Firefox Fonts

having the same problems - did you ever resolve it?

Unfortunately, no.

Try holding the ctrl key and scrolling your mouse wheel toward yourself, you can make the text as big as necessary to fit the eyeballs.

jim

Make sure you have the msttcorefonts package installed.

In firefox typ about:config in the adressbar, scroll to;
font.minimum-size.x-western > rightclick>modify
This will not effect the menu fonts.

For menu fonts:

Close FF, goto;
~/.mozilla/firefox/whatever/chrome/userChrome.css
Make a userChrome.css yourself, either new or out the example file.

Add something like;

* {
font-size: 14pt !important
font-family: Verdana !important;
}

Another way is to set the DPI (Display Resolution) in the same firefox window where you set fonts(FF>edit>pref.>content>advanced).
Display resolution>other>put in line size>ok>ok>restart FF
This will give you an "browser.display.screen_resolution" entry in about:config.
If necessary, you could lie and even set it lower if that does not interfere with the quality of the fonts.

Yet another way is to install gtk2-engines-gtk-qt, this will give you an entry in the kcontrol window to adjust apps like Firefox(GTK/gnome).
For me this messed with other fonts, so I don't recommend this.

The main reason I haven't switched from from Windows XP to Linux yet is font readabillty in Firefox. My wife isn't as bothered by it, and I've got SimplyMepis working on her laptop OK.

Not all web sites are as bad as others, though. One site that I spend a lot of time at is particularly tough to use with Linux distros I've tried. The forums listings/posts at http://www.dpreview.com is a good example of where using Firefox with Linux drives me nuts.

If I increase the font size, it messes things up too much, and Linux doesn't render fonts well enough for my eyes without increasing font size. So, it's a catch 22 situation.

Firefox works fine with XP though.

One thing that seems to help is using Bitstream Vera Sans as the default font with Firefox. I usually set Firefox in Linux distros I've tried to use Bitstream Vera Sans for both the Sans and Sans Serif fonts. It works better than most fonts.

Even when I've tried to use MS Truetype Fonts with Linux distros, they just don't render anywhere near s well as they do with XP.

Someone recently told me that the way fonts are rendered by default in most Linux distros has to do with a patent Apple holds on some of the Auto Hinting Algorithms. I don't know if that's true or not.

But, they suggested making some changes mentioned at this link:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/XOrg_Font_Configuration

I haven't gotten around to trying any of them with a Linux distro yet. But, I have tried to mess around with hinting, etc. before with marginal to poor results. I'll try again soon. But, so far, I've yet to find any Linux distro that is as good at font rendering using Firefox on some web sites compared to XP, no matter what I've tried.

Jim C.

I use Mozilla. Opera is available. I don't like FF particularly, but if I ever boot Windows again it's what I'd use. That, or Opera.

Whoops! Broke it again....I'm enjoying this too much.

i'll never have to squint at ff again on this laptop

Ask GTK apps to use system fonts in Looks and Feel/appearence/GTK apps

This is an old thread.

I fixed my issue with fonts (the way web pages render in Firefox, not the way Firefox menu fonts look).

I had just about given up trying to use Linux until I figured out what was happening, since some sites I visited were virtually unreadable using most fonts (and/or I'd constantly be changing font sizes when visiting different sites to get them larger or small enough for readability).

My solution was to download this fonts package and install the fonts via Kcontrol, System Admin, Font Installer (just selecting the fonts from the folder).

http://www.alkalay.net/software/webcore-fonts/webcore-fonts-1.3.tar.gz

This fixed my font rendering problems on some sites I vist with Firefox. Apparently, some web sites were using fonts that were *not* included in most of the MS Truetype font packages you find in repositories (msttcorefonts), so they translated incorrectly if you let sites pick their own fonts (and if you don't that causes more problems, since you're constantly trying to change font viewing sizes between sites).

I've setup my Firefox so that it's identical to my Windows setup now; and that fixed all of my fonts problems using Firefox with SimplyMEPIS (and this works with other distros like Kanotix that I've tried this solution with, too).

Here is the way I'm configured now with Firefox (works in Kanotix and SimplyMEPIS *if* you have the Webcore fonts installed). Otherwise, some sites won't render correctly.

http://www.pbase.com/jcockfield/image/63125755/original.jpg

Installing the Webcore fonts also fixed problems with some Windows apps under Wine with unreadable menu text.

I've also installed all of the fonts from my Windows XP install on an NTFS partition this way, just to make sure I'm not missing any that web sites are trying to use.

