[mythtv] [mythtv-commits] Ticket #8674: Use older version of FreeMono.ttf

[Michael T. Dean]

  On 07/19/2010 05:40 PM, MythTV wrote:
> #8674: Use older version of FreeMono.ttf
> ------------------------------------------------+---------------------------
>   Reporter:  Jim Stichnoth<stichnot@…>           |        Type:  defect
>     Status:  new                                 |    Priority:  minor
> Milestone:  unknown                             |   Component:  MythTV - General
>    Version:  Unspecified                         |    Severity:  medium
>    Mlocked:  0                                   |
> ------------------------------------------------+---------------------------
>   The version of FreeMono.ttf included in myth has a problem with the
>   2-character "st" sequence, which is displayed as a "t" with a slight bit
>   of leading space.  This makes it look like the "s" is missing.  There is
>   obviously a mistake in the kerning, but a larger question is why a
>   monospaced font should include kerning at all.
>
>   I tried using QFont::setKerning(false) and QFont::setFixedPitch(true), to
>   no effect.
>
>   I recommend downgrading to a version of FreeMono.ttf that predates
>   kerning, specifically the 2008-03-23 version
>   (http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/freefont/freefont-ttf-20080323.tar.gz).

Jim, in http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/ticket/3518 ( 
http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/changeset/13588 ), we updated the version of 
the FreeFont fonts distributed with MythTV (to the 20060126 version, 
unless I'm mistaken) because the older version we were using was missing 
many glyphs (such as the eighth note, which is often used in captions to 
indicate music is playing or to indicate song lyrics).

So, the version of FreeFont we're using is at least 3 years old  
(checked in on June 6, 2007 - 
http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/browser/trunk/mythtv/themes/FreeMono.ttf ), 
meaning that 20080323 is not an older version of the font than we 
provide.  Therefore, it makes sense--if we're upgrading to a newer 
version--to upgrade to current version (20090104) rather than an 
intermediate version.

Did you try the 20090104 version of the fonts?  
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/freefont/freefont-ttf-20090104.tar.gz

QFont uses the system-loaded fonts.  In 
http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/changeset/25106 , I changed MythTV's 
directory structure to include a "dedicated" fonts directory so that the 
MythFontManager could scan it for font files.  That means that we now 
pass the FreeFont fonts to QFontDatabase for loading (since [25106]).  I 
do not know whether QFontDatabase actually loads the fonts if the system 
already has the font specified in the file installed or if it just uses 
the system font, instead.

Therefore, testing the font version will require careful work to 
determine which font file is actually being used by the OSD (the 
system-installed font or the one in MythTV's $SHARE_DIR/fonts 
directory).  You can revert (or comment) the changes in 
http://svn.mythtv.org/trac/changeset/25106/trunk/mythtv/libs/libmythui/myththemebase.cpp 
to make sure that MythTV doesn't load the MythTV-distributed font files 
(and use -v gui,file,extra and look for "In file '%1', found font(s) 
'%2'" referencing the FreeMono file).  Or, you could uninstall any 
distro-provided FreeFont files (and restart X and any system font 
manager) to make sure there's no confusion.

Mike