Chris@909: Bitstream Vera Fonts - April 16, 2003 Chris@909: ===================================== Chris@909: Chris@909: The version number of these fonts is 1.10 to distinguish them from the Chris@909: beta test fonts. Chris@909: Chris@909: Note that the Vera copyright is incorporated in the fonts themselves. Chris@909: The License field in the fonts contains the copyright license as it Chris@909: appears below. The TrueType copyright field is not large enough to Chris@909: contain the full license, so the license is incorporated (as you might Chris@909: think if you thought about it) into the license field, which Chris@909: unfortunately can be obscure to find. (In pfaedit, see: Element->Font Chris@909: Info->TTFNames->License). Chris@909: Chris@909: Our apologies for it taking longer to complete the fonts than planned. Chris@909: Beta testers requested a tighter line spacing (less leading) and Jim Chris@909: Lyles redesigned Vera's accents to bring its line spacing to more Chris@909: typical of other fonts. This took additional time and effort. Our Chris@909: thanks to Jim for this effort above and beyond the call of duty. Chris@909: Chris@909: There are four monospace and sans faces (normal, oblique, bold, bold Chris@909: oblique) and two serif faces (normal and bold). Fontconfig/Xft2 (see Chris@909: www.fontconfig.org) can artificially oblique the serif faces for you: Chris@909: this loses hinting and distorts the faces slightly, but is visibly Chris@909: different than normal and bold, and reasonably pleasing. Chris@909: Chris@909: On systems with fontconfig 2.0 or 2.1 installed, making your sans, Chris@909: serif and monospace fonts default to these fonts is very easy. Just Chris@909: drop the file local.conf into your /etc/fonts directory. This will Chris@909: make the Bitstream fonts your default fonts for all applications using Chris@909: fontconfig (if sans, serif, or monospace names are used, as they often Chris@909: are as default values in many desktops). The XML in local.conf may Chris@909: need modification to enable subpixel decimation, if appropriate, Chris@909: however, the commented out phrase does so for XFree86 4.3, in the case Chris@909: that the server does not have sufficient information to identify the Chris@909: use of a flat panel. Fontconfig 2.2 adds Vera to the list of font Chris@909: families and will, by default use it as the default sans, serif and Chris@909: monospace fonts. Chris@909: Chris@909: During the testing of the final Vera fonts, we learned that screen Chris@909: fonts in general are only typically hinted to work correctly at Chris@909: integer pixel sizes. Vera is coded internally for integer sizes only. Chris@909: We need to investigate further to see if there are commonly used fonts Chris@909: that are hinted to be rounded but are not rounded to integer sizes due Chris@909: to oversights in their coding. Chris@909: Chris@909: Most fonts work best at 8 pixels and below if anti-aliased only, as Chris@909: the amount of work required to hint well at smaller and smaller sizes Chris@909: becomes astronomical. GASP tables are typically used to control Chris@909: whether hinting is used or not, but Freetype/Xft does not currently Chris@909: support GASP tables (which are present in Vera). Chris@909: Chris@909: To mitigate this problem, both for Vera and other fonts, there will be Chris@909: (very shortly) a new fontconfig 2.2 release that will, by default not Chris@909: apply hints if the size is below 8 pixels. if you should have a font Chris@909: that in fact has been hinted more agressively, you can use fontconfig Chris@909: to note this exception. We believe this should improve many hinted Chris@909: fonts in addition to Vera, though implemeting GASP support is likely Chris@909: the right long term solution. Chris@909: Chris@909: Font rendering in Gnome or KDE is the combination of algorithms in Chris@909: Xft2 and Freetype, along with hinting in the fonts themselves. It is Chris@909: vital to have sufficient information to disentangle problems that you Chris@909: may observe. Chris@909: Chris@909: Note that having your font rendering system set up correctly is vital Chris@909: to proper judgement of problems of the fonts: Chris@909: Chris@909: # Freetype may or may not be configured to in ways that may Chris@909: implement execution of possibly patented (in some parts of the world) Chris@909: TrueType hinting algorithms, particularly at small sizes. Best Chris@909: results are obtained while using these algorithms. Chris@909: Chris@909: # The freetype autohinter (used when the possibly patented Chris@909: algorithms are not used) continues to improve with each release. If Chris@909: you are using the autohinter, please ensure you are using an up to Chris@909: date