How to get crispy fonts using icewm

Question

Icewm doesn't produce the same crispy Verdana fonts in thunderbird and firefox, xfce shows (in Arch). I'm very glad with the quality in xfce (I selected antialias off, autohinter on and rgb full). This is my ~/.fonts.conf according to the gentoo-wiki. Should I replace rgba by rgb? How do I set the full rgb?
Edit: I tried rgb, to no avail.
In xfce I selected Verdana as a default font for the desktop; how to set it in icewm or in the .fonts.conf?
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
<!-- Use the Autohinter -->
    <match target="font">
           <edit name="autohint" mode="assign"><bool>true</bool></edit>
       </match>
<!-- Antialias off -->
        <match target="font">
  <edit name="antialias" mode="assign"><bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>
!-- Enable sub-pixel rendering -->
        <match target="font">
                <test qual="all" name="rgba">
                        <const>unknown</const>
                </test>
                <edit name="rgba" mode="assign"><const>rgb</const></edit>
        </match>
--></fontconfig>
Edit: If I leave the Autohinter fraction, xfce doesn't have crisp fonts.
Last edited by mumpf (2008-01-04 17:29:05)

Answer 1

Now it works (which means: Icewm and nice crispy fonts):
my /etc/fonts/fonts.conf (I have replaced sans-serif by verdana)
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<!-- /etc/fonts/fonts.conf file to configure system font access -->
<fontconfig>
<!--
DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE.
IT WILL BE REPLACED WHEN FONTCONFIG IS UPDATED.
LOCAL CHANGES BELONG IN 'local.conf'.
The intent of this standard configuration file is to be adequate for
most environments. If you have a reasonably normal environment and
have found problems with this configuration, they are probably
things that others will also want fixed. Please submit any
problems to the fontconfig bugzilla system located at fontconfig.org
Note that the normal 'make install' procedure for fontconfig is to
replace any existing fonts.conf file with the new version. Place
any local customizations in local.conf which this file references.
Keith Packard
-->
<!-- Font directory list -->
<dir>/usr/share/fonts</dir>
<dir>~/.fonts</dir>
<!--
Accept deprecated 'mono' alias, replacing it with 'monospace'
-->
<match target="pattern">
<test qual="any" name="family">
<string>mono</string>
</test>
<edit name="family" mode="assign">
<string>monospace</string>
</edit>
</match>
<!--
Accept alternate 'sans serif' spelling, replacing it with 'sans-serif'
-->
<match target="pattern">
<test qual="any" name="family">
<string>sans serif</string>
</test>
<edit name="family" mode="assign">
<string>verdana</string>
</edit>
</match>
<!--
Accept deprecated 'sans' alias, replacing it with 'sans-serif'
-->
<match target="pattern">
<test qual="any" name="family">
<string>sans</string>
</test>
<edit name="family" mode="assign">
<string>verdana</string>
</edit>
</match>
<!--
Load local system customization file
-->
<include ignore_missing="yes">conf.d</include>
<!-- Font cache directory list -->
<cachedir>/var/cache/fontconfig</cachedir>
<cachedir>~/.fontconfig</cachedir>
<config>
<!--
These are the default Unicode chars that are expected to be blank
in fonts. All other blank chars are assumed to be broken and
won't appear in the resulting charsets
-->
<blank>
<int>0x0020</int> <!-- SPACE -->
<int>0x00A0</int> <!-- NO-BREAK SPACE -->
<int>0x00AD</int> <!-- SOFT HYPHEN -->
<int>0x034F</int> <!-- COMBINING GRAPHEME JOINER -->
<int>0x0600</int> <!-- ARABIC NUMBER SIGN -->
