I'm running xfce, I've got sub pixel hinting on, and antialiasing of fonts, though neither of those are the problem (that I know of). They're turned on none the less, toggling them on and off I can see a difference, but this definitely is not (at least directly) the problem.
Anyways, the problem is that sometimes (for seemingly no reason) my font will just look worse. Smaller, slightly closer together, just less clear all together. The font is still by all means readable and clear from a general sense. In my opinion it's at least comprable in quality to windows, but when it looks nice it looks much better than windows fonts imo.
I'm not sure if I'm using Truetype fonts or what, though I know they're installed and from reading xorg.conf it seems that it should be (I don't know the alternatives (if any?), just heard the name thrown around before). I really am just asking where I should be looking I suppose, I don't know where to begin to sort this problem out.
I can't find any correlation to what triggers this to happen at all. I'll just boot up the computer, startx and sometimes it's nice, sometimes not.
I'm running slackware 12 mostly a default full installation with an 8800GT running Nvidia's proprietary drivers.
Here's my xorg.conf if this will be any help, sorry if it seems confusing a bit, I haven't bothered to clean up all the old stuff not being used.
Code:
# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder3) Thu Dec 13 19:09:35 PST 2007
Section "ServerLayout"
# The Identifier line must be present
# Each Screen line specifies a Screen section name, and optionally
# the relative position of other screens. The four names after
# primary screen name are the screens to the top, bottom, left and right
# of the primary screen. In this example, screen 2 is located to the
# right of screen 1.
# Each InputDevice line specifies an InputDevice section name and
# optionally some options to specify the way the device is to be
# used. Those options include "CorePointer", "CoreKeyboard" and
# "SendCoreEvents".
Identifier "Simple Layout"
Screen 0 "Screen[0]" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection
Section "Files"
# The location of the RGB database. Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db"). There is normally
# no need to change the default.
# RgbPath "/usr/share/X11/rgb"
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (which are concatenated together),
# as well as specifying multiple comma-separated entries in one FontPath
# command (or a combination of both methods)
#
#
# FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/local/"
# The module search path. The default path is shown here.
# ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/TTF"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/OTF"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/OTF/"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic/"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
EndSection
Section "Module"
# This loads the DBE extension module.
# This loads the miscellaneous extensions module, and disables
# initialisation of the XFree86-DGA extension within that module.
# This loads the font modules
# Load "type1"
# This loads the GLX module
# Load "dri"
Load "dbe" # Double buffer extension
SubSection "extmod"
Option "omit xfree86-dga" # don't initialise the DGA extension
EndSubSection
Load "freetype"
# Load "xtt"
Load "glx"
# This loads the DRI module
EndSection
Section "ServerFlags"
Option "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# For most OSs the protocol can be omitted (it defaults to "Standard").
# When using XQUEUE (only for SVR3 and SVR4, but not Solaris),
# uncomment the following line.
# Option "Protocol" "Xqueue"
# Option "Xleds" "1 2 3"
# Option "LeftAlt" "Meta"
# Option "RightAlt" "ModeShift"
# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the
# lines below (which are the defaults). For example, for a non-U.S.
# keyboard, you will probably want to use:
# Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
# If you have a US Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:
# Option "XkbModel" "microsoft"
#
# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.
# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# or:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# Option "XkbVariant" "nodeadkeys"
#
# If you'd like to switch the positions of your capslock and
# control keys, use:
# Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:swapcaps"
# These are the default XKB settings for Xorg
# Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
# Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
# Option "XkbLayout" "us"
# Option "XkbVariant" ""
# Option "XkbOptions" ""
# Option "XkbDisable"
Identifier "Keyboard1"
Driver "kbd"
Option "AutoRepeat" "500 30"
# Specify which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1))
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# Identifier and driver
# the following line.
# Option "Protocol" "Xqueue"
# Mouse-speed setting for PS/2 mouse.
# Option "Resolution" "256"
# Baudrate and SampleRate are only for some Logitech mice. In
# almost every case these lines should be omitted.
# Option "BaudRate" "9600"
# Option "SampleRate" "150"
# Mouse wheel mapping. Default is to map vertical wheel to buttons 4 & 5,
# horizontal wheel to buttons 6 & 7. Change if your mouse has more than
# 3 buttons and you need to map the wheel to different button ids to avoid
# conflicts.
# Emulate3Timeout is the timeout in milliseconds (default is 50ms)
# Option "Emulate3Buttons"
# Option "Emulate3Timeout" "50"
# ChordMiddle is an option for some 3-button Logitech mice
# Option "ChordMiddle"
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2" # IntelliMouse PS/2
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
# When using XQUEUE, comment out the above two lines, and uncomment
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
# Emulate3Buttons is an option for 2-button mice
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
# HorizSync is in kHz unless units are specified.
# HorizSync may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a
# comma separated list of ranges of values.
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY. REFER TO YOUR MONITOR'S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.
# HorizSync 30-64 # multisync
# HorizSync 31.5, 35.2 # multiple fixed sync frequencies
# HorizSync 15-25, 30-50 # multiple ranges of sync frequencies
# VertRefresh is in Hz unless units are specified.
# VertRefresh may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a
# comma separated list of ranges of values.
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY. REFER TO YOUR MONITOR'S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.
Identifier "MyMonitor"
HorizSync 30.0 - 107.0
VertRefresh 48.0 - 120.0
Gamma 1.6 1.6 1.6
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "nvidia-Device[0]"
Driver "nvidia"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen[0]"
Device "nvidia-Device[0]"
Monitor "MyMonitor"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "AllowDDCCI" "True"
Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "True"
Option "Coolbits" "1"
Option "NoLogo" "True"
Option "RenderAccel" "True"
Option "ConstantDPI" "True"
Option "Overlay" "True"
Option "OverlayDefaultVisual" "True"
Option "DynamicTwinView" "True"
Option "TwinView" "False"
Option "XvmcUsesTextures" "True"
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1280x960_85" "1024x768_85" "800x600_85" "640x480_85"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection
