[Solved] Text in Message window is pixelated.

Dancer18

I have just noticed that the text in the message windows is very pixelated. Is this known? Here is a screenshot:

edwardp

@Dancer18 I'm not seeing this with the Linux version of Vivaldi, but try changing the display resolution for the monitor/screen, to see if that helps or improves it.

This is what I have read pertaining to display resolutions, although one's mileage may vary. My monitor is a Samsung 22-inch LED.

Gaming: 1920x1080
General Use/Web Browsing: 1680x1050

It could also be a font setting causing it.

Dancer18

@edwardp Yes, it is much better in Windows. This is also due to the fact that the fonts are a bit thicker. In Linux Vivaldi all fonts - no matter if context menu, inbox, bookmarks, etc. - are thinner than in Windows, quasi undernourished. - This has been the case for quite a while, but I've only noticed it now. I'm not sure if it could be because I switched from LM 21.3 to LMDE 6, because overall - with a newer kernel and desktop - everything looks rather sharper and nicer. In other applications or even here in the editor, the font is not as pixelated as the font in the Vivaldi sections I mentioned above.

How can I improve this? I remember darkly that these extremely thin and uneven looking fonts were introduced in a certain update long time ago. The panel icons also became less solid and thinner.

I am surprised that there is a difference to Windows. Could it be that the thickness of the fonts in Linux cannot be differentiated sufficiently? In any case, beautiful is something else. You can clearly see what I am writing about in the screenshot above. Even my signature is better looking.

And I don't believe that it is a matter of monitor resolution..

Edit:
In dark themes the issue is bigger than in light themes.

edwardp

@Dancer18 I no longer use Windows, so I can't comment on Windows fonts.

I would suggest taking a look at the font settings in the Cinnamon desktop itself, although it is very possible that the Linux font thickness cannot be differentiated.

The Hinting setting (if Cinnamon has it) will cause the fonts to display somewhat differently. Here, the KDE default for this is Slight. Changing it to None, causes the fonts on the Forum to appear minimally shorter. The Medium and Full settings cause uneven spacing between the characters.

My understanding is that any font setting changed on the desktop environment side, will not have an affect in the application, until the next launch of the application.

I don't know if there is an easy answer.

sgunhouse

@edwardp The thickness/thinness is probably antialiasing.

On a completely monochrome (black and white, no grays) image, lines that are not perfectly horizontal or vertical will have little "stair steps" in them. On a normal display they hide those steps by putting a slight shadow in the adjacent pixel(s). Due to the proprietary nature of these antialiasing shading schemes, those versions of Linux that attempt to be totally "free" will often lack such shading.

See if your package management system has access to "non-free" repositories, and if so upgrade your version of freetype (the font rendering system) to the non-free version.

Dancer18

I'll ask that in the LMDE subforum.
Is it possible to make the fonts little larger in the mentioned Vivaldi sections?

Dancer18

I found out that the issue most probably isn't caused by the OS.
Similar fonts (-sizes) in other browser menus are clearer than in Vivaldi, especially in dark mode.
Opera is better and also Chromium browser, as you can see in this screenshot:

Should I make a bug report of this issue then?

Dancer18

I finally found a solution:

Indirectly, it does have to do with my new OS. LMDE 6 is no longer based on Ubuntu, but on Debian. The Ubuntu fonts no longer exist in it, which then changed the Vivaldi UI typeface. Now I have both reinstalled the Ubuntu fonts and set Ubuntuas font-family in Vivaldi's common.css for #browser.linux,. Before it was Cantarell.

I hope that the next Vivaldi update, which will certainly overwrite this setting, will use Ubuntu fonts instead of the Sans variants. Because U. fonts are now installed and I have also selected them in the settings.

I have not yet fully figured out why Chromium and Opera show a better typeface even without Ubuntu. The default settings in Chromium, however, are Arial and Times New Roman, not DejaVu or Open Sans. Maybe that is the reason.

Update:
I couldn't help to reset the font-family to Cantarell.
And surprise:
The clearness of typeface remains still there.
That of my mind not yet, as I don't know really how it went wrong and then right again.
Anyway: I'm content to have it as desired.

Offtopic: There are more spiritual desires that aren't yet fulfilled, and the font-issue was another distraction...