choose to install the package freetype2-feature-subpixel-hinting before you accept and let the package installation begin.

Thank you for the comments. The above package does not exist anymore.

Here's my current list of packages from muzlocker repo:

8. After the packages get installed, open KDE's System Settings and go to "Appearance" -> "Fonts" and click "Configure", like below:

   

 9. In the following window sellect Use subpixel hinting, RGB, Full hinting. If you like Droid fonts (like I do for instance), choose your font type as on the screen above.

10. For experienced users, you might want to make the better fonts-rendering work in Firefox, which is not so obvious: Open your file browser with the following command:

dolphin ~/.mozilla/firefox/

You are now in /home/user/.mozilla/firefox/ folder. There is your profile folder named 1oifb15.default - the letters before .default are random and different... There, inside this folder, create a file user.js , that will contain the following lines:

user_pref("font.FreeType2.enable", "true");
user_pref("font.FreeType2.autohinted", "true");
user_pref("font.FreeType2.printing", "true");
user_pref("font.FreeType2.unhinted", "false"); 

You can use kwrite to create this file. Use it as normal, "non-root" user, do Firefox later has access to the settings, that you created.

11. It's advisable to use Dejavu fonts in Firefox'es page rendering, Serif and Sans, where applicable in Firefox'es Edit -> Preferences -> Content -> "Advanced" button in the font-section. For the monotype font choose Dejavu Sans Mono.

Here is a screenshot showing my exact settings of fonts in Firefox, if you like them, you can use the same, or set your prefered fonts (expert users!) :

The fonts choice in Firefox 4.0

Firefox'es font rendering was bad anyway during the last ~8 months. With the version 4.0 (not beta!), that my system upgraded to today, I can see the exactly perfectly rendered fonts, like in all Qt/KDE apps.

That's it. Now log out and log in. You should be presented with more juicy fonts, than before, if you use a LCD/LED screen.

Have fun!

Here some examples, how it looks with these settings CLICK TO ENLARGE:

Firefox 4.0

Firefox 4.0

smplayer, SSA/ASS subtitles enabled

Firefox 4.0