<int>0x0601</int> <!-- ARABIC SIGN SANAH -->
<int>0x0602</int> <!-- ARABIC FOOTNOTE MARKER -->
<int>0x0603</int> <!-- ARABIC SIGN SAFHA -->
<int>0x06DD</int> <!-- ARABIC END OF AYAH -->
<int>0x070F</int> <!-- SYRIAC ABBREVIATION MARK -->
<int>0x115F</int> <!-- HANGUL CHOSEONG FILLER -->
<int>0x1160</int> <!-- HANGUL JUNGSEONG FILLER -->
<int>0x1680</int> <!-- OGHAM SPACE MARK -->
<int>0x17B4</int> <!-- KHMER VOWEL INHERENT AQ -->
<int>0x17B5</int> <!-- KHMER VOWEL INHERENT AA -->
<int>0x180E</int> <!-- MONGOLIAN VOWEL SEPARATOR -->
<int>0x2000</int> <!-- EN QUAD -->
<int>0x2001</int> <!-- EM QUAD -->
<int>0x2002</int> <!-- EN SPACE -->
<int>0x2003</int> <!-- EM SPACE -->
<int>0x2004</int> <!-- THREE-PER-EM SPACE -->
<int>0x2005</int> <!-- FOUR-PER-EM SPACE -->
<int>0x2006</int> <!-- SIX-PER-EM SPACE -->
<int>0x2007</int> <!-- FIGURE SPACE -->
<int>0x2008</int> <!-- PUNCTUATION SPACE -->
<int>0x2009</int> <!-- THIN SPACE -->
<int>0x200A</int> <!-- HAIR SPACE -->
<int>0x200B</int> <!-- ZERO WIDTH SPACE -->
<int>0x200C</int> <!-- ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER -->
<int>0x200D</int> <!-- ZERO WIDTH JOINER -->
<int>0x200E</int> <!-- LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK -->
<int>0x200F</int> <!-- RIGHT-TO-LEFT MARK -->
<int>0x2028</int> <!-- LINE SEPARATOR -->
<int>0x2029</int> <!-- PARAGRAPH SEPARATOR -->
<int>0x202A</int> <!-- LEFT-TO-RIGHT EMBEDDING -->
<int>0x202B</int> <!-- RIGHT-TO-LEFT EMBEDDING -->
<int>0x202C</int> <!-- POP DIRECTIONAL FORMATTING -->
<int>0x202D</int> <!-- LEFT-TO-RIGHT OVERRIDE -->
<int>0x202E</int> <!-- RIGHT-TO-LEFT OVERRIDE -->
<int>0x202F</int> <!-- NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE -->
<int>0x205F</int> <!-- MEDIUM MATHEMATICAL SPACE -->
<int>0x2060</int> <!-- WORD JOINER -->
<int>0x2061</int> <!-- FUNCTION APPLICATION -->
<int>0x2062</int> <!-- INVISIBLE TIMES -->
<int>0x2063</int> <!-- INVISIBLE SEPARATOR -->
<int>0x206A</int> <!-- INHIBIT SYMMETRIC SWAPPING -->
<int>0x206B</int> <!-- ACTIVATE SYMMETRIC SWAPPING -->
<int>0x206C</int> <!-- INHIBIT ARABIC FORM SHAPING -->
<int>0x206D</int> <!-- ACTIVATE ARABIC FORM SHAPING -->
<int>0x206E</int> <!-- NATIONAL DIGIT SHAPES -->
<int>0x206F</int> <!-- NOMINAL DIGIT SHAPES -->
<int>0x2800</int> <!-- BRAILLE PATTERN BLANK -->
<int>0x3000</int> <!-- IDEOGRAPHIC SPACE -->
<int>0x3164</int> <!-- HANGUL FILLER -->
<int>0xFEFF</int> <!-- ZERO WIDTH NO-BREAK SPACE -->
<int>0xFFA0</int> <!-- HALFWIDTH HANGUL FILLER -->
<int>0xFFF9</int> <!-- INTERLINEAR ANNOTATION ANCHOR -->
<int>0xFFFA</int> <!-- INTERLINEAR ANNOTATION SEPARATOR -->
<int>0xFFFB</int> <!-- INTERLINEAR ANNOTATION TERMINATOR -->
</blank>
<!--
Rescan configuration every 30 seconds when FcFontSetList is called
-->
<rescan>
<int>30</int>
</rescan>
</config>
</fontconfig>
My ~/.fonts.conf:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
<dir>~/.fonts</dir>
<match target="font" >
<edit mode="assign" name="hinting" >
<bool>true</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font" >
<edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle" >
<const>hintfull</const>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font" >
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias" >
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font" >
<edit mode="assign" name="rgba" >
<const>rgb</const>
</edit>
</match>
</fontconfig>
By the way I have installed the MS core fonts and I have set my resolution to 96 dpi. In xorg.conf:
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "al1721"
HorizSync 30-83
VertRefresh 50-75
Displaysize 337 369
EndSection