Improve Font Rendering

How to improve font rendering with your installed fonts

A little configuration maybe required to render the fonts in an optimal manner. Follow the steps illustrated below.

1. Create the file /etc/fonts/local.conf

sudo nano /etc/fonts/local.conf

Paste the following content in the file

<match target="font">
  <edit name="autohint" mode="assign">
    <bool>false</bool>
  </edit>
  <edit name="hinting" mode="assign">
    <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
  <edit name="antialias" mode="assign">
    <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>
  <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle">
    <const>hintslight</const>
  </edit>
  <edit mode="assign" name="rgba">
    <const>rgb</const>
  </edit>
  <edit mode="assign" name="lcdfilter">
    <const>lcddefault</const>
  </edit>
</match>

After that save the file.

2. Create backup of ~/.Xresources file:

cp ~/.Xresources ~/.Xresources.bak

If the .Xresources file has not been already created and you get the error

"cp: cannot stat ‘~/.Xresources’: No such file or directory", then skip to step No. 3.

3. Open/Create ~/.Xresources file in text editor:

nano ~/.Xresources

If the following is not already present, paste at the end of the file or edit existing values:

Xft.dpi: 96
Xft.antialias: true
Xft.hinting: true
Xft.rgba: rgb
Xft.autohint: false
Xft.hintstyle: hintslight
Xft.lcdfilter: lcddefault

Save changes to the file.

4. Run the following command in terminal:

xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources

5. Make sure that Anti aliasing is On, Hinting is set to Slight and RGBA (subpixel) order is set to rgb in System Settings (Appearence).

6. Create symbolic links with some available presets from /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/ to /etc/fonts/conf.d/

sudo ln -s  /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/10-sub-pixel-rgb.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d/

sudo ln -s  /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/11-lcdfilter-default.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d/

7. Set truetype interpreter version to infinality mode (optional)

sudo nano /etc/profile.d/freetype2.sh

Edit content of the file to reflect setting below

# Subpixel hinting mode can be chosen by setting the right TrueType interpreter
# version. The available settings are:
#
# truetype:interpreter-version=35 # Classic mode (default in 2.6)
# truetype:interpreter-version=38 # Infinality mode
# truetype:interpreter-version=40 # Minimal mode (default in 2.7)
#
# There are more properties that can be set, separated by whitespace. Please
# refer to the FreeType documentation for details.

# Uncomment and configure below

export FREETYPE_PROPERTIES="truetype:interpreter-version=38"

8. Finally reboot your computer to apply the settings.

See Also

The Arch Wiki