version of freetype before reporting problems. Chris@909: Chris@909: # Please identify what version of freetype you are using in any Chris@909: bug reports, and how your freetype is configured. Chris@909: Chris@909: # Make sure you are not using the freetype version included in Chris@909: XFree86 4.3, as it has bugs that significantly degrade most fonts, Chris@909: including Vera. if you build XFree86 4.3 from source yourself, you may Chris@909: have installed this broken version without intending it (as I Chris@909: did). Vera was verified with the recently released Freetype 2.1.4. On Chris@909: many systems, 'ldd" can be used to see which freetype shared library Chris@909: is actually being used. Chris@909: Chris@909: # Xft/X Render does not (yet) implement gamma correction. This Chris@909: causes significant problems rendering white text on a black background Chris@909: (causing partial pixels to be insufficiently shaded) if the gamma of Chris@909: your monitor has not been compensated for, and minor problems with Chris@909: black text on a while background. The program "xgamma" can be used to Chris@909: set a gamma correction value in the X server's color pallette. Most Chris@909: monitors have a gamma near 2. Chris@909: Chris@909: # Note that the Vera family uses minimal delta hinting. Your Chris@909: results on other systems when not used anti-aliased may not be Chris@909: entirely satisfying. We are primarily interested in reports of Chris@909: problems on open source systems implementing Xft2/fontconfig/freetype Chris@909: (which implements antialiasing and hinting adjustements, and Chris@909: sophisticated subpixel decimation on flatpanels). Also, the Chris@909: algorithms used by Xft2 adjust the hints to integer widths and the Chris@909: results are crisper on open source systems than on Windows or Chris@909: MacIntosh. Chris@909: Chris@909: # Your fontconfig may (probably does) predate the release of Chris@909: fontconfig 2.2, and you may see artifacts not present when the font is Chris@909: used at very small sizes with hinting enabled. "vc-list -V" can be Chris@909: used to see what version you have installed. Chris@909: Chris@909: We believe and hope that these fonts will resolve the problems Chris@909: reported during beta test. The largest change is the reduction of Chris@909: leading (interline spacing), which had annoyed a number of people, and Chris@909: reduced Vera's utility for some applcations. The Vera monospace font Chris@909: should also now make '0' and 'O' and '1' and 'l' more clearly Chris@909: distinguishable. Chris@909: Chris@909: The version of these fonts is version 1.10. Fontconfig should be Chris@909: choosing the new version of the fonts if both the released fonts and Chris@909: beta test fonts are installed (though please discard them: they have Chris@909: names of form tt20[1-12]gn.ttf). Note that older versions of Chris@909: fontconfig sometimes did not rebuild their cache correctly when new Chris@909: fonts are installed: please upgrade to fontconfig 2.2. "fc-cache -f" Chris@909: can be used to force rebuilding fontconfig's cache files. Chris@909: Chris@909: If you note problems, please send them to fonts at gnome dot org, with Chris@909: exactly which face and size and unicode point you observe the problem Chris@909: at. The xfd utility from XFree86 CVS may be useful for this (e.g. "xfd Chris@909: -fa sans"). A possibly more useful program to examine fonts at a Chris@909: variety of sizes is the "waterfall" program found in Keith Packard's Chris@909: CVS. Chris@909: Chris@909: $ cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@keithp.com:/local/src/CVS login Chris@909: Logging in to :pserver:anoncvs@keithp.com:2401/local/src/CVS Chris@909: CVS password: Chris@909: $ cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@keithp.com:/local/src/CVS co waterfall Chris@909: $ cd waterfall Chris@909: $ xmkmf -a Chris@909: $ make Chris@909: # make install Chris@909: # make install.man Chris@909: Chris@909: Again, please make sure you are running an up-to-date freetype, and Chris@909: that you are only examining integer sizes. Chris@909: Chris@909: Reporting Problems Chris@909: ================== Chris@909: Chris@909: Please send problem reports to fonts at gnome org, with the following Chris@909: information: Chris@909: Chris@909: 1. Version of Freetype, Xft2 and fontconfig Chris@909: 2. Whether TT hinting is being used, or the autohinter Chris@909: 3. Application being used Chris@909: 4. Character/Unicode code point that has problems (if applicable) Chris@909: 5. Version of which operating system Chris@909: 6. Please include a screenshot, when possible. Chris@909: Chris@909: Please check the fonts list archives before reporting problems to cut Chris@909: down on duplication.