Here's an example of selecting fonts from an NTFS Partition.

I just clicked on Storage Media, selected the drive and went to windows/fonts

Then, I selected all of them by holding the control key down and clicking them (except for the subfolder called fonts, since this way doesn't seem to work right if you try to select a folder versus the indvidual fonts in a folder).

See this photo. You can select fonts from any partitions that you have mounted and readable.

http://www.pbase.com/jcockfield/image/65351830/original.jpg

I reboot after making font changes, although that's probably not necessary if you exit the session and log back in without rebooting. I also run winecfg again from a console, just for the heck of it.

Jim C.

I'm glad you followed-up on this, Jim, and that your issues are resolved.

Fonts and readibility are a very common issue that I've read about in many venues of Linux support; however, I really haven't had the kind of problems with it that I've seen others write/vent about (more of the latter than anything else, over at the Opera forums).

I may have just realized (your fault, you understand) what the difference between my experience and the experience of others might be...

My immediate post-install routine consists of installing a laundry list of items that generally don't get installed with most Linux distributions. (Legalities and all that eye-rolling stuff.)

Suffice it to say that, included in that "honey-do" list is a huge swath of TT fonts that I've aggregated over the years. Said swath being based upon the default fonts that come with your run-o-de-mill windoze installation.

[I realize that, at this point, I'm going a bit over-board with this, but it *might* help somebody, somewhere, so what the heck.]

My fonts are divided into two groups:
(1.) Those licensed to me to use, without explicit limit upon the number of systems I can use them on--simultaneously.
(2.) Those licensed with the explicit limitation to a single system.

I install fonts from group #1 on every Linux system I build, and fonts from group #2 on my primary workstation and laptop--under the old, Borland "like a book" interpretation of licensed installation and use.

I can assure you that I have more COAs and original installation CDs to cover the group #1 installations--by a factor of 3--so, I'm on very safe ground there. I'm licensed the use of the font. Period.

It takes a bit of digging to make sure a given font, or font set, qualifies for group #2, but I think it's worth the time to discover; and I'm pretty sure the due-diligence has me on the right side of the letter of the law, if not the spirit as well.

Now...this certainly isn't legal advice. I'm not a lawyer, and I don't play a doctor on TV, so ignore me, or think about it. The choice is yours and yours alone. Steve Ballmer could kick-in my front door any minute--followed closely by the MIB--and demand licensing bucks for Adobe TTFs.

I hope he doesn't though, because I'd really enjoy using him for target practice; but don't want to have to mess-around with the paperwork afterward.

What The Font--Over?


My occupation?
Well, computer geek-stuff, mostly. I could tell you all about it; but, then I would have to delete you.

I figured that missing fonts was the culprit around August of last year and made a post about it then.

So, when I saw this thread come to the top again, with my even earlier post about not having found a solution, I updated this one by copying the info from my August post. I think I've made one or two since then, also.

I can imagine that a lot of Linux users already know to get fonts they need from elsewhere. But, it's not very obvious what can be causing site rendering problems to some of us. lol

I guess Web site designers need to be more aware of the font selections being used. I know virtually nothing about designing web pages.

But, it's my understanding that CSS supports font families. So, web page designers should cascade their fonts down to lowest common denominator, and never make their designs depend on a font that only exists on a specific machine or OS. IOW, they should use something like serif or sans-serif as a choice, making sure it renders as intended with those.

Of course, Microsoft would probably love it for them to use proprietary fonts with no valid fallbacks that render correctly in other operating systems (as some sites seem to do).

MS never seems to stop searching for a way to lock in more users with proprietary formats (application files, fonts, file systems, protocols and more), and some web site designers appear to be blind to the fonts issues and use proprietary fonts anyway.

Jim C.

I too was disappointed with the default Firefox font settings in Mepis. After some tweaking, I was able to make the experience much more enjoyable -- all while using (English language) fonts that came packaged with Mepis.

These can be set from the config file, but I simply changed made these changes in Firefox Preferences:

[Content]
Default font to Size "16"

[Advanced...]
Sans-serif font to "sans serif"
Monospace font to "monospace"
Monospace size to "12"

My Firefox font woes are effectively gone thanks to this nifty plugin:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2108

It lets me fix the fonts for the websites I visit most (like google and wikipedia). The other 10% of the time I'm on the web, I get by with "ctrl+scrollwheel".

I personally like No Squint (didn't try that extension), thanks
--
Check out MEPIS Wiki: www.mepis.org/docs